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[Popchartfreak]

So, two years late and the Greatest Hits tour arrived last night. I'm obviously biased (I've seen Pet Shop Boys at least 10 times, from their first live Derek Jarman stage extravaganza's at Wembley Arena, through experiments like the grounds of the Tower Of London - not entirely successful - an orchestral charity gig at the Albert Hall with Suedey, and Johnny Marr on stage, 2 total showbiz bangers at the Royal Opera House, and my fave in Barcelona in the outdoor historical Spanish courtyard Poble Espanyol, stood near the front amongst a sea of Spanish fans), and I've seen a hits tour before at the Hammersmith Odeon. This, without question, was the most hits-packed setlist I've seen by them, and there's not much to nitpick about:


Suburbia


Can You Forgive Her?


Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)


Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)


Rent


I Don't Know What You Want but I Can't Give It Any More


So Hard


Left to My Own Devices


Single-Bilingual / Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)


Domino Dancing


Monkey Business


New York City Boy


You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk


Jealousy


Love Comes Quickly


Losing My Mind
(Stephen Sondheim cover)

Always on My Mind
(Gwen McCrae cover)

Dreamland


Heart


What Have I Done to Deserve This?


It's Alright
(Sterling Void cover)


Vocal


Go West
(Village People cover)

It's a Sin



Encore:
West End Girls


Being Boring

Sets were minimal, no dancers, no cleverly-arty backdrops, just a curtain with special effects and images projected on it, one backing singer/instrumentalist, and 2 band multi-instrumental members of the apart from Chris Lowe. They let the hits do the work, with Neil on stage for 2 hours non-stop. He's 67. I'm 64 and I was standing at the front barrier getting some decent photos on my phone, and getting a sore throat from singing along to the bangers. Suburbia, Opportunities and Left To My Own Devices were early anthems, and it was fab to hear the U2/Frankie Valli cover again, they hadn't done that one in ages. The Dreamworld theme was really into themed sections, like the latino section and Domino Dancing morphing into the gay disco bit, and then abruptly changing the pace to the fab acoustic You Only Tell me You Love Me When You're Drunk, a brilliant and touching song.

Neil had a few costume changes, but I think they were more revisits to old stage clothes, and fairly unobtrusive. How many huge singalong anthems to they have in their back catalogue? Well, Always On My Mind - their most-popular track, generally - was bunged after a Liza Minelli revisit, Heart came after recent single Dreamland, and then What I have Done was a duet under the only stage props they had - 2 lamp-posts. The pre-encore climax was a flawless Go West and It's A Sin - 2 rousing singalong crowd-pleasing exciting dance monsters, which left the inevitable West End Girls as the encore leading to a first for me: they ended on a reflective note with gorgeous Being Boring, Neil dedicating it to anyone in the audience who had lost someone over the last 2 difficult years. Which I genuinely appreciated for the poignant, yet life-celebrating, song about loss and living life to the full. Nitpicks? Monkey Business was out of it's depth in such classic song company, maybe I would have bunged in Paninaro as the morph from latin to gay disco, Vocal was good as a more recent track choice but Love Is A Bourgeois Construct might have been a good alternative, but really not much to complain about unless it's the sheer number of great tracks they didn't have room for: Liberation, Yesterday When I Was Mad, I Wouldnt Normally Do This Kind Of Thing, Numb, Miracles, Integral, All Over The World, More Than A Dream, Burn, The Pop Kids - but I realise they might not be as well known as the 80's stuff!

If you get a chance to see the tour, go! You won't be disappointed. Just try to stay away from middle-aged folk with plastic cups full of beer dancing behind you if you've gone out in your best cosy-fitting jeans and T shirt to show off how fabulous your arse and arms look, that unexpected trickle of liquid dripping down your trousers is quite worrying for a moment....