"the record sleeves so that each has an accompanying narrative that reads like a storybook. Credits for ""The Most Incredible Thing"" adapted from album liner notes. The Most Incredible Thing (album) The Most Incredible Thing is the score for the 2011 ballet of the same name, based on the eponymous 1870 fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It contains music written and performed by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of English synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. The album was released in the United Kingdom on 14 March 2011 by Parlophone. Tennant and Lowe proposed Andersen's story (about a"
"but otherwise passive, in the foreground. Tennant and Lowe both became well known for standing still throughout performances. In a 2016 interview, Chris Lowe said the duo's live performances was a response to the music scene in the 1980s: ""Everyone was so active. It was a big party where everyone was having a great time and smiling at the camera. Thumbs aloft! We just didn’t want to do that. So we ignored the cameras and the jollity of the situations. Let’s face it, it’s easier to stand stock-still isn’t it?"". However, when they first began touring, in 1989, they were"
"Chris Lowe met in a hi-fi shop on King's Road in Chelsea, London, in 1981. With a mutual interest in dance music, they began to work together on material, first in Tennant's flat in Chelsea, then, from 1982, in a small studio in Camden Town. Their band name was taken from friends who worked in a pet shop in Ealing, and were known as the ""pet shop boys"". In August 1983, Tennant who was an assistant editor at ""Smash Hits"", went to New York to interview Sting. While there he arranged to meet Hi-NRG producer Bobby Orlando, and gave him"
"1985, topping the charts in both the UK and the US. In an interview on BBC4's ""Synth Britannia"" programme ( at 1h 21m 19s), Neil Tennant explains the role of the then new sampling technology on the track and how every single sound came from the newly introduced E-mu Emulator keyboard. ""West End Girls"" is a synthpop song influenced by hip hop music. The song's socially conscious streak, as well as the propulsive bass line, derives from Grandmaster Flash's protest rap song ""The Message"". Lowe and Hague created a ""snaky, obsessive rhythm punch"" for the music, replacing the song's previously"
"Tennant, the main lyrical concept came while in a recording studio in Camden Town when Chris Lowe asked him to make up a lyric based around the line ""Let's make lots of money"". The first version of the song, recorded with the duo's first producer, Bobby Orlando, was not released; upon signing with record label Parlophone, they re-recorded the song with J. J. Jeczalik (of Art of Noise) and Nicholas Froome. The original single release charted low at number 116 in the UK, to be exceedingly outdone by the number one spectacle of the second release of ""West End Girls"""
"""New Song"", ""What Is Love?"", and ""Pearl in the Shell"" all did well during 1983 and 1984. ""Human's Lib"" was certified gold and platinum in several countries. Jones had developed a loyal teen following. His parents ran his fan club. In the summer of 1984, he released ""Like to Get to Know You Well"", which he said was 'dedicated to the original spirit of the Olympic Games.' Although it was not an official Olympic anthem for the Games in Los Angeles that summer, it was a worldwide hit. It reached Number 4 in the UK Singles Chart. The sleeve featured"
"its list of the ""40 Best Albums of the '80s"". In 2012, ""Slant Magazine"" listed the album at number 88 on its list of ""Best Albums of the 1980s"". ""Actually"" was released on 7 September 1987 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom and by EMI Manhattan in the United States and Canada. In television commercials for the release, Lowe and Tennant were shown in black tie, blank-faced against a white background. The former seems unimpressed by a radio DJ-style Alan 'Fluff' Freeman voiceover listing their previous hits and the new LP's singles, while the latter eventually ""gets bored"" and yawns,"
"one hit in the UK for Wham! in 1984 (number 3 in the US in 1985). It was the second US single from the album ""Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1"", and had contrasting fortunes on each side of the Atlantic—it peaked number 28 on the UK Singles Chart, but was a major success on the US ""Billboard"" Hot 100, reaching number 8 and selling over 500,000 copies to earn a Gold certification from the RIAA. It remained in the ""Billboard"" top 40 for 12 weeks in late 1990 and early 1991. In Canada, Michael achieved another chart-topper. As of October"
"the compilation. Neil Tennant, who features on side 1 of the album as part of Pet Shop Boys, worked as Assistant Editor of Smash Hits magazine in the early 1980s. Smash Hits went on to release their own various artists compilation albums. This is the first album in the (UK) Now! series to be themed 1980s. Another 3-disc compilation called ""Now That's What I Call The 80s"" was released in 2007. Now Smash Hits Now That's What I Call Music, Smash Hits was a compilation album released in 1987. The album is part of the (UK) Now! series, and is"
"charts, and Weller would also experience his first success in North America, when ""My Ever Changing Moods"" and ""You're The Best Thing"" entered the US ""Billboard"" Hot 100. In Australia they were far more successful than The Jam, reaching the top of the charts in 1984 with ""Shout to the Top"". Weller appeared on 1984's Band Aid record ""Do They Know It's Christmas?"" and was called upon to mime the absent Bono's lyrics on ""Top of the Pops"". The Style Council were the second act to appear in the British half of Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985. In"
"fully instrumental re-recording of the song, ""In the Night '95"", for the purpose of replacing the old theme. The music video for the first single release was directed Eric Watson and Andy Morahan. It depicts Lowe in an underground parking garage; a Cadillac pulls up to him and stops, whereupon Tennant materialises in front of it, dressed in a hat, glasses, and a suit by British fashion designer Stephen Linard, and standing inside a rectangular hole in the ground while singing the song while his face continually twitches suggesting missing frames and inflates in similar fashion to a frog. The"
"the most played pop song in 1984 by Broadcast Music International. Bonnefond stayed with the group for ""Emergency"" (1984), which remains their highest selling album with over two million copies sold in the US. It spawned four US top 20 singles, including ""Emergency"", ""Cherish"", ""Fresh"", and ""Misled"". This feat made Kool & the Gang the only band to have four top 20 singles from a single album in 1985. In June 1984, Kool & the Gang took time off from recording ""Emergency"" to perform at Wembley Stadium as part of a sold out summer concert organised by Elton John. That"
"Lynott's Grand Slam. He has played with M3 Classic Whitesnake, featuring ex-Whitesnake members Bernie Marsden, Neil Murray and Micky Moody. With Mark on keyboard duty Magnum's breakthrough album came in 1985 with ""On A Storyteller's Night"". This success continued the following year with the Roger Taylor produced ""Vigilante"" in 1986, the top 5 album ""Wings Of Heaven"" in 1988, and the Keith Olsen produced ""Goodnight L.A."" which reached No. 9 in the UK album charts in 1990. Magnum formally split in 1995, but 6 years later they reformed and released the album ""Breath Of Life"" in 2002, with Mark once"
"2001 2-CD re-release of ""Behaviour""), Neil Tennant states that ""Jealousy"" is the first proper song ever composed by the duo. Chris Lowe composed the melody at the piano in his parents' home and, as he felt it should be a ballad, asked Tennant to write an intense-sounding lyric. Tennant complied by writing a lyric about the simplest form of jealousy: infidelity suspicions aroused by someone's indifferent or disrespectful attitudes towards another person's feelings (such as making his/her partner wait all night for a phone call which never comes). The song was then left off three albums because the duo were"
"success, peaking at No. 4 in their native UK where it became the band's biggest seller earning a gold disc, and reached No. 3 in the US in the spring of 1984 becoming their biggest American hit. The band's new album, ""Into the Gap"", was released in early 1984 and became one of the year's biggest sellers, selling five million copies worldwide. It topped the UK Albums Chart and was later certified double platinum there. Further hit singles from the album followed with ""Doctor! Doctor!"" (UK No. 3) and ""You Take Me Up"" (UK No. 2, their highest UK singles"
"their ""Jealousy"" single as a B-side. Neil Tennant worked with Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr on their first album as Electronic, whose first single, ""Getting Away with It"", co-written and co-produced by Tennant, was released on 4 December 1989. Later, in 1991, Lowe also contributed to the Electronic project, contributing the chord sequence to ""The Patience of a Saint"" on their 1991 album. In 1992, Tennant sang lead vocals on the non-album single ""Disappointed"", which was featured on the soundtrack to the movie ""Cool World"". In addition, a remix of ""So Hard"", by notorious electronic music duo The KLF, released"
"hit and one of the earliest mainstream breakthroughs for hip hop. ""Street Dance"" peaked at #3 on the UK Singles Chart in March 1984, and was the 39th best-selling single of that year. It hit #1 in Sweden and Norway. In Germany, it was the 78th best-selling single of 1984. It charted #11 in Italy. ""Street Dance""'s strongest chart performance was in Norway, where it was #1 for five weeks. In France, the song reached #1 for two weeks, selling over a million copies and becoming the 86th best-selling single of all time according to a list released in 2004"
"1984, ""My Oh My"" was certified UK Gold by BPI. In Sweden, the song topped the chart and was awarded Platinum for sales in excess of 50,000. The 1983 success of Quiet Riot's version of Slade's 1973 UK chart topper ""Cum On Feel the Noize"" led to Slade signing with CBS for their first American record deal since the 1970s. The label soon repackaged ""The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome"" into ""Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply"" and released ""Run Runaway"" as the lead single in March 1984. It was Slade's breakthrough hit in America, reaching No. 20, and was followed-up"
"1994 by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. In 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation's 12th favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV. The song was performed by Pet Shop Boys at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony and was included as part of the soundtrack of the 2013 video game ""Grand Theft Auto V"" on the Non-Stop-Pop radio station. In 1983, Neil Tennant met producer Bobby Orlando, while on an assignment in New York interviewing Sting for ""Smash Hits"". After listening to some demos, Orlando offered to produce for the"
"a spectator standing slightly behind Tennant. In live performances he rarely interacts with the audience and often stands still while playing keyboards. In 1995, ""The Guardian"" commented that he was ""possibly more famous for not doing anything than almost anyone else in the history of popular entertainment."". Lowe has also been well known for his multiplicity of outfits. He also had everal different hairstyles throughout the 1980s, ranging from long to short to shaven. He then regrew his hair through the 1990s to early 2000s. From 2002-2003 he sported a long style; in 2004 he shaved his hair and has"
"the single was a phenomenal success in the UK, immediately entering at the number one position on 10 June 1984 and staying at the top of the UK Singles Chart for nine consecutive weeks, during which time the group's previous single ""Relax"" climbed back up the charts to number two. It was the longest running number-one single in the UK of the 1980s. It has sold 1.58 million copies in the UK as of November 2012. Songwriters Johnson, Gill and O'Toole received the 1984 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. In 2015 the song was voted by"
"Rats (1978), The Clash (1979), The Jam (1980), The Selecter (1980), UB40 (1981), Girlschool (1981), U2 (1982), Whitesnake (1983), The Alarm (1984), Nina Hagen (1984), The Cure (1985), The Damned (1986), The Pretenders (1987), The Stranglers (1988), Tanita Tikaram (1989), Georgia Satellites (1989), Soundgarden (1990), Bob Dylan (1990), Midnight Oil (1990), Billy Idol (1991), Nirvana (1992), Faith No More (1993), Chris Isaak (1993), Jethro Tull (1993), Aerosmith (1994), Simple Minds (1995), Bon Jovi (1995), Blur (1996), Pulp (1996), Neil Young (1996), David Bowie (1997), Sting (1997), Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1997), Pet Shop Boys (1997), Beastie Boys (1998),"
"J (Alive), David Guetta (Nothing But The Beat), JLS (JLS, Outta This World, Jukebox, Evolution), The Saturdays (On Your Radar), Olly Murs (Olly Murs) and more. Ali Tennant Lorne Alistair Tennant, better known as Ali Tennant, is a British singer, songwriter and vocal producer/mentor from London, England signed to BMG Chrysalis. Tennant released one album ""Crucial"" under the name Ali in 1998 on Polydor, and a single ""Bitter Honey"". Beginning his songwriting career in 1998, he has had credits on 17 top ten albums, 7 of which hit number 1, as well as 4 singles, one of which debuted at"
"version hitting in the UK and the original German version hitting in the US, behind Van Halen's ""Jump"". In 1984, Casey Kasem's radio show ""American Top 40"" introduced a ""mixed"" version of the song, ""splicing"" the German and English versions together. It was also a huge hit in many other countries, and to this day it is one of the best-known German rock songs in many parts of the world. In May 1984 while on a tour in the UK, Nena made the headlines of the British red-top press for having unshaven armpits. At the time this was not uncommon"
"Lowe in a baseball cap emblazoned with ""BOY"" in block letters, has become an iconic Pet Shop Boys image. Neil Tennant of the duo later recollected that he had expected the image of the cap to be the group's coming out moment, calling it ""incredibly gay"". Directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson, the video to the song is very simple, utilising facial shots of Tennant singing, interposed with blurry montages of the faces of various other people; at points, shots of Lowe, lying on top of a construction of a square grid, are superimposed over these shots. Watson would"
"to enjoy major success in the UK, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand through the 1970s and 1980s. They were the opening act of 1985's Live Aid, and Rossi wrote and co-wrote some of their most famous songs, including ""Caroline"" and ""Down Down"". Rossi and Parfitt were the only remaining original members in the band until Rick Parfitt's death in 2016. In 2013 and 2014, Rossi and Parfitt reunited with original Quo bandmates Lancaster and Coghlan for a series of reunion concerts on what would be called the ""Frantic Four"" tour. To this date, Quo have sold over 128 million"
"also reached the UK top ten. 1984's ""Lament"" continued the band's run of top ten albums and produced three top 40 hit singles, including the international hit ""Dancing with Tears in My Eyes"" (UK No. 3), ""Lament"" (No. 22) and ""One Small Day"" peaking at No. 27. Towards the end of 1984, a ""greatest hits"" compilation spanning the band's 1980s output was released entitled ""The Collection"". It was preceded by a new single, ""Love's Great Adventure"", which enjoyed massive radio airplay that autumn and eventually peaked at No. 12 in the UK, accompanied by a popular Indiana Jones-style spoof video."
"In early 1984, they began working with a new producer, Jeremy Green, on their new single ""Mothers Talk"". However, the band were ultimately unhappy with the results and so producer Chris Hughes was brought back into the fold and the ""Mothers Talk"" single re-produced for release in August 1984. A departure from their earlier works, the single became a top 20 hit in the UK, but it was the follow-up single ""Shout"" (released in the UK in November 1984) that was the real beginning of the band's international fame. ""Shout"", a top 5 UK hit, paved the way for their"
"in neon lines as Tennant and Lowe appear duplicated repeatedly, passing to each other symbols of the different statuses they represent — including a top hat, a trophy, a brick, and a sledgehammer. Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) ""Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)"" is a song by UK duo Pet Shop Boys, released as a single in 1985 and then in 1986, gaining greater popularity in both the United Kingdom and United States with its second release, reaching number 11 in the UK Singles Chart and number 10 in the US ""Billboard"" Hot 100. The song's indirect attack"
"King's Cross (song) ""King's Cross"" is a Pet Shop Boys song, written by Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant and is a track on their 1987 album ""Actually"". It was covered and released as a single in 2007 by Tracey Thorn. Two months after the release of ""Actually"", 31 people were killed in the King's Cross fire. Music magazines at the time though (such as ""Smash Hits"") carried adverts to call premium rate phone lines to hear the song, and the money from the phone call would then go to the charity for fire victims. On 9 December 2007, Tracey Thorn"
"Ali Tennant Lorne Alistair Tennant, better known as Ali Tennant, is a British singer, songwriter and vocal producer/mentor from London, England signed to BMG Chrysalis. Tennant released one album ""Crucial"" under the name Ali in 1998 on Polydor, and a single ""Bitter Honey"". Beginning his songwriting career in 1998, he has had credits on 17 top ten albums, 7 of which hit number 1, as well as 4 singles, one of which debuted at number 1. Later years have seen Tennant vocal coach and produce for a number of high-profile clients such as The X Factor, The Voice UK, Jessie"
"Fire), Journey in '83, Canada's Rush in 1983, Houston's ZZ Top in 1983, Stevie Nicks in '83, Joan Jett in 1983, UK's Duran Duran in 1984, The Grateful Dead in 1985, Bruce Springsteen in 1985, Eddie Murphy performed comedy there in '85, Alice Cooper, Texas' Edgar Winter, Ted Nugent, Barry Manilow, UK's Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi in '85 and 1989, UK's Ozzy Osbourne in '86, Run DMC in '86, Chapel Hill's James Taylor in '87, Tina Turner (with UK's Level 42) in '87, Def Leppard in '83 and '88, Aussies INXS in '88, Metallica with The Cult in '89, Motley"
"1985) in the United Kingdom, No. 4 in West Germany, No. 6 in Canada and No. 3 (No. 5 on re-entry in 1985) in Ireland. The song is associated with the July 1985 Live Aid event, where it was performed by Benjamin Orr during the Philadelphia event; previously, the song was used as the background music to a montage of clips depicting the contemporaneous Ethiopian famine during the London event, which was introduced by English musician David Bowie. Following the concert it was re-released in the UK and peaked at No. 4 in August 1985. Proceeds from the sales of"