2009 – January
On January 12 the Girls Aloud single, “The Loving Kind”, is released and reaches the top ten. It is a song co-written by the Pet Shop Boys and Girls Aloud’s regular producers, Xenomania, the British production team led by Brian Higgins, and was originally written in sessions for the next Pet Shop Boys album. When Chris expressed reservations about the song – “I didn’t think it was breaking new ground for us” – Brian Higgins asked whether he could record it with Girls Aloud, an idea they eagerly encouraged. “Thrilled to pieces by that,” says Chris.

2009 – February
On February 18 the Pet Shop Boys are given the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Brit awards, and invited to perform at the close of the ceremony. “I think we’re really accepting this award on behalf of pop music, more than anything,” says Chris beforehand. “A very underrated form of music.”

2009 – March
On March 16 the single “Love etc.” is released. It is written with, and produced by, Xenomania, and was planned as the first single from early on in the sessions for the new Pet Shop Boys album: “I think it somehow manages to sound like typical Pet Shop Boys without sounding like any record we’ve ever made before. It’s a post-lifestyle anthem. I think it’s quite appropriate for the time. What the credit crunch seems to reveal is: if you take the shopping out of society then precisely what is left? The song is saying life isn’t just about wealth and shopping.”

2009 – March
On March 23 the album Yes is released. Unlike their previous album, when the Pet Shop Boys first started writing songs for what would become Yes they had no fixed scheme either sonically or in terms of subject matter. “We ended up writing a group of really poppy songs,” says Neil, “and therefore we decided we would approach the producers Xenomania because they seemed to us like the most interesting and imaginative pop producers at the moment.” Three of the eleven songs on the final album would also be written with Xenomania: “It’s an interesting process. It stretches you and brings new things into your vocabulary.” Johnny Marr - “he famously years ago described himself as the Carlos Alomar of the Pet Shop Boys” – returns to play guitar and also the harmonica, the instrument’s first appearance on a Pet Shop Boys record. “We can’t seem to remember how we came up with the title Yes,” says Neil. “Our official story is that we may have taken it from the famous Yoko Ono exhibition in 1967 where you had to climb up a step ladder – as John Lennon famously did - pick up a magnifying glass, look at a tiny word written on the ceiling, and the word was ‘yes’. I think it partly came from that.” (Chris adds: “We thought No was a bit negative.”)

Labels: Pet Shop Boys