Remarkably, Pet Shop Boys’ current pandemic-delayed Dreamworld tour is the duo’s first ever Greatest Hits tour. As such, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe attacked last night’s show at The O2 with the energy and precision of a pair who were hellbent on reminding the room just how many great hits they have in their pocket. Judging by the reaction thrown back at them during every second of the two-hour show, everyone knew perfectly well.
“In Dreamworld being boring is a sin,” Tennant said near the show’s beginning, incorporating lyrics from their biggest hits into a speech-cum-mission statement outlining the show’s intentions. Across the next 26 songs, the pair dazzled with a show that was poignant, rave-ready, blissful and beyond.
The duo dipped into all corners of their discography across the show, dropping early hits Suburbia and Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) into a first segment on which Tennant and Lowe performed under a pair of streetlights. During the first of three costume changes, the props were then moved to the side by roadies posing as construction workers in hard hats and hi-vis jackets; even the most mundane logistical parts of the show were turned into entertaining asides.
Once they were out of the way, the big screen lifted to reveal the pair’s excellent live band as Tennant attacked the monologue in Left To My Own Devices like a lead in the West End. Elsewhere, 2013 track Vocal saw them go full eurotrance and thank all the “old ravers” in the crowd, with the other end of their spectrum represented on tender ballad You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk. “What greatest hit has an acoustic guitar?!” Tennant mimicked the crowd asking before the latter, revealing that, in fact, it hit the Top Ten upon its release at the turn of the millennium.
Despite these few detours, the show was basically wall-to-wall synth-pop hits, from the ecstatic It’s A Sin, given new life and importance recently owing to its association with the landmark Channel 4 AIDS drama of the same name, to the timeless Always On My Mind and brilliantly camp Go West. Throughout it all, 67-year-old Tennant’s voice remained impeccable, growing old with grace and seemingly zero wear-and-tear.
After a knees-up well worth the two year wait, Tennant brought moments of sombre poignancy to the encore, singing of “every city in every nation, from Mariupol to Kyiv Station” in West End Girls and dedicating closer Being Boring to all those we’ve lost in the pandemic. It was a touching climax to a show that was otherwise colourful, bombastic, hit-packed and buckets of fun. Pet Shop Boys remain the whole package.
