NEIL TENNANT

'Neil Francis Tennant' (born July 10, 1954 in North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England) is an English musician, who, with his colleague Chris Lowe, make up the successful pop duo, Pet Shop Boys.

Contents

Biography

Childhood

Later life

Current career and future

Personal life

Non-Pet Shop Boys appearances on record

Trivia

References

See also

External links

Biography

Childhood

As a child, Neil attended St. Cuthbert's Grammar School, an all-boys' Catholic school in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. (Sting went to the same school.) Neil's songs "This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave" and "It's a Sin" refer to his early life in Catholic school and the strict Catholic upbringing there. "It's A Sin" caused controversy with its implicit criticism of Catholic education.
Whilst at school Neil played guitar and cello. At the age of 16, he played in a group called Dust, whose most popular song was called "Can You Hear The Dawn Break?". They were heavily influenced by The Incredible String Band.

Later life

In 1975, having completed a degree in history at North London Polytechnic (now London Metropolitan University), Neil worked briefly as an editor for Marvel UK, the UK branch of Marvel Comics. He was responsible for anglicising the dialogue of Marvel's catalogue to suit British readers, and for indicating where women needed to be redrawn more decently for the British editions. In 1977, he moved to Macdonald Educational Publishing and, later, ITV Books. In 1982 he joined the British teen pop magazine ''Smash Hits'', where he rose to Assistant Editor.
At ''Smash Hits'', an opportunity arose for him to go to New York to interview The Police. Whilst there, Tennant arranged to meet Bobby Orlando, a producer who both he and Lowe admired. Tennant mentioned that he was writing songs in his spare time and Orlando agreed to record some tracks with him and Lowe at a later date. Orlando subsequently produced the Pet Shop Boys' first single "West End Girls".

Current career and future

As of 2007 Tennant and Lowe are still going strong as Pet Shop Boys. Neil has a hi-tech, state of the art studio in his home in Durham and many songs from 2002's ''Release'' album were recorded there.
Tennant is also known for his support of modern art, and was a judge for the 1998 Turner Prize as a representative of the Patrons of New Art.
Tennant was the executive producer for the Rufus Wainwright album Release The Stars, released in May 2007 ^[1]. Wainwright made a special appearance performing the track "Casanova In Hell" at a live Pet Shop Boys show at the Mermaid theatre, London on May 8 2006. The concert was subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 2 and released on CD with the title 'Concrete', November 13 2006.

Personal life

Although Tennant avoided the issue of homosexuality in the 1980s, preferring his lyrics to be androgynous, shortly after the release of 1993's ''Very'' he publicly "came out" in ''Attitude'', a UK gay lifestyle magazine. According to the musician Tom Stephan aka Superchumbo, they had a two-year romantic relationship.

Non-Pet Shop Boys appearances on record

★ In February 2007, Pet Shop Boys remixed The Killers track "Read My Mind". The mixes are an extended "Stars Are Blazing" mix and a seven-inch edit. The mixes feature additional vocals by both Neil Tennant and (briefly) Chris Lowe.

★ In September 2006, Tennant can be heard on two tracks (both produced by the Pet Shop Boys) on Robbie Williams's Rudebox album. The first, co-written by the Pet Shop Boys, is called "She's Madonna" while the second "We're the Pet Shop Boys" was written by My Robot Friend.

★ In June 2006, Tennant provided backing vocals on "Throw" by DJ Dan Fresh.

★ In 2005, Tennant provided lyrics and sang on the track "Tranquilizer" by DJ Tom Stephan (a.k. Superchumbo). Under numerous guises and aliases, Stephan had previously remixed Pet Shop Boys tracks such as "Paninaro 95", "New York City boy" and "Sexy Northerner". In 2006, he would remix "Minimal".

★ In 1998, along with Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, Tennant sang backing vocals on the Robbie Williams' single No Regrets.

★ Tennant provided backing vocals for the Tina Turner track "Confidential", which was written and co-produced for her by the Pet Shop Boys.

★ In April 1996, Tennant's vocals were featured on two live recordings by the British group Suede that were released as b-sides to their single "Filmstar". One track was a cover of the Pet Shop Boys track "Rent", while the second was a duet with Suede singer Brett Anderson on the Suede song "Saturday Night".

★ In 1996, Tennant effectively sings a duet with David Bowie on the Pet Shop Boys remix of Bowie's "Hallo Spaceboy".

★ Tennant provided backing vocals on Boy George's Pet Shop Boy produced cover of "The Crying Game".

★ Worked with the band Electronic, which consists of Johnny Marr (formerly of the Smiths) and Bernard Sumner of New Order and Joy Division. Tennant sang backing on vocals on their first single "Getting Away With It" in 1989 while taking lead vocals on the 1992 single "Disappointed". Along with fellow Pet Shop Boy Chris Lowe, he wrote and appeared on the Electronic album track "Patience of a Saint", on which he shared lead vocals with Sumner.

★ Tennant's backing vocals can be heard on many tracks by Cicero, who was signed to the Pet Shop Boys record label.

★ In 1989, Gina Scarvo's "All I Ever Wanted Was One Night (With You In My Dreams)" features Neil Tennant on backup vocals.

★ "Nothing has been proved" by 'Dusty Springfield (written and produced by the Pet Shop Boys for the film ''Scandal'') features a spoken interlude by Tennant (''"It's a scandal... such scandal... it's a scandal."'')

★ "Losing my Mind" and "Don't Drop Bombs" from Liza Minelli's Pet Shop Boys produced ''Results'' feature Tennant on backing vocals.

★ The Swedish group Le Sport has a song titled "If Neil Tennant Was My Lover".

Trivia

★ ''Doctor Who'' star David Tennant chose his acting surname from Neil Tennant. This came after reading an interview with Tennant in ''Smash Hits'' shortly after learning that he would have to change his professional name in order to join the actors' union, Equity, as there was already a registered member with his real name, David McDonald.^[2]

★ In the early 1990s, an interviewer for ''The Advocate'' noted to Neil Tennant that many compare him to the late, British, openly gay writer Noel Coward. Tennant replied that he loved Noel Coward. The Pet Shop Boys recorded Coward's song "Sail Away" for the charity album, "Twentieth Century Blues" which Tennant compiled.

★ In ''Details'' magazine - July 1992 p52 Neil Tennant wrote a piece titled "Hated It", it closes with;

"The Pet Shop Boys have always hated most of the prevailing attitudes and tried to do the opposite. Our hatred of what other people do has always helped us redefine our actions. To hate a lot of things is tantamount to really caring about others. If you like everything, you deal with nothing. When people hear Chris and me talking, they're sometimes shocked by how negative we are. We're constantly critical of everything, including ourselves. But I come from a generation that liked its artists to say what was wrong with our lives. I retain the old-fashioned belief that pop music is meant to be a challenge to society as well as an affirmation of it. And so I consider it my duty to hate things."

References

1. Pet Shop Boys singer produces new album Rufus Wainwright
2. David Tennant: His days of blissful anonymity are numbered Sarah Shannon

See also

★ List of bands/musicians from North East England

External links

★ Official Pet Shop Boys site

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