Pet Shop Boys

Formed in London in 1981 after a chance meeting in an electronics shop, Pet Shop Boys have spent four decades proving that intelligent pop music doesn’t have to be terribly serious about itself.

Neil Tennant, the deadpan intellectual with a journalist’s eye for social observation, and Chris Lowe, the inscrutable electronic wizard lurking behind a keyboard and an enormous pair of sunglasses, created one of Britain’s most enduring pop partnerships.

From the urban alienation of West End Girls to the glorious excess of It’s a Sin and Go West, they’ve combined irresistible dancefloor melodies with sharp social commentary, heartbreak and a distinctly British sense of irony.

Alongside their extraordinary catalogue of hits sit ballet scores, film soundtracks and orchestral experiments, proving there’s considerably more to the duo than immaculate three-minute pop songs.

Forty years of synthesisers, sophistication and melancholy you can dance to.

And Chris still hasn’t taken his sunglasses off.

Image: Eva Pentel