Diary

31 October 2009

Neil Tennant opens his diary

On tour one develops air-conditioning paranoia. (I’ve just returned from a two-month Pet Shop Boys’ tour of North and South America, from Montreal to Lima.) You approach your latest hotel room with dread. How noisy is the air-conditioning? Can you turn it off? Is your room on the top floor directly under the main air-conditioning unit and therefore literally vibrating? When you check into your room during the day you often don’t notice the noise, but returning late after the show, the street noise having died down, you can become cruelly and sleeplessly aware of it. It’s time for the early-hours room change. The charmingly helpful hotel staff can never hear the noise but gently indulge you. Then there’s the freezing air-conditioning in dressing rooms. Are they trying to give you pneumonia before the concert starts? You learn to take something warm to wear backstage and always have ear-plugs by your bed.

Latin America has become ‘normal’. On our first tour there in 1994, in each country the promoter met us at the airport gate and whisked us straight into a car, customs formalities apparently nonexistent. Fifteen years later, getting into Peru or Mexico is no different from getting into the USA. I take this to be an encouraging sign of the development of their civil societies. Lima is a gastronomic capital. We were there for three days and every meal we ate was outstanding. Peru is blessed with high-quality ingredients and excellent chefs whose influences are both local and Asian. Apparently, there are 35 weather systems on the planet and Peru has 28 of them, hence its immense variety of food. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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Shamim E. Haque

November 3rd, 2009 4:59pm Report this comment

Greetings from Dhaka, Bangladesh! It was amazing to get a glimpse of the superbly engaging and humane mind of Neil Tennant. Thanks for sharing with us your thoughts and feelings and the range of issues that crossed your mind while on tour. I agree fully with your sentiment about the lady who was using the video camera in concert. I have had the fortune to enjoy, almost the divine pleasure, of hearing you sing. Can't imagine why people must be so bent and insistent on making their own show while another major show (i.e. a concert) is under way. All the finer points of life and art are missed in our bids to place ourselves as mini celebrities. I think it is an interesting manifestation of present day pettiness helped and empowered by the miniscule broadcast and media convergence devices we call the mobile phone.
Thank you Neil for sharing your diary with us.

elmer palomino

November 6th, 2009 2:34am Report this comment

thanks Neil and chris for visiting my country....Peru land of the inka's.
thank you very much from the peruvians fans

elmer palomino

November 6th, 2009 2:44am Report this comment

thank you very much Neil and Chris for visiting my country...the land of the inka's.. your fans of Peru

Luis Quiroz

November 6th, 2009 6:38pm Report this comment

Hi Neil
Many thanks for your comments respect to my country and food...
Is a pain that my daugther Neila Christine and me don't had the opportunity of know us ...but not problem I hope that in a next arrive of you will be possible.
Many Regards and dont forget that you have pend the Tour to Machu Picchu...

Regards

LUIS Q.

Stew Gough

December 31st, 2010 8:08am Report this comment

Interesting you say Cameron is in evitable and avoidable. Thanks to Tony Blair and the fat Scottish guy who followed him I wont be ticking the square that says Labour this year for many a reason . However this left me with the two main opponents. Now I agree with having a nuclear deterrent and the lib dems don't so straight away that meant I had to tick the box that said Conservative .... However i don't care much for the Tories or Cameron for that fact an I dint kno many who do so I guess that your view there was correct ! However I hope u have great times in Poland an a happy new year.

Thanks for letting us read !

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