ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL 2024 PREVIEW: PET SHOP BOYS TO GRACE SEACLOSE PARK STAGE ON FESTIVAL SATURDAY

Electronic Pop duo Pet Shop Boys are the Saturday night headline act for this year’s Isle of Wight Festival. They have sold more than 50 million singles, racking up 45 hits, with 28 reaching the Top 10 and 4 hitting the summit. Before musical fame came knocking, Neil Tennant was assistant editor of music magazine Smash Hits and Chris Lowe was studying architecture. After New Order re-invented disco music in the early eighties with “ Blue Monday” the duo teamed up, having first met in a hi-fi store in London. With Neil on vocals and lyric duty and Chris on keyboards success was not instant- their initial 2 releases West End Girls (1984) and Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money ) (1985) actually flopped. Come early January 1986, the pair topped the singles chart for 2 weeks, with the revamped version of West End Girls, but the follow -up Love Comes Quickly, only squeezed into the top 20. Then, Opportunities only reached number eleven before Suburbia heralded a sequence of 10x Top 10 hits over the ensuing 4 years- the Boys  had arrived. They have totalled 30 hit albums, with 19 inside the Top 10. However, only 1 album Very (1993) has hit the top slot, although 5 albums have reached Number 2. April 2024 saw the release of their 15th Studio Album Nonetheless which was only held off the summit by Taylor Swift’s all conquering residency. Prior to their Island appearance, the boys are touring the UK – in Glasgow (4th June), Nottingham  (6th June), Birmingham (8th June) and Manchester (9th June) before finishing in Belfast on 11th June.