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are something of a paradox — a mainstream band that consistently comes up with fascinating lyrics; a totally polished dance-pop act with a rebellious punk sensibility; an irresistibly danceable high-NRG disco band famous for standing entirely motionless on stage; and 1980s synthpop artists that have never broken up or stopped touring.
Among the most unusual acts to have achieved popular success, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe didn't break into the mainstream from another genre, but immediately positioned themselves as a hit-making pop act. A Hong Kong audience will discover all this at their gig at AsiaWorld-Expo on September 26
After coming to prominence in the mid-1980s, they scored a string of hits during what Tennant has called their "imperial phase" between 1986 and 1988.
We wondered how it was going to go down in China. But it was amazing — there were girls screaming, and people with iPads flashing Union Jacks
West End Girls, the song that broke them, established the template of highly danceable synthpop that was also brooding and evocative, overlaid with Tennant's utterly distinctive, ambiguous spoken-word verses about inner-city life.
Tennant jokes that the song was the UK's first rap number one.
Among many others, it was followed by Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money), a satire of 1980s consumerist excess; It's a Sin, Tennant's excoriating take on his Catholic-school upbringing; What Have I Done to Deserve This, which revived the career of Dusty Springfield; and their cover of Wayne Carson's Always on My Mind.
But it wasn't until 1989 that they played their first gig — and it was in Hong Kong. "It was our first ever full-length concert, it was in an arena, and it was quite nerve-wracking," says Tennant of the show, which was designed by the late Derek Jarman. "There are pictures of us before and after, and you can see the relief on our faces."
The show didn't end well for everyone: the colonial authorities weren't happy about a scene in the video accompanying It's a Sin in which two men kissed. "The projectionist was supposed to cover it with his hand, but he didn't, and as we were leaving Hong Kong the promoter was getting arrested," says Tennant.