“No soy una trella l pop gay, solo un artista que rulta ser gay” | Cultura | EL PAÍS

Contents:

• ON THIS GAY DAY: NEIL TENNANT IS CELEBRATG HIS BIRTHDAY
• PET SHOP BOYS’ NEIL TENNANT TALKS ABOUT AMERIN HOMOPHOBIABY MARC SPZAUGT 29, 2012SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEFOR MORE THAN A QUARTER-CENTURY, PET SHOP BOYS NEIL TENNANT AND CHRIS LOWE HAVE BROUGHT W AND EDGE TO ELECTRONIC DANCE MIC WHOUT ABANDONG THE POP SMARTS THAT MA THEM THE BIGGT DUO BRISH RERDG HISTORY. NOW, H OM A PERFORMANCE AT THE LONDON SUMMER OLYMPICS CLOSG CEREMONY AND G UP ON THE RELEASE OF THEIR NEW ALBUM, *ELYSIUM,*OUT SEPTEMBER 10, VF DAILY UGHT UP WH TENNANT, WHO TOLD ABOUT THE PAIR’S HS AND MISS, THEIR SNDALO PEERS, AND AMERIN HOMOPHOBIA. HIGHLIGHTS OM OUR CHAT:__VF DAILY:__NOW THAT ’S BEHD YOU, WHAT WAS LIKE TO BE PART OF THE OLYMPICS CLOSG CEREMONY?*NEIL TENNANT:*VERY EXCG. THEY ASKED TO DO ABOUT FOUR MONTHS AGO AND SHOWED THE PLAN. THEY WANTED TO HAVE THIS SECTN ABOUT LONDON, A TRAFFIC JAM THAT TURNS TO A STREET PARTY—AND THEY HAD A LTLE MOL OF WEARG THE POTY HATS.I WAS GOG TO ASK ABOUT THE POTY HATS.THEY’RE OM A VIO FOR A SONG LLED “CAN YOU FIVE HER.” THE SIGNER OF THE CLOSG CEREMONY THOUGHT THIS WAS THE RIGHT IMAGE SO WE WENT WH . IT’S QUE TERTG. WE DID SOMETHG WH POTY HATS YEARS AND YEARS AGO, ALMOST 20 YEARS AGO, AND PEOPLE STILL REMEMBER THAT IMAGE OF .YOU PERFORMED YOUR FIRST H, “WT END GIRLS.” DO YOU STILL NSIR THAT TO BE YOUR SIGNATURE SONG?THERE WAS NO DISCSN OF THE SONG CHOICE. THEY WANTED BEE ’S A SONG SPIRED BY LONDON. IT WAS ALREADY WORKED OUT GOG TO ONE DIRECTN AND THEN “WATERLOO SUNSET” WH RAY DAVI. IT SEEMED AN APPROPRIATE SONG TO DO. THERE AREN’T THAT MANY FAMO SONGS ABOUT LONDON. IT’S NOT LIKE NEW YORK. OBVLY WE’D RATHER HAVE DONE THE NEW SGLE [LGHS] LIKE SOMEARTISTS DID.YOU’RE TALKG ABOUT GEE MICHAEL? HE ALSO DID “FREEDOM ’90.”WOULD YOU HAD RATHER HE DONE “CARELS WHISPER”? I, OF URSE, WOULD RATHER HEAR THE NEW SGLE.THERE’S A GREAT SONG ON ELYSIUM LLED “YOUR EARLY STUFF,” WHICH SEEMS TO REPEAT PEOPLE’S CRICISMS ABOUT YOUR BAND.IT’S THGS LONDON TAXI DRIVERS HAVE SAID. I LIVE LONDON AND I DON’T DRIVE, SO I GET A LOT OF TAXIS. BLACK BS, AS WE LL THEM. EVERY LE THE SONG HAS BEEN SAID TO ME BY A TAXI DRIVER. “I SUPPOSE YOU’RE MORE OR LS RETIRED NOW?”—A TAXI DRIVER SAID THAT TO ME. IT WAS A FEW YEARS AGO WHEN TOP OF THE POPSWAS STILL ON. I SAID, “NO, ACTUALLY YOU’RE DRIVG ME TO THE BBC TO RERD TOP OF THE POPS.”THE PET SHOP BOYS’ POPULARY IS SURPRISG. YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF MY RERD LLECTN, BUT I WAS SHOCKED BY HOW MANY RERDS YOU’VE SOLD.IT’S BEE WE’RE A POP GROUP. THERE’S ALWAYS BEEN THIS ANCIENT WAR BETWEEN POP AND ROCK. ROCK IS MEANT TO BE SIGNIFINT, THEREFORE PEOPLE WRE ABOUT TERMS OF SIGNIFINCE. POP IS MEANT TO BE THROWAWAY.YOU WEREN’T EXACTLY WRG POP LYRICS THE 80S. “IT’S A S” AND “OPPORTUNI” SEEM PROPHETIC NOW.A LOT OF THEM [WERE] ABOUT WHAT WAS GOG ON AT THE TIME—BUT WE DO THROUGH THE IDM OF POP. PEOPLE DON’T EVEN NECSARILY HAVE TO REALIZE ’S ABOUT THAT. THAT’S HOW WE OPERATE. THE PET SHOP BOYS ARE A KD OF CULT, REALLY.YOU’VE ALWAYS HAD SUCH GREAT TASTE VERS. THEY’RE UNPREDICTABLE AND YOU TOTALLY MAKE THEM YOUR OWN, OM ELVIS TO U2 TO THE VILLAGE PEOPLE.THE NEW ONE IS__ __A BEE GE VER: “I STARTED A JOKE.” WE DID AS A TRIBUTE TO ROB GIBB. SUCH A BETIFUL SONG. WE’VE ALWAYS LIKED THAT ONE. NORMALLY THE VER VERSNS ARE CHRIS’S IA. WH “GO WT,” CHRIS SAID, ‘THERE’S THIS VILLAGE PEOPLE RERD—’S REALLY GREAT FOR .” I SAID, “THAT’S REALLY HORRIBLE. I HATE .” HE IGNORED ME AND SAID, “NO, YOU’RE GOG TO LOVE . IT’S GOT THE SAME CHORD CHANG AS PACHELBEL’S CANON.”YOU TWO HAVE NAVIGATED 25 YEARS OF POP STARDOM WHOUT A SGLE SNDAL. STARS LIKE GEE MICHAEL OR MADONNA, NOT SO MUCH.GEE LIK A GOOD SNDAL. SNDAL IS MADONNA’S VOBULARY, REALLY. I GUS WE OPERATE UNR THE RADAR. MADONNA AND GEE MICHAEL AT THEIR VERY BASE SELL SEX. WHEN YOU SELL SEX, THERE’S GOG TO BE AN CREDIBLE FOC ON WHO YOU’RE HAVG SEX WH, TO PUT AT S MOST BTAL. A HUGE FOC ON YOUR PRIVATE LIFE.THE PET SHOP BOYS HAVE A TREMENDO GAY FOLLOWG. BRANDON FLOWERS OF THE KILLERS HAS SAID THAT THIS MIGHT HAVE ULTIMATELY DAMAGED THE N OF H SGL YOU HAD AMERI.SOMETHG HAPPENED TO AMERI. THE THEORY IS WAS THE VIO FOR “DOMO DANCG.” I NEVER REALLY BELIEVED . AMERI IS QUE HOMOPHOBIC, BUT ’S ALSO TOTALLY GAY. IT’S REALLY WEIRD. AMERI IS TRADNALLY A UNTRY OF EXTREM LIVG SI BY SI.MOST POPULARVANY FAIR’S “IT’S RAG TEENS” COVER AT 20: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?BY SAVANNAH WALSHREMEMBERG SéAD O’CONNOR’S SUBLIME MIC AND RIGHTEO RAGEBY MIKE HOGANRED, WHE & ROYAL BLUE MAY BE “THE MOST EXPENSIVE B OF FAN FICTN EVER”BY SAVANNAH WALSHMARC SPZ
• “NO SOY UNA TRELLA L POP GAY, SOLO UN ARTISTA QUE RULTA SER GAY”

ON THIS GAY DAY: NEIL TENNANT IS CELEBRATG HIS BIRTHDAY

While Prot never spoke about beg homosexual, his iends and later nfirmed his sexualy and there are gay and lbian th and characters through out his works. After Queer as Folk end he was st as the lead the TV seri Vanished, appearg alongsi Rebec Gayheart and Mg-Na Wen. Tennant and Lowe have llaborated extensively wh gold-plated gay in, Liza Mnelli (Cred: Alamy)Tennant has always been the duo’s more proment member, as befs his role as ontman, but Harnell says Lowe’s ntributn shouldn’t be unrtimated.

”The bt ditn that Lowe and Tennant weren’t straight was their choice of clients – Aled SotoTennant first discsed beg gay a 1994 terview wh Attu magaze, but before then Aston says queer fans might have gused his sexualy by “readg the signs”: for example, the duo hired avant-gar gay film-maker Derek Jarman to direct the vio for 1987’s It’s a S, a song about Tennant’s rejectn of his Catholic upbrgg which he’s sce said was “tend as a mp joke”. In the late ’80s, Tennant and Lowe also llaborated extensively wh a pair of gold-plated gay ins, Liza Mnelli and Dty Sprgfield. “Their stage stum were already beg more lourful and outlandish [before then], and none referred, ironilly or otherwise, to any gay stereotype, ” he says.

PET SHOP BOYS’ NEIL TENNANT TALKS ABOUT AMERIN HOMOPHOBIABY MARC SPZAUGT 29, 2012SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEFOR MORE THAN A QUARTER-CENTURY, PET SHOP BOYS NEIL TENNANT AND CHRIS LOWE HAVE BROUGHT W AND EDGE TO ELECTRONIC DANCE MIC WHOUT ABANDONG THE POP SMARTS THAT MA THEM THE BIGGT DUO BRISH RERDG HISTORY. NOW, H OM A PERFORMANCE AT THE LONDON SUMMER OLYMPICS CLOSG CEREMONY AND G UP ON THE RELEASE OF THEIR NEW ALBUM, *ELYSIUM,*OUT SEPTEMBER 10, VF DAILY UGHT UP WH TENNANT, WHO TOLD ABOUT THE PAIR’S HS AND MISS, THEIR SNDALO PEERS, AND AMERIN HOMOPHOBIA. HIGHLIGHTS OM OUR CHAT:__VF DAILY:__NOW THAT ’S BEHD YOU, WHAT WAS LIKE TO BE PART OF THE OLYMPICS CLOSG CEREMONY?*NEIL TENNANT:*VERY EXCG. THEY ASKED TO DO ABOUT FOUR MONTHS AGO AND SHOWED THE PLAN. THEY WANTED TO HAVE THIS SECTN ABOUT LONDON, A TRAFFIC JAM THAT TURNS TO A STREET PARTY—AND THEY HAD A LTLE MOL OF WEARG THE POTY HATS.I WAS GOG TO ASK ABOUT THE POTY HATS.THEY’RE OM A VIO FOR A SONG LLED “CAN YOU FIVE HER.” THE SIGNER OF THE CLOSG CEREMONY THOUGHT THIS WAS THE RIGHT IMAGE SO WE WENT WH . IT’S QUE TERTG. WE DID SOMETHG WH POTY HATS YEARS AND YEARS AGO, ALMOST 20 YEARS AGO, AND PEOPLE STILL REMEMBER THAT IMAGE OF .YOU PERFORMED YOUR FIRST H, “WT END GIRLS.” DO YOU STILL NSIR THAT TO BE YOUR SIGNATURE SONG?THERE WAS NO DISCSN OF THE SONG CHOICE. THEY WANTED BEE ’S A SONG SPIRED BY LONDON. IT WAS ALREADY WORKED OUT GOG TO ONE DIRECTN AND THEN “WATERLOO SUNSET” WH RAY DAVI. IT SEEMED AN APPROPRIATE SONG TO DO. THERE AREN’T THAT MANY FAMO SONGS ABOUT LONDON. IT’S NOT LIKE NEW YORK. OBVLY WE’D RATHER HAVE DONE THE NEW SGLE [LGHS] LIKE SOMEARTISTS DID.YOU’RE TALKG ABOUT GEE MICHAEL? HE ALSO DID “FREEDOM ’90.”WOULD YOU HAD RATHER HE DONE “CARELS WHISPER”? I, OF URSE, WOULD RATHER HEAR THE NEW SGLE.THERE’S A GREAT SONG ON ELYSIUM LLED “YOUR EARLY STUFF,” WHICH SEEMS TO REPEAT PEOPLE’S CRICISMS ABOUT YOUR BAND.IT’S THGS LONDON TAXI DRIVERS HAVE SAID. I LIVE LONDON AND I DON’T DRIVE, SO I GET A LOT OF TAXIS. BLACK BS, AS WE LL THEM. EVERY LE THE SONG HAS BEEN SAID TO ME BY A TAXI DRIVER. “I SUPPOSE YOU’RE MORE OR LS RETIRED NOW?”—A TAXI DRIVER SAID THAT TO ME. IT WAS A FEW YEARS AGO WHEN TOP OF THE POPSWAS STILL ON. I SAID, “NO, ACTUALLY YOU’RE DRIVG ME TO THE BBC TO RERD TOP OF THE POPS.”THE PET SHOP BOYS’ POPULARY IS SURPRISG. YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF MY RERD LLECTN, BUT I WAS SHOCKED BY HOW MANY RERDS YOU’VE SOLD.IT’S BEE WE’RE A POP GROUP. THERE’S ALWAYS BEEN THIS ANCIENT WAR BETWEEN POP AND ROCK. ROCK IS MEANT TO BE SIGNIFINT, THEREFORE PEOPLE WRE ABOUT TERMS OF SIGNIFINCE. POP IS MEANT TO BE THROWAWAY.YOU WEREN’T EXACTLY WRG POP LYRICS THE 80S. “IT’S A S” AND “OPPORTUNI” SEEM PROPHETIC NOW.A LOT OF THEM [WERE] ABOUT WHAT WAS GOG ON AT THE TIME—BUT WE DO THROUGH THE IDM OF POP. PEOPLE DON’T EVEN NECSARILY HAVE TO REALIZE ’S ABOUT THAT. THAT’S HOW WE OPERATE. THE PET SHOP BOYS ARE A KD OF CULT, REALLY.YOU’VE ALWAYS HAD SUCH GREAT TASTE VERS. THEY’RE UNPREDICTABLE AND YOU TOTALLY MAKE THEM YOUR OWN, OM ELVIS TO U2 TO THE VILLAGE PEOPLE.THE NEW ONE IS__ __A BEE GE VER: “I STARTED A JOKE.” WE DID AS A TRIBUTE TO ROB GIBB. SUCH A BETIFUL SONG. WE’VE ALWAYS LIKED THAT ONE. NORMALLY THE VER VERSNS ARE CHRIS’S IA. WH “GO WT,” CHRIS SAID, ‘THERE’S THIS VILLAGE PEOPLE RERD—’S REALLY GREAT FOR .” I SAID, “THAT’S REALLY HORRIBLE. I HATE .” HE IGNORED ME AND SAID, “NO, YOU’RE GOG TO LOVE . IT’S GOT THE SAME CHORD CHANG AS PACHELBEL’S CANON.”YOU TWO HAVE NAVIGATED 25 YEARS OF POP STARDOM WHOUT A SGLE SNDAL. STARS LIKE GEE MICHAEL OR MADONNA, NOT SO MUCH.GEE LIK A GOOD SNDAL. SNDAL IS MADONNA’S VOBULARY, REALLY. I GUS WE OPERATE UNR THE RADAR. MADONNA AND GEE MICHAEL AT THEIR VERY BASE SELL SEX. WHEN YOU SELL SEX, THERE’S GOG TO BE AN CREDIBLE FOC ON WHO YOU’RE HAVG SEX WH, TO PUT AT S MOST BTAL. A HUGE FOC ON YOUR PRIVATE LIFE.THE PET SHOP BOYS HAVE A TREMENDO GAY FOLLOWG. BRANDON FLOWERS OF THE KILLERS HAS SAID THAT THIS MIGHT HAVE ULTIMATELY DAMAGED THE N OF H SGL YOU HAD AMERI.SOMETHG HAPPENED TO AMERI. THE THEORY IS WAS THE VIO FOR “DOMO DANCG.” I NEVER REALLY BELIEVED . AMERI IS QUE HOMOPHOBIC, BUT ’S ALSO TOTALLY GAY. IT’S REALLY WEIRD. AMERI IS TRADNALLY A UNTRY OF EXTREM LIVG SI BY SI.MOST POPULARVANY FAIR’S “IT’S RAG TEENS” COVER AT 20: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?BY SAVANNAH WALSHREMEMBERG SéAD O’CONNOR’S SUBLIME MIC AND RIGHTEO RAGEBY MIKE HOGANRED, WHE & ROYAL BLUE MAY BE “THE MOST EXPENSIVE B OF FAN FICTN EVER”BY SAVANNAH WALSHMARC SPZ

This wty highlight om the duo’s album Release imag a homosexual enunter between Emem, a rapper often cricised for the homophobic ntent his lyrics, and an unnamed male fan. “When I asked why have I heard so much about him beg charged wh homophobia and stuff, he jt shgged, ” sgs Tennant, adoptg the role of the duo have a built a reputatn for high-art live show extravaganzas created llaboratn wh top creativ (Cred: Alamy)However new album Hotspot performs the charts, Tennant and Lowe’s legacy looks assured at this pot their reers.

Now, h om a performance at the London Summer Olympics closg ceremony and g up on the release of their new album, *Elysium, *out September 10, VF Daily ught up wh Tennant, who told about the pair’s hs and miss, their sndalo peers, and Amerin homophobia. A huge foc on your private Pet Shop Boys have a tremendo gay followg.

Ameri is que homophobic, but ’s also totally gay. We have listed sgers you may not have known were lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or queer. His experience of growg up gay the UK the 1970s and 1980s mt be so different to that of, say, Olly Alexanr, ont man wh Years & Years, who guts on the Pet Shop Boys track Dreamland on the album.

“NO SOY UNA TRELLA L POP GAY, SOLO UN ARTISTA QUE RULTA SER GAY”

“Md, that’s not a gay thg. The days gay marriage is a thg. Do he approve of gay marriage?

I thk we’ve moved on om people beg tolerant of gays, which sort of impli prejudice don’t ? I actually thk ’s sort of rtrictive bee puts people ltle ‘straight’, ‘gay’ and ‘-between’ box and I don’t necsarily thk life is que as straightforward as that. “When happened, the old gay part of me thought, ‘God, all the gays are like straight people, gettg married and gog to the PTA meetgs wh their kids.

He openly me out 1972 and stated that he is a homosexual, and he has been ever sce birth.