Neil Tennant
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| Neil Tennant | |
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 Neil Tennant (right) singing in a Pet Shop Boys concert in Boston, 2006
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Neil Francis Tennant |
| Born | July 10, 1954 |
| Origin | North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England |
| Genre(s) | Synthpop, dance |
| Occupation(s) | Keyboardist |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, Keyboard, Guitars |
| Years active | 1981 - Present Day |
| Associated acts | Pet Shop Boys Electronic |
| Website | Official Pet Shop Boys website |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Synthesizer Guitar |
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Neil Francis Tennant (born 10 July 1954) is a English musician, singer and songwriter, who, with his colleague, Chris Lowe, make up the successful pop duo Pet Shop Boys.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Childhood
Neil Tennant was born on 10 July 1954, North Shields, Tyne and Wear to William and Sheila Tennant. He has one sister, Susan, and two brothers, Simon and Philip.
As a child, Tennant attended St. Cuthbert's Grammar School, an all-boys' Roman Catholic school in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. (Sting went to the same school.) Tennant's songs "This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave" and "It's a Sin" refer to his early life in Catholic school and the strict Catholic upbringing there. "It's a Sin" caused controversy with its implicit criticism of Catholic education.
Whilst at school Tennant played guitar and cello. At the age of 16, he played in a group called Dust, whose most popular song was called "Can You Hear the Dawn Break?". They were heavily influenced by The Incredible String Band.
[edit] Later life
In 1975, having completed a degree in history at North London Polytechnic (now London Metropolitan University), Neil Tennant worked for two years as London Editor for Marvel UK, the UK branch of Marvel Comics. He was responsible for anglicising the dialogue of Marvel's catalogue to suit British readers, and for indicating where women needed to be redrawn more decently for the British editions. He also wrote occasional features for the comics, including interviews with pop stars Marc Bolan and Alex Harvey. In 1977, he moved to Macdonald Educational Publishing where he edited "The Dairy Book Of Home Management" and various illustrated books about cookery, playing the guitar and other home interests. Then he moved to ITV Books where he edited TV tie-in books. After having commissioned Steve Bush, then the designer of "Smash Hits" and "The Face", to design a book about the group Madness, he was offered a job at Smash Hits as news editor of the British teen pop magazine in 1982. The following year he became Assistant Editor. He also edited the 1982, 1983 and 1984 editions of "The Smash Hits Yearbook".
At Smash Hits, an opportunity arose for him to go to New York to interview The Police. Whilst there, Tennant arranged to meet Bobby Orlando, a producer who both he and Lowe admired. Tennant mentioned that he was writing songs in his spare time and Orlando agreed to record some tracks with him and Lowe at a later date. Orlando subsequently produced the Pet Shop Boys' first single "West End Girls".
Although Tennant avoided the issue of homosexuality in the 1980s, preferring his lyrics to be androgynous, shortly after the release of 1993's Very he publicly "came out" in Attitude, a UK gay lifestyle magazine. According to the musician Tom Stephan, aka Superchumbo, they had a two-year romantic relationship.
[edit] Current career and future
Tennant and Lowe are still going strong as Pet Shop Boys. Neil has a studio in his home in Durham and many songs from 2002's Release album were recorded there. Pet Shop Boys' soundtrack for the silent film, "The Battleship Potemkin", was also written and partly recorded there.
Tennant is also known for his support of modern art, and was a judge for the 1998 Turner Prize as a representative of the Patrons of New Art.
Tennant was the executive producer for the Rufus Wainwright album Release The Stars, released in May 2007 [1]. Wainwright made a special appearance performing the track "Casanova In Hell" at a live Pet Shop Boys show at the Mermaid theatre, London on May 8, 2006. The concert was subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 2 and released on CD with the title 'Concrete', November 13, 2006.
[edit] Non-Pet Shop Boys appearances on record
- In June 2006, Tennant provided backing vocals on "Throw" by DJ Fresh.
- In 2005, Tennant provided lyrics and sang on the track "Tranquilizer" by DJ Tom Stephan (a.k. Superchumbo). Under numerous guises and aliases, Stephan had previously remixed Pet Shop Boys tracks such as "Paninaro '95", "Minimal", "New York City boy" and "Sexy Northerner".
- In 1998, along with Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, Tennant sang backing vocals on the Robbie Williams' single No Regrets.
- In April 1996, Tennant's vocals were featured on two live recordings by the British group Suede that were released as b-sides to their single "Filmstar". One track was a cover of the Pet Shop Boys track "Rent", while the second was a duet with Suede singer Brett Anderson on the Suede song "Saturday Night".
- Worked with the band Electronic, which consists of Johnny Marr (formerly of the Smiths) and Bernard Sumner of New Order and Joy Division. Tennant sang backing on vocals on their first single "Getting Away With It" in 1989 while taking lead vocals on the 1992 single "Disappointed". Along with fellow Pet Shop Boy, Chris Lowe, he wrote and appeared on the Electronic album track "Patience of a Saint", on which he shared lead vocals with Sumner.
[edit] Trivia
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- Doctor Who star David Tennant chose his acting surname from Neil Tennant. This came after reading an interview with Tennant in Smash Hits shortly after learning that he would have to change his professional name in order to join the actors' union, Equity, as there was already a registered member with his real name, David McDonald.[2]
- In Details magazine - July 1992 p52 Neil Tennant wrote a piece titled "Hated It", it closes with;
"The Pet Shop Boys have always hated most of the prevailing attitudes and tried to do the opposite. Our hatred of what other people do has always helped us redefine our actions. To hate a lot of things is tantamount to really caring about others. If you like everything, you deal with nothing. When people hear Chris and me talking, they're sometimes shocked by how negative we are. We're constantly critical of everything, including ourselves. But I come from a generation that liked its artists to say what was wrong with our lives. I retain the old-fashioned belief that pop music is meant to be a challenge to society as well as an affirmation of it. And so I consider it my duty to hate things."
[edit] References
- ^ Pet Shop Boys singer produces new album Rufus Wainwright
- ^ Shannon, Sarah. "David Tennant: His days of blissful anonymity are numbered", The Independent, 2005-12-07.
