Pet Shop Boys at The O2...

Last night Stuart and I (and the world and his husband) went to see the Pet Shop Boys at The O2 Arena in London's glitzy North Greenwich. And what a dazzling show it was.

The much-delayed gig was billed as Dreamworld - The Greatest Hits Live and it didn't disappoint. It certainly had lots of hits - from the laconic You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk to the crowd-pleasing It's a Sin.

Taking to the stage at 8:20pm the Boys performed for a little under two hours. It was uninterrupted music but with few of the usual costume changes. Sadly, for me there were none of the wonderfully bonkers costumes from previous shows. In fact, the show was a fairly straightforward one. A linear rendition of the songs with a bit of back projection thrown in. Not that that took away from the songs of course that are all winners. But it was a little disappointing having seen them do such amazing productions at their Tower of London gig in 2006, their O2 Arena show back in 2013, and again at the Royal Opera House shows both in 2016 and again in 2018. But with Covid-19 still echoing through many touring productions - productions that were being planned way back in deep lockdown times - like The Human League's earlier in the year - having more pared down shows is perhaps inevitable for a while.

That said, the graphics were great. And Neil was in fine voice. A great night out. Mostly*.

Here's the full set list:-
Suburbia
Can You Forgive Her?
Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)
Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)
Rent
I Don't Know What You Want but I Can't Give It Any More
So Hard
Left to My Own Devices
Single-Bilingual / Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)
Domino Dancing
Monkey Business
New York City Boy
You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk
Jealousy
Love Comes Quickly
Losing My Mind (Stephen Sondheim cover)
Always on My Mind (Gwen McCrae cover)
Dreamland
Heart
What Have I Done to Deserve This?
It's Alright (Sterling Void cover)
Vocal
Go West (Village People cover)
It's a Sin

Encore:
West End Girls
Being Boring


*On a sourer note we were treated pretty badly by the O2 Arena staff. They were really rude to us when going in. No football shirts allowed. OK... why? My mate in an Arsenal top too was refused entry entirely. Luckily Stu had a jacket I could borrow. When challenged they had no reason to not let us in.
Then at our seat the heavy-handed front of house staff kept pulling our phones down even though 20,000 other people were talking photos and videos behind us. We were low hanging fruit for them as they could not be asked to wade further into the seating to stop others. Bloody annoying. Moan over.