By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Wednesday 31 January 2024, also showing in selected cinemas Sunday 4 February 2024

‘A Friday night in Copenhagen – what could be better?’ asks Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant as the duo follow Taylor Swift and Beyonce into cinemas.

• Read on for reasons including how some of the band’s greatest hits have recently featured in films

Directed by David Barnard using 14 cameras this is a recording of a July 2023 gig that is part of an ongoing tour that we reviewed at London’s 02 and as the highlight of 2022’s Glastonbury Festival.

With Taylor Swift’s Eras and Beyonce’s Renaissance tours proving such big hits in the world’s cinemas, it should be no surprise that the Pet Shop Boys follow suit with their Dreamworld: Greatest Hits tour arriving at a cinema near you in January and February.

This cinema release marks a period of considerable activity for the duo who have re-signed to the Parlophone label which oversaw the band’s biggest commercial successes, release a fine new single Loneliness this week (see raunchy video below) from a new album Nonetheless out 26 April ahead of a July run of gigs at London’s Royal Opera House.

Both new single and album are plugged in a trailer ahead of this film but neither of them features there.

How is the gig-viewing experience in a cinema? Well, our Greenwich Picturehouse showing is sparsely-filled but there is a bar opposite the screen which appears to be popular.

We described the tour back in May 2022 as ‘certainly the most visually striking performance we’ve ever seen the band give with designer Tom Scutt (Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club at the Playhouse Theatre) creating a spectacle for the eyes that sets the bar incredibly high for other arena shows’.

Viewing it through cinema eyes, Neil and keyboard player Chris Lowe are static during the 1st 2 songs and wearing masks which makes eye contact obscured and offers a challenging visual experience.

But as we are introduced to the 3-strong band who were initially playing behind a screen, the event opens up and the concept of moving from suburbia, to the world and out into the universe comes to life.

Pet Shop Boys greatest hits have been used particularly memorably in recent films including Saltburn (the atmospheric Rent video plays on the screen behind the band here) and Always On My Mind‘s very moving use in the recent All Of Us Strangers.

Watching a gig on a cinema screen is obviously no substitute for actually being there but it does allow for a bird’s eye view and at a time when demand for tickets is high and not everyone can see every act they want to, these sorts of cinema releases should be encouraged.

Did we enjoy it? Absolutely.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Pet Shop Boys
• Have you seen Pet Shop Boys before and are what did you think of this film? Tickets
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