WATCH: The mega successful 80s pop duo Pet Shop Boys delight Belfast audience with classic tracks

An estimated audience of 5,500 people at the SSE Arena roared their appreciation as the singer Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe played hits from the 1980s, when they were formed and rose to rapid success, as well as more recent songs.

The synth-pop outfit have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, and are listed as the best-selling two-piece outfit in British musical history.

The two-hour set included the hits Suburbia, Opportunities, Always on my Mind and West End Girls.

The audience was of a wide age range and included an A-Level student Orla Millard from North Down who is a huge fan of the Pet Shop Boys and New Wave pop music that emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s.

She said the show was “phenomenal … everything was amazing, I even cried”.

Tennant turns 70 next month and Lowe will be 65 later in the year but their energy levels seemed easily capable for a two-hour concert in front of an adoring audience.

Their Dreamworld tour is moving on from Belfast to Spain and then the Isle of Wight festival, then the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic and other countries before returning to the UK for a string of dates in the Royal Opera House late next month.

According to Wikipedia, Tennant and Lowe met in a hi-fi shop in Chelsea, London in 1981 after the former purchased a synthesizer which sparked a conversation with Lowe.

Ticketmaster says that they “bonded quickly over a shared love of synthesizers and dance music and formed a band, adopting their moniker in honour of some friends who worked in a pet shop. Their first single, West End Girls, was moderately successful in the US in 1984 but failed to make a dent on the UK charts.

“Following another single, One More Chance, the band signed to EMI and released their third single Opportunity (Let’s Make Lots Of Money), but it also failed to gain traction in the UK. However, partnering the band with producer Stephen Hague resulted in pure alchemy as their hugely successful new version of West End Girls became the band’s first UK No.1 single. In 2020, it was named by The Guardian as the best UK No.1 single of all time.

“Their ensuing debut album, Please, entered the UK top ten, as did the single Suburbia. The duo’s second album, Actually, continued this fine run of form, yielding two more superhits in the shape of It’s A Sin – their second No.1 single – and What Have I Done To Deserve This?, which saw Tennant duetting with Dusty Springfield. The song had originally been written for the band’s first album but Tennant refused to record it with anyone other than the elusive Springfield, who finally accepted his invitation on the strength of the band’s first album.

In 1987, the band performed a cover of Elvis Presley’s Always On My Mind for an ITV special. Later released as a single, it became another huge hit for the band, fending off The Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York in the battle for the coveted UK Christmas No.1 spot. The following year, Tennant and Lowe released their third album, Introspective, which was yet another success and contained the singles Domino Dancing and Left To My Own Devices, alongside their cover of Always On My Mind.”