In Depth Pet Shop Boys Podcast
Join Graham and Chris, two self-confessed Pet Shop Boys fans who wouldn't normally do this kind of thing, as they chat about everything PSB. From singles and albums to tours, sleeves, outfits, and remixes, they cover it all. If you're a fan of the world's greatest synth duo, this is the podcast for you. Subscribe now to never miss an episode.
Episodes
12RX046 Pete Gleadall
Pete Gleadall: The Third Pet Shop Boy?
For their first ever In Depth interview, Graham and Chris are joined by one of the most important figures in the Pet Shop Boys story: long-time collaborator, programmer, engineer and musical director, Pete Gleadall. From programming PSB’s very first tour in 1989 to shaping the sound of Dreamworld and Obscure, Pete has spent more than three decades helping Nei
12RX045 Singles
Graham and Chris celebrate episode 45 by turning their attention to a subject that has defined so much of Pet Shop Boys’ career: the single.
From the birth of the 7-inch 45rpm record and the golden age of chart countdowns to the streaming era, they explore how the pop single evolved across seven-inches, twelve-inches, cassingles, CD singles, and digital downloads, tracing four decades of changing
12RX044 A Man From the Future (pt2)
Graham and Chris go back to …The Future as Pet Shop Boys unveil the newly recorded and expanded version of their Alan Turing project. They explore Turing as an architect of artificial intelligence, and the tension between his pursuit of truth and today’s world of deepfakes, misinformation and machine‑generated confusion.
They celebrate the collaborators who bring the new recording to life: Sven H
12RX043 A Man From The Future (pt1)
Graham and Chris begin their deep dive into A Man From The Future - Pet Shop Boys’ ambitious musical portrait of Alan Turing. They trace the origins of the project from Andrew Hodges’ biography to the Proms premiere, exploring how Neil and Chris built a hybrid of orchestral writing, electronic textures and spoken‑word narrative. Along the way they revisit Turing’s childhood, schooldays, wartime br
12FL002 Trilingual (Bonus Content)
To mark 30 years of Bilingual, Graham and Chris unveil a bonus previously unreleased “further listening” segment from their double deep dive into the album. Here they explore its visual identity, packaging quirks, marketing strategy, and the critical reaction which greeted it on release.
It’s a compact companion to their full anniversary celebration episodes!
12RX042 Bilingual (parte 2)
Graham and Chris return to Bilingual for the second half of their deep dive - exploring how the album became a record of dualities: international yet introspective, sun-lit yet deep in shadow, Latin‑infused yet completely anchored in New York dance culture.
After revisiting the album’s many far-flung inspirations, they dig into how the record was actually made - and discover a fragmented process t
12RX041 Bilingual (parte 1)
Graham and Chris return to 1996 for the first half of their Bilingual exploration - a summer of Britpop swagger, Spice Girls hysteria, Euro ’96 euphoria, and their own very different lives in northern Britain.
They stand again at Pet Shop Boys’ post‑Very crossroads: older, out of step with the charts, paranoid about the rise of Pulp and Blur, yet still pushing forward as Before takes shape in New
12RX040 Summer
Pod Cast Boys celebrate their 40th episode by diving into 40 summers of Pet Shop Boys’ fandom - from bedroom mixtapes and sunlounger listening, to festivals, raves, summer jobs and water‑parks.
They revisit the summers that shaped them: 1986 camping trips spent listening to Opportunities, Algarve holidays soundtracked by It’s Alright, plastics‑factory glue fumes mixed with Can You Forgive Her?, Ma
12RX039 Museum
Graham and Chris open the doors to Pet Shop Boys Legacy - their fantasy museum celebrating over 40 summers of PSB history. From the pulsating Electric‑style entrance tunnel to the Newcastle and Blackpool origin story settings, they build an immersive world of childhood bookshelves, mind-expanding youth theatres, Pleasure Beach big wheels, tropical disco dancefloors and early synthesisers.
The tou
12RX038 Obscure: After the event
Episode 38 – Obscure: After the Event
United by a shared love of one band, Graham and Chris close Season Six with their most personal episode yet - a sun‑drenched, queue‑length, bladder‑testing, heart‑thumping deep dive into Pet Shop Boys’ Obscure concerts at Camden’s Electric Ballroom.
What begins as a simple “after the event” recap quickly becomes a full‑blown oral history of the week London tur
12RX037 Volume
With Volume - Pet Shop Boys’ complete visual history - finally landing, Graham and Chris open the book and step straight into four decades of meticulously crafted pop iconography. Using the anniversary of Please as their start point, they trace how the duo’s visual world was forged even before chart success.
They begin with their earliest photo shoots: Eric Watson’s ripped T‑shirts and tennis racq
12RX036 Obscure
With Pet Shop Boys preparing to dive deep into their catalogue for five intimate Obscure shows at Camden’s Electric Ballroom, Graham and Chris roll up their sleeves for their most forensic fan investigation yet: can two amateurs really predict the ultimate non‑singles setlist?
First they uncover the historical clues - the 40th anniversary of Please and a rediscovered 1986 photoshoot - before follo
12RX035 Please (pt2)
Graham and Chris return to 1986 for the second half of their 40th-anniversary Please deep dive, placing Pet Shop Boys’ debut into the wider world it landed in - Cold War tension, Chernobyl panic, post-Live Aid earnestness, brick-sized mobile phones and a pop landscape buzzing with the likes of A‑ha, Five Star and Madonna.
From there they go track‑by‑track, and enter Advision’s world of talking cal
12RX034 Please (pt1)
Unboxing the opening chapter of their 40th-anniversary super deluxe celebration of Please, Graham and Chris rewind to PSB Year Zero - the moment an “ex-Smash Hits journalist” met a “weird architect” and began politely reshaping pop. They trace the stories of five pivotal Please people who helped turn Neil and Chris into Pet Shop Boys: eight-track mentor Ray Roberts; Hi-NRG maverick Bobby O, maxima
12RX033 Electric
For their season finale, Graham and Chris go full‑throttle at Electric, the album that jolted Pet Shop Boys back into ‘banging and lasers’ mode — and inspired the Pod Cast Boys to embrace the same rule‑breaking, high‑voltage fun. Following Neil, Chris and Stuart Price’s alphabetical recording method, they present the full A–Z of Electric, diving into its wild mix of influences from Italo disco and
12FL001 Sarah Wise & The Resurrectionist
In the first instalment of what promises to be an occasional Further Listening series, Graham and Chris delve into the Pet Shop Boys’ b‑side and fan favourite The Resurrectionist. Joining them is historian and author Sarah Wise, whose acclaimed book The Italian Boy inspired Neil’s macabre lyric about 1830s body snatching and the grisly trade in corpses.
A devoted Pethead herself, Sarah reflects on
12RX032 Disco 5 (pt2)
It’s the second Disco 5 In Depth episode, and Graham and Chris’s wayward moves take them from the dancefloor to the art gallery - where they encounter orgasm addict Sam Taylor-Johnson and rodent fanatic Wolfgang Tillmans.
Meanwhile, at the Disco 5 launch party, it’s time for some difficult questions: would you rather be a live Sex Pistol or a dead Pet Shop Boy? Is Paul Weller gay? What did Olly d
12RX031 Disco 5 (pt1)
Disco 5 has landed, and Graham and Chris are remixing everything — even themselves. In part one of this two‑episode celebration, they rewind through the Disco series’ chaotic legacy, spar with Noel, redefine Tina, unmask Claptone, and spotlight Carroll Thompson, Soft Cell and The Hidden Cameras as they uncover surprising connections across Pet Shop Boys history. But - Disco Demolition alert - what
12RX030 "30"
In a special celebratory 30th episode, Graham and Chris countdown their favourite 30 Pet Shop Boys songs - each a new excuse to fall down the usual rabbit holes of stories and memories!
Girls Aloud, Tom Watkins, Dame Anna Neagle, Zelda Fitzgerald, Trevor Horn, TS Eliot and Kermit the Frog each make an appearance, and there’s also time to reappraise those negative reviews of Behaviour, the collaps
12RX029 Petheads
Graham and Chris celebrate 40 years of Pet Shop Boys fans and fandom with a special Petheads episode of In Depth!
Armed with nearly 100 lovingly-completed listener surveys, the stories and memories come thick and fast. From favourite songs and treasured items to fan creativity and real-life encounters with Neil and Chris themselves, they share your thoughts and feelings in a heartfelt first-of-it
12RX028 Halloween
Graham and Chris make a midnight return to the garden shed to unleash the full horror of the In Depth Halloween podcast!
As they exorcise the ghosts, vampires, skeletons and will-o-the-wisps haunting the Pet Shop Boys catalogue, unholy guest appearances abound - from Joan of Arc and Ed Gein to Count Dracula and Francisco Goya.
Expect a quest to uncover the spookiest PSB album, a chilling tally o
12RX027 Colours (Discography pt3)
There’s an end-of-term feel to the In Depth season finale as Chris subjects Graham to the full technicolour horror of the Pet Shop Boys “Colours” quiz!
With his co-hosting position on the line, Graham comes out fighting with some of his brightest, boldest Pet Shop facts to date. But with Chris moving the goalposts (“that’s indirect!”) and Graham getting increasingly desperate (“I’m going colour-a
12RX026 Discography (pt2)
In the second half of their Discography double bill, Graham and Chris dive “Double In Depth” into the remaining nine tracks.
The Introspective singles take them raving with Frankie Knuckles and the dawn of Acid House, while Behaviour sees them smoking about cigarettes and harping on about harps. There’s even chance for them to show off Graham’s amateur percussion skills, and Chris’s even more ama
12RX025 Discography (pt1)
Graham and Chris celebrate the blue vinyl reissue of double album Discography by going “Double In Depth” to trade some of their most obscure facts yet.
From the first record alone, they unearth early draft lyrics, an old BBC Two documentary, an Elvis TV special, the 1988 UK singles chart, and Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine - while also examining the roles of both the saxophone and Pink Floyd
12RX24 Love
Whether it’s a catastrophe or a bourgeois construct, Pet Shop Boys have much to say on love.
And so do Graham and Chris - first putting their own love for the band under the microscope to try and uncover where love becomes obsession. Then comes the lyrical deep-dive, unpicking all the ways Neil “Man of Mystery” Tennant crafts a love song, before Chris “Intense Urges” Lowe derails things and we al
12RX023 Actually (pt 2)
In their second Actually episode, Graham and Chris unearth the stories behind some of Pet Shop Boys’ most loved songs, with tales of paranoia, privatisation, puppets and Pavarotti.
There’s a comprehensive breakdown of inspirations and collaborators - from Bobby O and Ennio to Cameo and Gazebo - and analysis of everything, including the kitchen sink.
By the time the last train pulls out of King’s
12RX022 Actually (pt 1)
In the latest of their album deep-dives, Graham and Chris rewind life’s cassette to summer 1987 to set the scene for the arrival of Actually.
Graham’s teenage diary shines new light on the headlines and music charts of the day, before the album’s upfront singles are comprehensively unpacked, with a little help from Jonathan King (boo!) and Ed the Duck (hurrah!).
After deconstructing the sleeve a
12RX021 Achievements
Graham and Chris turn TV hosts to present a special edition of This Is Your Life, calling out Pet Shop Boys’ 10 greatest achievements from the famed Big Red Book.
Career highs recalled include having their first 12” available in Soho’s Record Shack, rescuing Dusty and aiding the drive to pardon Alan Turing, as well as subverting UK institutions and rubbing shoulders with Hollywood royalty.
There
12RX020 Dreamworld
With the tour that nearly never began now threatening never to end, Graham and Chris don their robo-tuning-fork-rabbit-ears to consider what Pet Shop Boys fans really want from a greatest hits show.
Deep cuts are welcome - unless it’s to the singer’s thumb.
Stories are shared from Hull, Rome, Koko and Funny Girls, and there’s talk of theme parks, toilet breaks, inflatable beds and popstar dreams
12RX019 Nonetheless (pt2)
In the second part of their Nonetheless double-bill, Graham and Chris go track-by-track, meeting a cast of characters along the way including James Ford, Rudolf Nureyev, Oscar Wilde, Les Petites Bon-Bons, Bowie, Cardi B, Brandon, Kylie, Putin, Ted Lasso, Kraftwerk, Tracey Emin, Spitting Image, and Taylor Swift.
There’s also time to discuss first plays, formats and nudity in PSB lyrics, before get
12RX018 Nonetheless (pt1)
In the first part of a new album double-bill, Graham and Chris inadvertently go so In Depth talking about Nonetheless, they don’t even have time to talk about Nonetheless.
Nonetheless, there’s loads to say on life since Hotspot and the excitement of the campaign build up, including Pet Shop Boys on both big and small screens, singles, artwork, fonts, photos, titles, labels, haircuts, Johnny Marr,
12RX017 London
“Let’s do it, let’s break the law!”
In an In Depth first, Graham and Chris leave the (un)comfort of the garden shed to take the train to London on a Very Big Pet Shop Boys adventure.
Visiting places immortalised in PSB history and song lyrics, the podcast pair stop off at classic PSB landmarks to nurse their blisters, download their journey and recall London gigs and events attended over the yea
12RX016 Nightlife
Graham and Chris set the controls to 1999 to immerse themselves in one of Pet Shop Boys’ most polarising releases.
Echoing Nightlife’s celebration of both night owls and homebirds, Chris’s nocturnal flashbacks cover Creamfields and culottes, while Graham settles down to experience a total (solar) eclipse of the heart.
Fright wigs, goths, vampires, insomnia, early internet fandom and the small ma
12RX15 Neil
Graham and Chris answer the killer question “who’s your favourite Pet Shop Boy?” by attempting to curate a complete history of “early Neil”.
From a hatred of football to a love of the theatre, In Depth gets under the skin of Neil’s childhood influences which helped shape the PSB sound and attitude.
Plus: Beatles! Bowie! Zithers and whimsy! Never-ending redundancy money and what were the key fact
12RX14 40
Pet Shop Boys don’t like to look backwards, but Graham and Chris are more than happy to do it on their behalf. Season three kicks off by marking 40 years of PSB recordings with a forensic examination of the catalogue, in a quest to spot those key tracks which helped propel them forward. From Please to Nonetheless, In Depth makes the case for 15 songs which signposted where Neil and Chris would ven
12RX012a Christmas
In a surprise festive episode, Graham and Chris timewarp to 1987 to revisit “peak Pet Shop Boys Christmas”.
With a cassette of Bruno Brookes’ Christmas chart countdown and Graham’s teenage diary as map and compass, Television and Annually are re-unwrapped, Going Live rewatched and the thrill of our heroes’ finest chart victory re-lived.
But will Always on my mind still be number one in Chris’s arb
12RX012 Chris
Graham and Chris answer the killer question “who’s your favourite Pet Shop Boy” by taking an In Depth look at what makes the world’s coolest synth icon tick.
Along the way, the conversation visits Blackpool, honours Issey Miyake, consults Smash Hits and celebrates Mr Lowe’s most famous strops. Plus; from playing the keytar and the trombone to even writing the odd tune - Graham and Chris attempt to
12RX011 Collaboration
Recognising it often takes more than two Pet Shop Boys to change a lightbulb, Graham and Chris go In Depth on PSB musical collaborations.
From Bobby O’s Passion to Harold Faltermeyer’s abattoir, producers and remixers past, present and future come under the podcast microscope. There are deep-dives on Dusty and Electronic, and tales of Glastonbury and Hyde Park before, to conclude the season, Graha
12RX010 Yes
Graham and Chris take a deep-dive into Pet Shop Boys’ 2009 album Yes, to rediscover a soundtrack of love, trust and hope set against a backdrop of financial crisis and global turmoil.
As well as celebrating the songs, the sleeves, the clothes and the Brits, there’s time for Graham to take the “real people named in PSB songs” quiz, and for Chris to share a new take on a classic bedtime story.
You c
12RX009 Films
Graham and Chris order in the oysters and 1942 Chateau Latour to relive the highs and horrors of Pet Shop Boys’ cinematic landmark It Couldn’t Happen Here, before descending into a discussion that proves, from lyrics to videos, that films are a major PSB influence.
Chris shares what he’s learned from the internet’s foremost James Cagney and Nosferatu fans while Graham battles with a game of “ident
12RX008 Archive
Graham pays a visit to Chris’s inner sanctum, where together they explore his Pet Shop Boys collection and share memories and stories about the music and memorabilia they unearth.
Along the way, Graham reveals his most embarrassing PSB coach trip and Chris makes a surreal case for the world’s most Pet Shop Boys’ bridge. But which personalised 1992 PSB item does Graham own which Chris doesn’t?
You
12RX007 Relentless
Graham and Chris quickly rework their podcast plans to celebrate the surprise reissue of Relentless, transporting themselves back to the early 90s to go song-by-song through Pet Shop Boys’ secret six-tracker.
There’s also time to get bang up-to-date, and string together the clues that have been dropped around the forthcoming new album. From Russian ballerinas to GarageBand to analogue synths, Gra
12DJ0S2 Season 2 Promotion
We’re back, back, BACK!
Just a note to let you know that we have finished recording another six Pet Shop Boys In Depth podcasts - the first episode of Season 2 will be out on FRIDAY 27 OCTOBER, marking the exciting 30th anniversary reissue of Relentless.
We’ve learned loads since the two of us first met back in February and launched In Depth in May. As complete podcast novices, we’ve been bowled
12RX006 Lyrically
We wind up season one of In Depth with a look at some of Neil’s favourite lyrical themes, or “Tennant's Tropes”. Graham then turns quizmaster to expose Chris’s lack of lyrical knowledge, before a final study of PSB album closers uncovers that, just like in Shakespeare, you’re never far away from a wedding or a funeral.
You can get bonus content and contact Graham and Chris on Twitter here:
@InDep
12RX005 Pivoting
Graham and Chris discuss Behaviour, Release and Elysium and pose the question: are these the three most important albums in Pet Shop Boys’ catalogue? En route, Graham shares his Uni Tour memories and Chris predicts what a James Ford produced PSB album might sound like.
Get bonus content and contact Graham and Chris on Twitter here: @InDepthPSBPod
Listen to the music discussed in the episode her
12RX004 SMASH
To coincide with the release of the new Pet Shop Boys’ singles compilation SMASH, Graham and Chris go In Depth on PSB’s greatest hits, past and present - including the nail-biting debut of the SMASH disc two versus SMASH disc three game. There’s also time for an appraisal of the new Lost EP.
Get bonus content and contact Graham and Chris on Twitter here: @InDepthPSBPod
Listen to the music di
12RX003 Progressively
Graham and Chris puzzle over Introspective’s extended track times, eclectic instrumentation and out-there sleeve and address the question no-one else is asking: is Introspective really a secret prog rock album? Among their findings they reveal the inspiration behind the famous Introspective stripes.
Get bonus content and contact Graham and Chris on Twitter here: @InDepthPSBPod
Listen to the mus
12RX002 Wishlists
In this second episode, Graham and Chris - while grateful for almost 40 years of Pet Shop Boys' output - discuss the items that are still on their wishlists.
They share their fantasy PSB reissues, dream concert setlists and venues, the catalogue gaps they’d like to see filled - and there’s some speculation about some of their favourite unreleased song titles.
Get bonus content and contact Graham
12RX001 Introductions
In Depth is the podcast for Pet Shop Boys fans, created by two fans from the north of England who wouldn’t normally do this kind of thing.
In this first introductory episode, Graham and Chris discuss their favourite PSB introductions, reminisce about how they were first introduced to PSB music, and share some of the things they’ve been introduced to as a result of orbiting planet PSB.
The pair h
12DJ0S1 Season 1 Promotion
Join Graham and Chris for a brand new podcast for Pet Shop Boys fans all over the world. Celebrating 40 years of amazing music from the world’s greatest synthpop duo, In Depth will go all the way with fan analysis, debate and crazy theories. Singles, albums, tours, sleeves, outfits, remixes, collaborations - we’re planning on covering it all.
Subscribe now and never miss an episode.
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