Festival Review: Pet Shop Boys’ ‘A Man From The Future’

The first of the late-night BBC Proms kicked off in style last night (July 23), with a much-anticipated performance by legendary electro-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. The pair used the opportunity to premiere their musical tribute to WWII code breaker Alan Turing, which has been years in the making.

The first section of the evening was the live premiere of Overture to Performance, the Broadway-style orchestral medley commissioned by the boys for their 1991 world tour, which filled London’s historic Royal Albert Hall with moments of brassy bombast and lighter moments of melody, weaving through nine of their classic hits. This was followed by Four Songs in A Minor – orchestral versions of Love Is A Catastrophe, Later Tonight, Vocal and Rent – all arranged by Angelo Badalamenti (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks) and performed by Chrissie Hynde, a favourite of the boys, who looked resplendent in a white tailcoat. This was not a selection of ‘greatest hits’ as the occasional Pet Shop Boys fan might imagine them, but something much more particular, and thematically-linked to the evening, set off wonderfully by Hynde’s distinctive vocals.

Finally, the evening culminated in A Man From The Future. The music – for orchestra, electronics and chamber choir – was written by the Pet Shop Boys, with text from Turing’s biographer Andrew Hodges, read throughout the performance by renowned actress Juliet Stevenson.

The piece broke down into eight sections, each depicting a pivotal moment in Turing’s life; from his arrival at Cambridge, to his work at Bletchley Park, his conviction for indecency, and finally his tragic suicide. The orchestra and electronics followed the feelings and pulses of his story, and perfectly imitated the tones of the spoken word text: from swelling strings which accompanied his early romance, to big band sounds for a party he attended in the 1940s – then electronic morse code sounds for the Enigma years, to dramatic orchestral doom as the choir chanted his 1952 sentence like a Greek chorus. The part of the choir tended to stick to one or two lines for each section, as they bellowed the phrase that best summed up that part of the story. Neil Tennant fell fairly unnoticed among the singers, while Chris Lowe – clad as ever in jeans, tracksuit top and baseball hat – manned the decks.

The conclusion of the piece was that Alan Turing had been “a man from the future”, who “imagined a life with computers, where homosexuality is normal”, and the text paid tribute to the thousands of other men convicted for being gay who are yet to receive a pardon like Turing’s.

This Prom was a real treat not just for fans of the Pet Shop Boys and followers of the Alan Turing story, but also for anyone who appreciates the diversity which now flows through the once very traditional BBC Proms season. It was a reminder of how maverick the Pet Shop Boys are, and of the unique contribution they make to music, art, and wider culture. It’s hard to place this piece in terms of operas and oratorios, but it is apparent that if Neil and Chris didn’t move to make an electronically-fuelled, modern musical biography in this style, no one else really could.

Listen back to the Pet Shop Boys’ entire BBC Proms performance on the BBC iPlayer.