Tennant simply sent him an email: My name is Neil Tennant. I am half of the British pop duo the Pet Shop Boys. I would like to get in touch with Torsten Rasch to see if he would be interested in collaborating with us on a project mixing electronic and orchestral music. <\/p>\n
Rasch agreed, although at first the collaboration stuttered a little. \u201cHe thought our music was very repetitive,\u201d Tennant says. And Lowe and Tennant found Rasch\u2019s initial orchestrations far too dissonant. But over time they found a productive middle ground. Then, after several delays and crises as sponsorship fell through, a date for the Trafalgar Square performance was set: September 12, 2004.<\/p>\n
![\"Large](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/6020baf4-bfff-40dc-a834-8f9839fac2a3.jpg\")
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The screening in Trafalgar Square<\/p>\n
ANDRE CAMARA FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES<\/p>\n
On the afternoon of the premiere, the Pet Shop Boys prepared to soundcheck. They took their places next to the orchestra, behind a light mesh screen: thin enough to be seen through but thick enough to catch the light of the film projection at night. <\/p>\n
Afterwards they walked to a nearby hotel \u2014 \u201cHow did we end up doing this?\u201d Lowe muttered \u2014 where, in a typical Pet Shop Boys divergence, Tennant walked up the hotel stairs while Lowe took the lift.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Pet Shop Boys live review \u2014 high-end, hit-packed pop spectacle<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Soon it was time for a press conference. What did this project mean to the Pet Shop Boys, compared with their other work, someone asked. \u201cWell, it represents a big challenge for us,\u201d Tennant began. \u201cThe film itself is quite romantic and hard-hitting, and with the music we\u2019ve tried to bring out those aspects, and also to bring out the emotion of it \u2014 the excitement, the horror, the freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGood answer,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cGold star.\u201d<\/p>\n They retired to separate rooms to rest and get dressed. At the allotted time Lowe appeared in Tennant\u2019s room, full of cheery fatalism. \u201cOh, we might as well go out in style,\u201d he declared. \u201cIt was always a very foolish idea.\u201d<\/p>\n About 25,000 people had gathered in Trafalgar Square. Tennant would later quote someone\u2019s observation that \u201cit must have been the biggest audience there\u2019s ever been for silent film in Britain\u201d. It had been difficult to imagine quite how it was going to work \u2014 a huge crowd watching a silent Russian film in one of the busiest parts of London while music pulsed and cascaded over them. The reality was just as difficult to describe, except to say that people seemed captivated.<\/p>\n The Pet Shop Boys are on their Dreamworld tour \u2014 the longest in their four-decade career<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really a very moving occasion to be standing on the stage,\u201d Tennant recalls. \u201cWe were under the screen with the orchestra, and you could see all these heads looking up at the film, and this drizzle, and the light. There was a very powerful sense of occasion \u2014 and meanwhile the buses were going past.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/ca62e2c6-b8bc-41e9-b984-201b1744e0dd.jpg\")
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