Fundamental Tour

The Fundamental Tour (also known as Fundamental Live) was a concert tour by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. The tour supported the group's ninth studio album, '' Fundamental'' (2006). Beginning in June 2006, the trek played over 100 dates in Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia. The tour lasted over 17 months.

Background and itinerary

2006

The Fundamental Tour kicked off in June 2006 in Skien, Norway, for the first of three dates in Scandinavia, followed by a headline appearance before a crowd of 19,000 at the Santander Summer Festival in Spain. The first stop in the UK was at the Tower of London for two shows at an open-air music festival in the old moat. The tour visited a number of other festivals in Europe, including headline spots at Exit in Serbia, the Melt Festival in Germany, Creamfields Andalucia in Spain, and Bestival on the Isle of Wight, plus a performance in Thetford Forest in England as part of the Forest Live concert series.

In October and November 2006, the tour travelled to North America, with dates in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The production was longer than the summer shows and was presented in two parts with an interval. The tour coincided with the US release of '' PopArt: The Hits'', which had been available in the UK and elsewhere since 2003. The concert at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City was filmed and released on DVD in 2007 as ''Cubism''.

On New Year's Eve, Pet Shop Boys were scheduled to perform at a Hogmanay celebration in Edinburgh, but the festivities were cancelled due to a severe storm.

2007

The first stop of the Fundamental Tour of 2007 was on 5 January at the Cee'd Winter Festival in Madrid, which also featured local electropop band Fangoria. In March, a new leg of the tour began in South America. The set design was streamlined for easier transport, replacing the original cube structure with a screen.

Travelling to New Zealand for the first time, the tour group's plane was nearly hit by meteorites, although they were unaware of it at the time. In Australia, they played in four locations for the V Festival and the Best of V Festival, plus an additional full-length performance in Sydney.

After a stop in Norway at the end of April for Bergenfest, the production toured Europe from May through August, covering the Baltics and playing multiple dates in Germany as well as the UK. Festival stops included the Garden Party in Ireland, the Eden Sessions in Cornwall, and Newmarket Nights at the Newmarket Racecourse. The tour also travelled to Asia for Singfest in Singapore and two dates in Japan for the Summer Sonic Festival. The only scheduled US date in 2007, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, was cancelled, citing "logistical issues".

In October, Dainton Connell, long-time friend and colleague of Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant, died in a car crash in Moscow. A concert in Romania was rescheduled so the duo could attend his funeral, and a date in Moscow was also postponed but ended up cancelled due to elections in Russia. Other scheduled concerts went on as planned. They played back-to-back festivals in Spain at Fiestas del Pilar in Zaragoza and the Asics Music Festival in Barcelona, followed up by an appearance at the Greenspace Festival in Valencia. The Some Days Never End series at the Irish Museum of Modern Art focused on the connection between art and music. The last show of the Fundamental Tour was the rescheduled Romanian date on 25 November 2007.

Production

Set and lighting

The Fundamental Tour was designed by Es Devlin, who had also designed the Pet Shop Boys' musical, '' Closer to Heaven'' (2001). The original set featured a large cube that could be divided into separate panels and rearranged into different configurations. Neon borders framed the cube sections. Interior compartments covered in semitransparent material were used by the performers; for example, on "Rent" (1987), Tennant sang in silhouette on the lower level with a dancer above.

A streamlined version of the set was created in 2007 due to the logistics of touring to South America, Australia, and New Zealand. The cube was replaced with a two-dimensional screen. Drapes and a framework of LED tubes were used to change the size and shape.

Lighting and projections enhanced the set. Lighting designer Carl Burnett created a theatrical, 1980s superclub look using overhead and floor lights as well as backlighting the screen. There was no spotlight on Lowe at his request. Imagery included net curtains for "Suburbia" (1986) and the funeral procession of Diana, Princess of Wales during "Dreaming of the Queen" (1993).

Giant cutouts of the duo's heads were brought onstage for "Always on My Mind" (1987), with dancers in different headdresses emerging from behind them in a routine that also featured a dancing top hat.

Costumes

Pet Shop Boys' look for the Fundamental Tour was a "stylized version of normal". The duo's main wardrobe was by Hedi Slimane for Dior Homme. Lowe had a fluorescent yellow hoodie, and Tennant wore a black tailcoat, which he accessorised with a top hat.

During the opening number, "God Willing" (2006), two performers emerged from the cube, one in a yellow hoodie and the other in a tailcoat and top hat; they were followed by two more, also in identical clothes, before Lowe and Tennant made their entrance.

Throughout the show, the supporting players wore a variety of costumes to suit the music, including dark hoodies for "Suburbia", suits for "Shopping" (1987), and gold lamé cowboy outfits for " Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)" (1991). Performing "Domino Dancing" (1988), the dancers wore vintage basketball jerseys of 1980s Denver Nuggets player Alex English. For "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show" (2006), the cast wore military gear while Tennant wore a dress uniform with medals. Jeffrey Bryant was the tour's costume designer and wardrobe coordinator.

Music and performance

The performance featured two dancers—Ivan "Swan" Blackstock and Nathan Holliday—and a pair of backing singers—Nick Clow and Andy Love—along with frequent Pet Shop Boys guest vocalist Sylvia Mason-James. Hakeem Onibudo was the choreographer.

Tennant introduced the show as an evening of "electronic entertainment". The expanded performance that premiered in North America in the autumn of 2006 was around two hours long with a 20-minute intermission, which was announced with a recording by Ian McKellen.

Lowe's keyboard setup included a Korg Triton with a pair of Access Virus rackmount modules. Tennant used a Shure SM58 microphone with Ultimate E5 brand in-ear monitors. He played acoustic guitar on "Home and Dry" (2002). A bass player and drummer joined the duo onstage for "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show". The backing vocalists, featuring Sylvia Mason-James, performed "So Hard" (1990) to lead off the encore.

The set list featured song pairings by theme or style, such as " Minimal" (2006) and "Shopping", with their titles spelled out in the chorus as well as on the screens, and the Latin sound of "Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)" (1996) blending with "Domino Dancing". On the second year of the tour, some changes were made. A cover version of the self-referential "We're the Pet Shop Boys" (2003) replaced "Psychological" (2006) as the first song after the intro, and Lowe performed his solo number, "Paninaro" (1986). "Being Boring" (1990) appeared as an addition to the usual encore of "It's a Sin" (1987) and " Go West" (1993).

Critical reception

Reviewing the May 2007 show at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, Richard Clayton of the ''Financial Times'' commented: "... Pet Shop Boys are a great British double-act. Their costumes may change but the dynamic remains the same: vocalist Neil Tennant's urbane sophisticate supported by the stage surliness of Chris Lowe, glowering behind his synthesizer. They realised long ago that this image is a kind of trademark, and it's the point of departure for all their visually vibrant performances".

Of the same show, Lisa Verrico of ''The Times'' wrote: "For their first British tour in five years, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe returned to the camp costumes, daft dance moves and sheer silliness of their heyday and pulled off perhaps the slickest show of their two decade-plus career. Live, Pet Shop Boys' problem has always been their lack of activity on stage… This time… they had dancing doppelgangers to do the hard graft, a surreal sight in itself, and opted for a mix of musical theatre and disco".

Fixed seating presented an issue in some venues. At the Boston Opera House, Billy Callaghan of Edge Media Network observed: "Unlike the dancing which would have taken place at a club such as Avalon, at the Opera House the crowd seemed uncertain about what to do for most of the night. By the time the band ended their entertaining hour and 40-minute show with It’s a Sin, and the rousing anthem, Go West, any doubt had subsided and the crowd was on its feet dancing and singing along. At last!" Christopher Porter of ''The Washington Post'' noted a similar situation at the "posh venue" Constitution Hall, adding: "But far too few in the crowd seemed to know the songs from "Fundamental," and the tracks "Psychological" and "Minimal" kept the audience sitting on their hands. Whenever the classics came out, however, the crowd found its dancing shoes".

Set list

Tour dates

Cancellations and rescheduled shows

Box office score data

Personnel

Adapted from the credits of ''Cubism'' (Rhino, 2007).

Pet Shop Boys
*Neil Tennant
*Chris Lowe

Dancers
*Nathan Holliday
*Ivan "Swan" Blackstock

Singers
*Sylvia Mason-James
*Nick Clow
*Andy Love

Creative and tour personnel
*Pete Gleadall – musical director
*Es Devlin – creative direction, set design
*Hakeem Onibudo – choreography
*Jeffrey Bryant – costume design, wardrobe
*Hedi Slimane (Dior Homme) – Pet Shop Boys' wardrobe
*Andy Crookston – tour manager
*Joe Sanchez – production manager
*Carl Burnett – lighting design
*Tom Fleming – lighting technician
*Dave Waldon – lighting technician
*Dan Curley – lighting board operator
*Julien Hogg – screens operator
*Colin Boland – theatre sound
*Seamus Fenton – stage monitors
*Ben Adams – MIDI tech
*Jim Webb – head set carpenter
*Tom Keane – set carpenter

Concert film

The show was filmed at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico on 14 November 2006, and was released on DVD format as ''Cubism'' in 2007.

External links

Pet Shop Boys tour archive
– official website.


– Commentary by Wayne Studer, PhD Interpretations and analyses of every song written or performed by Pet Shop Boys

References

{{Pet Shop Boys

2006 concert tours
2007 concert tours
Pet Shop Boys concert tours