Pet Shop Boys’ astonishing life in 2,857 pictures – traffic cone hats to edgy make-up

Exclusive:

Still inspiring generations of fans to plonk orange traffic cones on their heads, the Pet Shop Boys are celebrating 40 years since the release of their first album Please

Together, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe – the Pet Shop Boys – have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. But three-time Brit Award winner Neil, 71, says: “People, of course, are still wearing those hats. We just came back from Chile and there are people standing in audiences in Santiago and Chile wearing pointy hats. Fantastic.

“That’s because David Fielding was the original designer. These dunces’ caps, which is such an ancient Victorian idea – it was a very, very strong visual idea. It’s why, even to this day, people will pick up a traffic cone and put them on their heads …we kind of own traffic cones!”

The orange and white zebra striped hats, made famous in their 1993 video for Can You Forgive Her? from the album Very, can be seen in a stunning new 592-page book – Pet Shop Boys Volume – marking 40 years since Please, which captures the band’s entire visual output from 1984.

With new sleeve notes from Neil and Chris, it features 2,857 images, including original album and single artwork, video stills, film and performance images, stage sets, costumes, photoshoots and merchandise.

A veritable pop encyclopaedia, Neil flinches at the notion of it becoming a coffee table book, saying: “I don’t like coffee table books. They are, in effect, coffee tables. It always bugs me, people come to my house and put coffee and glasses on top of them, you know? But with this book, you can certainly sit in an armchair and read it.”
Please included The Pet Shop Boys’ breakthrough hit West End Girls and eighties anthems Suburbia, Love Comes Quickly and Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money).

*Pet Shop Boys Volume, by Thames & Hudson, is out April 7 priced £40. The paperback version of Neil Tennant’s book One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem is out now.