King’s Road, Chelsea19 August 1981Part: a connector
Read the bands: 1981, King’s Road, Chelsea. Tennant, in for a synthesiser connector, meets Chris Lowe in a hi-fi shop. Go there
Two people met over a hi-fi shop counter in Chelsea and wrote their way to number one on both sides of the Atlantic. Each band on the resistor is a digit in the standard colour code; when the four spell a year, the place opens. Photographs from the 1980s are not free to use, so the two are shown as they were on stage in 2006 and 2007.
Chelsea · 19 August 1981
Part · connector · Korg MS-10
On 19 August 1981 Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met by chance in an electronics shop on the King’s Road and found they shared a love of dance music.
The shop was the Chelsea Record Centre, a hi-fi shop at 203 King’s Road. Tennant had come in for a connector for a Korg MS-10 synthesiser he had bought. They began writing together, first as West End and then as Pet Shop Boys, a name taken from friends who worked in a pet shop in Ealing.
A public shopping street. Walk it from Sloane Square to number 203.
Sloane Square, Chelsea, London · Single rooms from 105.60, doubles from 140.80 (rates as listed, before dates)
A small hotel on Sloane Square, where the King’s Road begins, with rooms over the square or Holy Trinity Church.
Check rooms
Lead 1 · Chris Lowe
Blackpool, then architecture in Liverpool.
Lowe, born in Blackpool on 4 October 1959, began architecture at Liverpool University in 1978; in 1981 and 1982 he worked at a London practice on a staircase for an industrial development in Milton Keynes.
Lead 2 · Neil Tennant
Neil Francis Tennant was born in North Shields, Northumberland, on 10 July 1954.
He went to St Cuthbert’s Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1970 and 1971 he played in Dust, a Newcastle group influenced by the Incredible String Band. Tennant had worked in publishing since 1975, at Marvel Comics, Macdonald Educational and ITV Books, and joined Smash Hits in June 1982.
A town on the north bank of the Tyne, near its mouth. No house is named or pinned.
New York and Brixton · 1983 to 1984
19 · 08 · 1981King’s Roadbrown white grey brown
19 · 08 · 1983The Apple Jack, New Yorkbrown white grey orange
Unique Recording, Times Square · Just off Times Square, Manhattan, New York
On 19 August 1983, two years to the day after the King’s Road meeting, Tennant and Orlando shared a cheeseburger and carrot cake at a restaurant called the Apple Jack. Flattered, Orlando offered to make a record with them.
In August 1983 Smash Hits sent Tennant to New York to interview the Police. The pair were obsessed with records by the New York producer Bobby Orlando. Orlando’s West End Girls was recorded at Unique Recording Studios in New York and released in April 1984; in Britain it was only an import 12-inch. It was a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco and a small hit in France and Belgium.
Unique filled the top three floors of the Cecil B. DeMille Building, just off Times Square, from 1978 until June 2004. In March 1985 they signed to Parlophone; Orlando gave up his contract for royalties on future sales.
The studio closed in 2004. Times Square is public; the studio’s building was just off it.
October 1984 · Brixton Road, Brixton
The Fridge opened in 1981 and moved in 1982 to a room above an Iceland shop on Brixton Road. In 1984 its owners took a lease on a 1913 cinema on Town Hall Parade; the new Fridge opened there on 7 June 1985. The club closed on 17 March 2010. Electric Brixton, a separate business, opened in the building in September 2011.
In 1984 the club was above a shop on Brixton Road. Its later home, the old cinema on Town Hall Parade, is Electric Brixton now: go to a club night.
West End Girls · the 1985 video
Andy Morahan and Eric Watson filmed the video across London. Four of its places sit on this line where their pins really are, east on the right and west on the left. Drag, or step.
Walk west from the East End: Petticoat Lane Market. Leicester Square is 4.1 km west of Wentworth Street as the crow flies.
Petticoat Lane Market · Wentworth Street, Spitalfields
The West End Girls video, directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson, was shot partly in Petticoat Lane Market on Wentworth Street.
A No. 42 bus in the video shows Aldgate as its destination.
A public street market on Wentworth Street, at the East End edge of the City.
Notting Hill and the Essex coast · 1986 to 1988
The old studio is private flats now. Basing Street is a public street: look from the pavement and let the residents be.
November 1987 · Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
In November 1987 their film It Couldn’t Happen Here was shot over three weeks in Clacton and south London. It was released on 8 July 1988 and won an award at the Houston film festival.
A seaside town on the Essex coast; the pier runs out from the front.
The first tour · from 29 June 1989
Their first tour opened on 29 June 1989: fourteen dates in Hong Kong, Japan and Britain. The opening show was at Hong Kong Coliseum. There were two dates in Hong Kong, five in Japan and seven in Britain: three in Birmingham, one in Glasgow and three in London.
Night 1 · 9 Cheong Wan Road, Hung Hom, Kowloon
Derek Jarman directed it as a theatrical concert, with films he shot for back-projection, extravagant costumes, six dancers and four singers.
Jarman’s films for Heart, It’s a Sin and Domino Dancing were made to run behind the live songs. The Coliseum opened on 27 April 1983 and seats 12,500 under a roof shaped like an upturned pyramid.
Still an arena; tickets through URBTIX.
Three nights · Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda, Tokyo
Three of the five Japanese dates in 1989 were at the Budokan.
The hall stands in Kitanomaru Park near the Imperial Palace and was completed on 3 October 1964.
About five minutes’ walk from Kudanshita station. There is no parking; book through each event’s promoter.
Trafalgar Square · 12 September 2004
Act I
Men and Maggots
Battleship Potemkin · Sergei Eisenstein, 1925 · score by Tennant and Lowe
Act 1 of 5: Men and Maggots.
Eisenstein’s 1925 film and their score were premiered there on 12 September 2004, a free event presented by the ICA and the GLA, to about 25,000 people.
In April 2003 Philip Dodd of the Institute of Contemporary Arts asked them to score Battleship Potemkin for a screening in Trafalgar Square organised by the Mayor of London. The Dresdner Sinfoniker played, conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer, in orchestrations by Torsten Rasch. The Independent thought it must be the biggest audience ever recorded for an art film. The score came out as an album on 5 September 2005.
A public square. South Africa House is on its east side; the steps to the National Gallery are on the north.
1 May 2006 · Wallsend, on the Tyne
On 1 May 2006 the Potemkin score was played at Swan Hunter’s shipyard in Wallsend, with the Northern Sinfonia, presented by the Newcastle Gateshead Initiative. It had toured Frankfurt, Bonn, Berlin and Hamburg in 2005, and Dresden and Segovia in 2006. In January 2008 it came to the Barbican with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
A riverside industrial site; no public access is implied. See the river from the public streets nearby.
Berlin and Margate · 2018 to 2024
2018
Hansa Studios · Köthener Straße 38, Kreuzberg, Berlin
Hotspot began with a ten-day session at Hansa in November 2018.
Three of its songs, Will-o-the-wisp, You Are the One and Wedding in Berlin, are about Berlin or set there. They mixed the studio’s old equipment with their own; Lowe called the result dirtier, and Tennant said it sounds analogue because it was. Recording went on in Los Angeles, with mixing at the Record Plant. It was their third album with Stuart Price.
A working studio. Public tours on selected dates, about three to four hours, start outside Köthener Straße 38; studio work comes first.
Köthener Straße 38, Berlin · See dates when booking
Three to four hours through Studio One, the Meistersaal and the Emil Berliner Studios, from outside Köthener Straße 38. Public tours on selected dates; studio work comes first.
Book a tour
2024
Dreamland, Margate · Marine Terrace, Margate
The video for A New Bohemia (2024) was filmed in Margate, at the Lido and Dreamland.
Dreamland is an amusement park on the front, free to enter, with rides, arcades, a roller disco and street food.
Free to enter. Open daily 10.30am to 4pm in the October half-term, Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November; ride wristbands extra.
Marine Terrace, Margate · Free entry; ride wristbands extra
The amusement park in the A New Bohemia video. Free to enter; open daily 10.30am to 4pm from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November.
Plan a visitWhere it is now
In London, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square and Waterloo are a short walk apart; Wentworth Street is east, Brixton south, Notting Hill and the King’s Road west. The Tyne, Clacton and Margate are day trips; New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Berlin are journeys of their own.
14 places you can visit, from Chelsea to Kreuzberg. Unique Recording closed in 2004; Times Square, beside it, is pinned. The old Sarm West chapel in Basing Street is private flats: the street is named, not mapped.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public shopping street. Walk it from Sloane Square to number 203.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. In 1984 the club was above a shop on Brixton Road. Its later home, the old cinema on Town Hall Parade, is Electric Brixton now: go to a club night.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public street market on Wentworth Street, at the East End edge of the City.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working main-line station; the concourse is open whenever trains run.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public square in the West End, with cinemas on every side.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public square. South Africa House is on its east side; the steps to the National Gallery are on the north.
King’s Road, Chelsea; the shop was at number 203
On 19 August 1981 Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met by chance in an electronics shop on the King’s Road and found they shared a love of dance music.
A public shopping street. Walk it from Sloane Square to number 203.
Brixton Road, Brixton
In October 1984 they made their first stage appearance, at the Fridge in Brixton, singing and playing over tapes.
In 1984 the club was above a shop on Brixton Road. Its later home, the old cinema on Town Hall Parade, is Electric Brixton now: go to a club night.
Wentworth Street, Spitalfields
The West End Girls video, directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson, was shot partly in Petticoat Lane Market on Wentworth Street.
A public street market on Wentworth Street, at the East End edge of the City.
Waterloo, South Bank
The video was also filmed on the concourse at Waterloo station, by the WHSmith shop.
A working main-line station; the concourse is open whenever trains run.
Leicester Square, West End
In the video people queue in Leicester Square for Fletch and Desperately Seeking Susan.
A public square in the West End, with cinemas on every side.
Trafalgar Square, Westminster
The West End Girls video takes in South Africa House and the Non-Stop Picket, the anti-apartheid vigil outside it.
A public square. South Africa House is on its east side; the steps to the National Gallery are on the north.
Stay
A small hotel on Sloane Square, a walk from number 203.
Sloane Square, Chelsea, London · Single rooms from 105.60, doubles from 140.80 (rates as listed, before dates)
A small hotel on Sloane Square, where the King’s Road begins, with rooms over the square or Holy Trinity Church.
Check roomsGo there
Hansa’s own studio tour, Dreamland, and walks in London, Berlin and Kowloon.
Köthener Straße 38, Berlin · See dates when booking
Three to four hours through Studio One, the Meistersaal and the Emil Berliner Studios, from outside Köthener Straße 38. Public tours on selected dates; studio work comes first.
Book a tourMarine Terrace, Margate · Free entry; ride wristbands extra
The amusement park in the A New Bohemia video. Free to enter; open daily 10.30am to 4pm from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November.
Plan a visitLondon
Live marketplace results for London music history tours. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursBerlin
Live marketplace results for Berlin music history tours. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursHong Kong
Live marketplace results for Kowloon walking tours. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
The band’s own site listed no future dates when we checked in October 2026.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
An original Very poster from our store, two books on the duo, the single, the first album and the Potemkin score.
An original 1993 poster for the album Very. 20 x 30 in, rolled.
Sold out · archive reference
View posterChris Heath
Chris Heath’s book about the duo, first published in 1991.
Find the bookPhilip Hoare
A book on the duo’s visual history, published in 2006.
Find the bookPet Shop Boys · 7-inch single, Parlophone, 1985
The Stephen Hague re-recording, released 28 October 1985.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyPet Shop Boys · LP, Parlophone, 1986
The first album, released 24 March 1986.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyTennant/Lowe · CD, EMI Classics, 2005
The score premiered in Trafalgar Square in 2004.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
15 of 15 places · 17 of 17 Moments
King’s Road, Chelsea; the shop was at number 203
Tennant, in for a synthesiser connector, meets Chris Lowe in a hi-fi shop.
Brixton Road, Brixton
The first stage appearance, singing and playing over tapes.
Basing Street, Notting Hill
It’s a Sin is recorded and mixed in Sarm West’s Studio 2.
Wentworth Street, Spitalfields
The West End Girls video films in Petticoat Lane Market.
Waterloo, South Bank
The video films by the WHSmith on Waterloo’s concourse.
Leicester Square, West End
The video’s Leicester Square queue; the single goes to number one.
Trafalgar Square, Westminster
The video takes in South Africa House and the Non-Stop Picket.
Battleship Potemkin, with their score, plays to about 25,000 in Trafalgar Square.
North Shields, on the Tyne
Neil Tennant is born in North Shields.
Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
It Couldn’t Happen Here is filmed in Clacton and south London.
Marine Terrace, Margate
The A New Bohemia video is filmed at Dreamland and the Lido.
Wallsend, on the Tyne
The score is played at Swan Hunter’s yard with the Northern Sinfonia.
Just off Times Square, Manhattan, New York
Tennant lunches with Bobby Orlando in New York; Orlando offers to make a record.
Orlando’s West End Girls, made at Unique, comes out.
9 Cheong Wan Road, Hung Hom, Kowloon
The first tour, directed by Derek Jarman, opens in Hong Kong.
Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda, Tokyo
Three of the five Japanese dates are at the Budokan.
Köthener Straße 38, Kreuzberg, Berlin
Hotspot begins with a ten-day session at Hansa.
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