Neil Tennant

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Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox musical artist Neil Francis Tennant (born 10 July 1954) is an English singer, songwriter and music journalist, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Chris Lowe in 1981. He is the lead singer and main lyricist of the group. He was a journalist for Smash Hits and assistant editor for the magazine in the mid-1980s.

Tennant coined the phrase imperial phase to describe the period in which a musical artist is regarded to be at their commercial and creative peak simultaneously. This observation was initially self-referential, made as the Pet Shop Boys had achieved commercial success with four British number one hits ("West End Girls", "It's a Sin", "Heart", and "Always on My Mind"), had received critical praise for their first three albums and had expanded their creative horizons through innovative collaborations in the visual and performing arts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Biography

Early life

Neil Francis Tennant was born in the town of North Shields, approximately 8 miles east of Newcastle upon Tyne, to William W. Tennant (1923–2009), a sales representative, and Sheila M. (Watson) Tennant (1923–2008).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He has an older sister, Susan, and two younger brothers, Simon and Philip.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The family moved to Greenfield Road (opposite the corner of South Bend), Brunton Park, Gosforth shortly after Neil was born.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Tennant was raised as a Roman Catholic, and he served as an altar boy. He attended St Oswald's Catholic Primary School in Newcastle,<ref name="Fantastic Man">Template:Cite magazine</ref> followed by St Cuthbert's Grammar School, an all-boys Catholic secondary school. His songs "This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave" and "It's a Sin" refer to his time at St Cuthbert's and the strict upbringing there.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

In 1965, Tennant joined the Young People's Theatre in Newcastle, where he learned about stage performance and became interested in writing music for theatre.Template:Sfn<ref name="Fantastic Man"/> As a teenager, he joined the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne, which was both a library and a social gathering place.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Tennant taught himself to play guitar at the age of 12, using the tutorials Play in a Day by Bert Weedon and Hold Down a Chord by John Pearse. He started writing his own songs based around the chords he learned. He used his guitar studies to learn how to play the piano in his family home,Template:Sfn and he also played cello in school.<ref name="Mojo">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In 1970, Tennant started a folk music group named Dust with Chris Dowell, a friend from the Young People's Theatre. They were heavily influenced by The Incredible String Band. The group, which also featured two female friends, recorded a session of five songs that were broadcast on BBC Radio Newcastle in 1971.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Nostalgic Folkie">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Tennant wrote several of their songs including "Can You Hear the Dawn Break?", which he regards as his first "proper" song.Template:Sfn

Early career

Tennant left Newcastle in 1972 to study history at North London Polytechnic (now part of London Metropolitan University), completing an honours degree in 1975. He then worked for two years as the production editor for Marvel UK, the UK branch of Marvel Comics.<ref name="Chronicle Live">Template:Cite news</ref> His job entailed compiling American comics into a weekly publication, anglicising the dialogue to suit British readers, and ensuring that risqué characters like Red Sonja were redrawn with more modest clothing to make them suitable for the general audience of the weeklies.<ref name="PSB1975">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="New Statesman 2024">Template:Cite magazine</ref> He also wrote occasional features for the comics, including interviews with pop stars Marc Bolan and Alex Harvey.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

In 1977, Tennant moved to Macdonald Educational publishing,<ref name="PSB1975"/> where he edited The Dairy Book of Home Management (1980)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and various illustrated books about cookery, playing the guitar and other home interests. He next worked at ITV Books, where he edited TV tie-in books, including one of Mary Berry's cookbooks.<ref name="Nostalgic Folkie"/>

Tennant became acquainted with the staff of Smash Hits when he commissioned the magazine's designer, Steve Bush, to design a book about the 1981 Madness film Take It or Leave It. Smash Hits editor David Hepworth offered Tennant a job editing The Smash Hits Yearbook and also named him news editor of the magazine when he started work there in June 1982.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Tennant wrote features and reviews for the teen pop magazine<ref name="Fantastic Man"/> and also edited the yearbook from 1982 to 1985. He set up the American version, Star Hits, in New York in 1983, and he interviewed then up-and-coming singer Madonna.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Chronicle Live"/> Tennant became assistant editor of Smash Hits,<ref name="Mojo"/> and was offered the position of editor before his departure in 1985.<ref name="Fantastic Man"/>

During this period, Tennant continued to write music in a singer-songwriter style. He auditioned for Rocket Records in 1973, and in 1981 he submitted a demo to other record companies without success. Some of his early songs were later released, including "Nothing Has Been Proved" (1989), performed by Dusty Springfield, and "Nervously" (1990) and "Hey, Headmaster" (1993) by Pet Shop Boys.Template:Sfn

Pet Shop Boys

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Tennant performing at Pori Jazz 2014 in Pori, Finland

Tennant met Chris Lowe in August 1981 and they began their songwriting partnership shortly afterwards.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Describing their early sessions, Tennant recalled: Template:Blockquote

Tennant was used to singing his own songs but initially had reservations about being a lead singer.Template:Sfn<ref name="Mojo"/> He started singing lessons after turning professional in 1985.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> At Lowe's suggestion, he tried to make his lyrics more "sexy", writing about nightlife in the West End of London where they spent time.<ref name="Fantastic Man"/>

In 1983, an opportunity arose for Tennant to go to New York to interview The Police for Smash Hits. While there, he arranged to meet Bobby Orlando, a producer whom he and Lowe admired.<ref name="New Statesman 2024"/> Tennant mentioned he was writing songs in his spare time, and Orlando agreed to record some tracks with him and Lowe at a later date. Orlando produced the Pet Shop Boys' first single, an early version of "West End Girls", in 1984.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Pet Shop Boys signed a deal with Parlophone Records in March 1985, and Tennant left Smash Hits the following month as he and Lowe, who was two-thirds of the way through an architecture degree, committed full time to a music career.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

Solo appearances

In addition to his work with Chris Lowe as Pet Shop Boys, Tennant has worked on several side projects including:

Books

  • One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem (2018) – a collection of Pet Shop Boys' lyrics and song-by-song commentaries.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Personal life

Tennant came out as gay in a 1994 interview in Attitude magazine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Otherwise he remains quiet about his personal and romantic life, preferring to be a "man of mystery", as he states it.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He maintains a house in London. He owned a house in County Durham<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but has since sold it.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> He and Lowe also have an apartment in Berlin.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Tennant has been a patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1998, Tennant was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, in the 2005 general election he voted for the Liberal Democrats, citing disillusionment with Labour's ID card scheme.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Pet Shop Boys agreed to personal appeals by then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson and then-Prime Minister David Cameron, both prominent Conservative Party politicians, for the group to play at the "winners' parade" taking place shortly after the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Enjoying the event's atmosphere and how their stage presence turned into a well-received performance, Tennant subsequently texted Cameron's staff pushing Cameron to use gay scientist Alan Turing's centenary year as impetus for the UK Government to formally pardon Turing.<ref name="Utopia">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The formal pardon did go through on 24 December 2013, with the related official paperwork signed by Queen Elizabeth II.

Tennant has praised the group The Specials and singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, highlighting "Ghost Town" and "Shipbuilding" as protest songs successfully putting politics into pop music. He has criticised ageism in the music industry, stating in 2013 that radio professionals would tell him that they want to play Pet Shop Boys songs on air, but will not because the duo, then in their 50s, were considered to be "too old".<ref name="Utopia"/>

Tennant is an art collector with interests ranging from Victorian art to queer art, including artists such as Walter Crane, Edwin Long, Simeon Solomon, Keith Vaughan, Paul P., Elijah Burgher, and Pablo Bronstein.Template:Sfn He was on the jury for the Turner Prize in 1998.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2022, Tennant received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Durham University.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Legacy

Actor David Tennant adopted his stage name from Tennant when joining Equity, as another actor was already registered with his birth name, David McDonald.<ref>Tim Walker "David Tennant: The good doctor", The Independent, 29 March 2008</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

References

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