12RX046 Pete Gleadall

Pete Gleadall: The Third Pet Shop Boy? For their first ever In Depth interview, Graham and Chris are joined by one of the most important figures in the Pet Shop Boys story: long-time collaborator, programmer, engineer and musical director, Pete Gleadall. From programming PSB’s very first tour in 1989 to shaping the sound of Dreamworld and Obscure, Pete has spent more than three decades helping Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe turn their brilliant ideas into records and performances. Pete takes the Pod Cast Boys behind the scenes of classic albums including Very and Relentless, reveals how songs are built in the studio, and explains the delicate balance between creativity and technology that sits at the heart of Pet Shop Boys’ work. Along the way he reflects on collaborations with artists ranging from Aswad to George Michael, and shares stories from some of the biggest recording studios and stages in the world. The conversation explores the evolution of music technology, from vintage synths and tape machines to AI, laptop recording and modern live production. Pete discusses his role as musical director, the challenges of translating electronic music to the stage, and the painstaking detective work involved in recreating decades-old sounds for the fan-favourite Obscure shows. There are also candid reflections on touring life, the infamous Glastonbury screen malfunction, the making of A Man From The Future, favourite Pet Shop Boys songs, and the enduring creative partnership that continues to drive one of pop music’s most remarkable careers. It’s a rare opportunity to hear from the man who has been a fly on the wall for four decades of Pet Shop Boys history, offering unique insights into the records, tours, technology and personalities behind the music we love. Support our crowdfunder and get your name mentioned in a future episode: https://gofund.me/8521670c9 We want to hear your PSB stories! Get in touch via our 2026 In Depth listener survey: http://tiny.cc/9bzb101 Check out our T-shirt store - all profits from our exclusive designs go towards supporting the podcast: https://in-depth.teemill.com We’re also on YouTube: In Depth Pet Shop Boys Podcast - YouTube And there’s additional In Depth content on our social media channels: Facebook: http://tiny.cc/3jhcvz Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indepthpsbpod

Graham and Chris celebrate episode 45 by turning their attention to a subject that has defined so much of Pet Shop Boys’ career: the single. From the birth of the 7-inch 45rpm record and the golden age of chart countdowns to the streaming era, they explore how the pop single evolved across seven-inches, twelve-inches, cassingles, CD singles, and digital downloads, tracing four decades of changing music culture through the lens of Pet Shop Boys. Running through the episode are two very different Top 10 countdowns, as Graham and Chris each reveal their personal favourite Pet Shop Boys singles. They revisit classics from every era, debate the difference between a great song and a great single, and uncover the memories, stories and emotions attached to records ranging from Always On My Mind and It’s A Sin to Vocal, The Pop Kids and Dancing Star. The discussion expands into Pet Shop Boys’ lifelong relationship with formats, chart success and collectability, from Smash Hits flexi-discs and limited-edition vinyl to deluxe CD singles and the streaming revolution. Along the way there are reflections on first record purchases, cover versions, time signatures, coloured vinyl, orchestral hits, Christmas number ones, and the enduring magic of the perfectly crafted PSB pop single. Support our crowdfunder and get your name mentioned in a future episode: https://gofund.me/8521670c9   Check out our T-shirt store - all profits from our exclusive designs go towards supporting the podcast: https://in-depth.teemill.com   We’re also on YouTube: In Depth Pet Shop Boys Podcast - YouTube    And there’s additional In Depth content on our social media channels: Facebook: http://tiny.cc/3jhcvz Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/indepthpsbpod

Graham and Chris go back to …The Future as Pet Shop Boys unveil the newly recorded and expanded version of their Alan Turing project. They explore Turing as an architect of artificial intelligence, and the tension between his pursuit of truth and today’s world of deepfakes, misinformation and machine‑generated confusion.  They celebrate the collaborators who bring the new recording to life: Sven Helbig’s contemporary arrangements, Juliet Stevenson’s commanding narration, and the Manchester Camerata’s pioneering spirit. They also trace Pet Shop Boys’ long relationship with classical music, from Borodin and Strauss to Shostakovich, Handel and Purcell. And they decode the sleeve, linking the green‑and‑amber design to early computer terminals and Bletchley Park’s codebreaking machines. Inspired by Turing and Hodges, the second half glitches down a metaphysical wormhole to uncover Neil’s fascination with time. It’s GCSE science meets dreamworlds, memory, grief, clocks, teacups, collapsing chronology, reverse causality, and a final journey to the very edge of forever - unravelling how A Man From The Future sits within a wider Pet Shop Boys tradition of bending spacetime itself!   Support our crowdfunder and get your name mentioned in a future episode: https://gofund.me/8521670c9 Check out our T-shirt store - all profits from our exclusive designs go towards supporting the podcast: https://in-depth.teemill.com We’re also on YouTube: In Depth Pet Shop Boys Podcast - YouTube  And there’s additional In Depth content on our social media channels: Facebook: http://tiny.cc/3jhcvz Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/indepthpsbpod

Graham and Chris begin their deep dive into A Man From The Future - Pet Shop Boys’ ambitious musical portrait of Alan Turing. They trace the origins of the project from Andrew Hodges’ biography to the Proms premiere, exploring how Neil and Chris built a hybrid of orchestral writing, electronic textures and spoken‑word narrative. Along the way they revisit Turing’s childhood, schooldays, wartime brilliance and tragic end, and how Pet Shop Boys turned those chapters into music. They unpack the creative partnership with Hodges, examine his earlier writings about PSB, and look at the influence of Battleship Potemkin and The Most Incredible Thing. The episode becomes a journey through mathematics, memory, machines and morality - and a celebration of how Pet Shop Boys transformed one man’s life into a modern electronic oratorio.    Support our crowdfunder and get your name mentioned in a future episode: https://gofund.me/8521670c9 Check out our T-shirt store - all profits from our exclusive designs go towards supporting the podcast: https://in-depth.teemill.com We’re also on YouTube: In Depth Pet Shop Boys Podcast - YouTube    And there’s additional In Depth content on our social media channels: Facebook: http://tiny.cc/3jhcvz Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/indepthpsbpod

To mark 30 years of Bilingual, Graham and Chris unveil a bonus previously unreleased “further listening” segment from their double deep dive into the album. Here they explore its visual identity, packaging quirks, marketing strategy, and the critical reaction which greeted it on release.  It’s a compact companion to their full anniversary celebration episodes!

Graham and Chris return to Bilingual for the second half of their deep dive - exploring how the album became a record of dualities: international yet introspective, sun-lit yet deep in shadow, Latin‑infused yet completely anchored in New York dance culture. After revisiting the album’s many far-flung inspirations, they dig into how the record was actually made - and discover a fragmented process that spanned years, continents, producers and studios, ultimately shaping an album that was proudly and aggressively un-British. Graham reflects on his own long journey with the record, from feeling alienated by its sunshine in 1996 to finally unlocking its “warmth and light” decades later. Chris, meanwhile, argues that Bilingual has always been two albums at once. Together they explore the album’s emotional and musical range - from dislocation, miscommunication and AIDS-era survivalism, to Euro-business satire and bossa-nova romance - a thoughtful, funny journey through an album shaped by resilience, metamorphosis and the will to survive.   Want to show your love for the Pet Shop Boys In Depth podcast?  Visit our new Crowdfunder - anything appreciated! Get your name mentioned in a future episode: https://gofund.me/48226059c Check out our T-shirt store - all profits from our exclusive designs go towards supporting the podcast: https://in-depth.teemill.com We’re also now on YouTube! In Depth Pet Shop Boys Podcast - YouTube  And there’s additional In Depth content on our social media channels: Facebook: http://tiny.cc/3jhcvz Bluesky: http://tiny.cc/jc7h001 X: http://tiny.cc/lc7h001

Graham and Chris return to 1996 for the first half of their Bilingual exploration - a summer of Britpop swagger, Spice Girls hysteria, Euro ’96 euphoria, and their own very different lives in northern Britain. They stand again at Pet Shop Boys’ post‑Very crossroads: older, out of step with the charts, paranoid about the rise of Pulp and Blur, yet still pushing forward as Before takes shape in New York - with a little help from Danny Tenaglia and OJ Simpson. Then the album’s Latin heart bursts open: the multicultural heat and nudity of the Sound Factory Bar, SheBoom’s Glaswegian beer-swigging drummers, the exotic excitement of the Discovery tour, Olodum’s samba‑reggae beats and the birth of Se A Vida É. It’s a celebration of rhythm, reinvention and the album that saw Pet Shop Boys open the door to a whole new world. Come outside and feel the morning sun!   Want to show your love for the Pet Shop Boys In Depth podcast?  Visit our new Crowdfunder - anything appreciated! Get your name mentioned in a future episode: https://gofund.me/48226059c Check out our T-shirt store - all profits from our exclusive designs go towards supporting the podcast: https://in-depth.teemill.com We’re also now on YouTube! In Depth Pet Shop Boys Podcast - YouTube  And there’s additional In Depth content on our social media channels: Facebook: http://tiny.cc/3jhcvz Bluesky: http://tiny.cc/jc7h001 X: http://tiny.cc/lc7h001

Pod Cast Boys celebrate their 40th episode by diving into 40 summers of Pet Shop Boys’ fandom - from bedroom mixtapes and sunlounger listening, to festivals, raves, summer jobs and water‑parks. They revisit the summers that shaped them: 1986 camping trips spent listening to Opportunities, Algarve holidays soundtracked by It’s Alright, plastics‑factory glue fumes mixed with Can You Forgive Her?, Manchester Paninaro promo‑hunting, and the thrill of hearing PSB’s 90s Radio 1 residencies with Sasha, Frankie Knuckles and 808 State. Plus they bring us bang up to date with Dreamworld tales from Lytham and Paris. There’s a forensic look at Pet Shop Boys’ own summer adventures too: the Miami heat of Domino Dancing, the 1989 tour and its legendary Bingobangobongo party, Chris’s love of rave culture and sunglasses, and the pure sunshine of Se A Vida É - with Bruce Weber’s Wet ‘n Wild Florida video, Rupert Brooke’s poetry and Mark Farrow’s brightest sleeve. From Somewhere at the Savoy to Nightlife at Creamfields, from total eclipses to total reinventions, get ready for a nostalgic, funny, affectionate journey through the summers that made Pet Shop Boys - and the summers that made Graham and Chris.   Want to show your love for the Pet Shop Boys In Depth podcast?  Visit our new Crowdfunder - anything appreciated! Get your name mentioned in a future episode: https://gofund.me/48226059c Check out our T-shirt store - all profits from our exclusive designs go towards supporting the podcast: https://in-depth.teemill.com We’re also now on YouTube! In Depth Pet Shop Boys Podcast - YouTube  And there’s additional In Depth content on our social media channels: Facebook: http://tiny.cc/3jhcvz Bluesky: http://tiny.cc/jc7h001 X: http://tiny.cc/lc7h001

Graham and Chris open the doors to Pet Shop Boys Legacy - their fantasy museum celebrating over 40 summers of PSB history. From the pulsating Electric‑style entrance tunnel to the Newcastle and Blackpool origin story settings, they build an immersive world of childhood bookshelves, mind-expanding youth theatres, Pleasure Beach big wheels, tropical disco dancefloors and early synthesisers.  The tour moves through London bedsits, the Chelsea Record Centre, Ray Roberts’ Camden studio and the Applejack Diner where Neil first met Bobby O. Then it expands into a full-blown Mark Farrow-designed PSB universe: iconic outfits, sleeves, videos, stage designs, deep‑cut artefacts and fan memories - all reimagined as a playful, over‑the‑top exhibition only the Pod Cast Boys could dream up. At its core, the museum becomes a new way of understanding the Pet Shop Boys story - a map of where they came from; a celebration of the breadth of their creativity; and a reminder that their history is very much still being written. Step inside for a summer celebration of imagination, fandom and four decades of Pet Shop Boys!   Want to show your love for the Pet Shop Boys In Depth podcast?  Visit our new Crowdfunder - anything appreciated! Get your name mentioned in a future episode: https://gofund.me/48226059c Check out our T-shirt store - all profits from our exclusive designs go towards supporting the podcast: https://in-depth.teemill.com We’re also now on YouTube! In Depth Pet Shop Boys Podcast - YouTube  And there’s additional In Depth content on our social media channels: Facebook: http://tiny.cc/3jhcvz Bluesky: http://tiny.cc/jc7h001 X: http://tiny.cc/lc7h001

Episode 38 – Obscure: After the Event United by a shared love of one band, Graham and Chris close Season Six with their most personal episode yet - a sun‑drenched, queue‑length, bladder‑testing, heart‑thumping deep dive into Pet Shop Boys’ Obscure concerts at Camden’s Electric Ballroom. What begins as a simple “after the event” recap quickly becomes a full‑blown oral history of the week London turned into PSB City: 5am superfans, numbered wristbands, Chicken Shop suitcase storage, tactical toilet breaks, merch‑lounge carpets, and the strange, beautiful camaraderie of a crowd who’d waited forty years for a night like this. From there, the Pod Cast Boys relive the gigs in forensic, front‑row detail - the dry ice, the wallow‑heavy setlist, the thrill of seeing their heroes in person, and the emotional punch of hearing deep cuts in a tiny room with 1,500 ecstatic fans and their closest friends.  They celebrate new drummer Max Blunos’ death metal roots, legacy guest stars Sylvia, Mark and Johnny F-ing Marr, Neil’s lectern‑top lyric folder, and the five times an entire ballroom embraced the words: “Tonight - no hits!” Along the way they revisit their own “scientific” setlist predictions, the chaos of their travel logistics, decode “the vibe”, and share the joy of experiencing Pet Shop Boys with lifelong friends, new global acquaintances, and a surprising number of people wearing In Depth T‑shirts. Finally, they wrap the season with the inaugural In Depth Obscure Awards - honouring the strangest, boldest, most unexpected moments of the Obscure era - and reflect on why these shows felt like a celebration not just of PSB’s deep cuts, but of their own teenage imperial phases too. A gig diary; a fan documentary; a tribute to the power of community - the perfect finale to a season that’s traced four decades of Pet Shop Boys from Please to Volume to Obscure. Come join us in Camden! This season the Pod Cast Boys are joining Pet Shop Boys in supporting War Child — donate via our JustGiving page and get your name in the credits of a future episode: https://www.justgiving.com/page/pet-shop-boys-in-depth-podcast Check out our T‑shirt store — all profits from our exclusive designs support the podcast: https://in-depth.teemill.com Find extra In Depth content on our social channels: Facebook: http://tiny.cc/3jhcvz Bluesky: http://tiny.cc/jc7h001 X: http://tiny.cc/lc7h001