Pet Shop Boys Tennant says OVO Hydro will be great but West End Girls delivered Crieff Hydro disappointment

dailyrecord.co.uk:

BRITAIN’S best-selling pop duo are back with their 15th studio album and will head to Scotland next week for what promises to be a spectacular concert.But synth legends Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have revealed some of their most memorable times in Scotland were for the wrong reasons.The Pet Shop Boys kick off their UK Dreamworld Greatest Hits Live tour on June 4 at Glasgow’s Hydro venue.The date comes 40 years after the release of their debut single West End Girls and their Hydro show will be a far cry from Neil’s break at another Scottish Hydro – at which he discovered the song had spectacularly flopped.Neil, 69, said: “It's almost embarrassing to think it’s been 40 years but a lot has happened in that time.“But of course when the first version of the single came out it was a big flop.“I remember being with my family on holiday Crieff Hydro in Scotland.“The single had been released the previous week and I phoned up the record company from a phone box in the basement to see what the chart position was.“It was number 133.“At least it was recorded number, but I think I was disappointed.Neil did get the last laugh, however, when he and Chris re-recorded a version of the song which was released the following year.The 1985 version hit No1 in the UK and US and led to a Best Single trophy at the BRIT awards as well as an Ivor Novello award for Best International Hit.20 years after its release it was also awarded Song of The Decade between the years 1985 and 1994 by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters.Having played their first ever live concerts at an arena in Hong Kong, a trio of Budokan shows in Tokyo and at Wembley Arena, the band played arena shows in Scotland before two headline slots at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay