Xxxxxx© BBCLIVE & EVENTSINTERNATIONAL
TEACHERS OF POP
THE LEXINGTON, LONDON
12 O C TO B ER★★★★★
International Teachers Of Pop’s
self-titled debut album was one
of the best all-out synth-pop
records in years. It was
disappointing it only reached a
cult audience, as it was the
perfect midpoint between
Goldfrapp’s imperious glare
and Erasure’s frothy drama.
Previewing their second
album, the collective have
doubled down on their
strengths, writing more
cast-iron pop to suggest they’re
not going to change, because
the world absolutely needs a
lesson from the Teachers right
now. It helps that, live, they’re
an absolute riot.
Singers Leonore Wheatley
and Katie Mason start in
outsize white parkas, glaring at
the audience like traditional
synth-pop ice maidens. As the
beat drops in old favourite
Praxis Makes Prefect, Wheatley
and Mason begin dancing like
French And Saunders doing
Bananarama. Soon wearing
boiler suits, their limbs are so
all over the shop, they make
Keren and Sara look like the
Bolshoi Ballet.
The singers possibly aren’t
even the funniest aspect of
ITOP’s show. While All Seeing
I founder and Jarvis Cocker
associate Dean Honer sticks
to the Chris Lowe role,
keyboardist-in-crime Adrian
Flanagan keeps up a stream of
increasingly acid commentary
between songs, before
wandering off stage
completely during a well-
established cover of Another
Brick In The Wall.
None of it would work if the
songs weren’t so special. Good
as the fi rst album was, the
band drop its few fi llers to
replace them with tunes even
better than the debut’s
standouts. Tinder anthem The
Red Dots is destined to
soundtrack a thousand dating
shows. Gaslight and Prince
(The Last Bike Ride) compete
to be the best earworm until
your synapses collapse under
the euphoria.
Far too good for just hipsters,
next summer’s festivals and
radio playlists won’t know
what’s hit them. A perfect
pop lecture. JEthe glitter elsewhere. Westlife
aim for earnest, but remain the
ripest of cheeses. It says
something dispiriting that such
cornballs will be playing
Wembley Stadium next summer,
a decade after deservedly
fading into irrelevance.
It needs something special to
wash the taste of Westlife
away. Luckily, Neil Tennant
announces: “We’ll be playing
some hits, a couple of dance
tracks and we’ll have two guests”
at the start of Pet Shop Boys’ set
and that’s exactly what unfolds.PET SHOP BOYS SETLIST
(^1) Suburbia
(^2) Burn
(^3) Se A Vida É
(^4) West End Girls
(^5) Dreamland
(with Olly Alexander)
(^6) Vocal
(^7) Heart
(^8) It’s A Sin
(^9) Left To My Own Devices
(^10) Opportunities (Let’s Make
Lots Of Money)/Go West
Encore
(^11) Domino Dancing
(^12) What Have I Done To
Deserve This? (with
Beverley Knight)
(^13) Always On My Mind/
The Pop Kids
Playing Super album track
Burn as second song is a
mis-step, but after that it’s a riot
of bodysuits. Years & Years
singer Olly Alexander is
spectacular on recent duet
Dreamland, both vocally and
in his glittery outfi t, while
Beverley Knight adds old-school
soul drama in a rare live outing
for What Have I Done To
Deserve This?.
Tennant’s announcement,
“Which old song is this? There’s
so many to choose from!” is
a reminder of just how many hits
the Pets have, as Opportunities
morphs into Go West, complete
with the oversized balloon
dancers from the Super tour.
Even Chris Lowe is smiling.
When that happens, you know
it’s a special day. John Earls