Folkestone record shop inspired Pet Shop Boys star to turn to classical

PET Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant says seeing an old copy of Smash Hits magazine in a Folkestone shop inspired him to move into classical music.

- 

Tennant, 70, who was once an editor at the magazine, will release classical album Sleep Of Reason in collaboration with Mark Springer on April 25. The pair got in touch with each other after Tennant read an old review of Springer's Rip Rig And Panic, which also featured singer Neneh Cherry.

Tennant said: "One afternoon in January 2023, I was walking through the old town of Folkestone and stopped to peer in the window of the record shop there.

"They often display old music magazines and, on this particular day, a 1982 copy of Smash Hits was there, opened at the Singles Of The Fortnight page.

"The reviewer of the singles was me. I took a photo of it on my phone.

"One of the records I'd reviewed, over 40 years previously, was the then latest single by the art-pop-jazz band Rip Rig + Panic, and I mentioned liking the B-side, a solo track by Mark Springer, the band's pianist.