Draft:Performance Tour

• Comment: I would love to approve this but the sources do not really go into depth about the tour. They are mainly mentions. First thing needed is to remove all of the content that is not support by a source. Then, please introduce references that focus on the tour, not just mention when covering the history of the group. Will leave open for now in the chance another reviewer disagrees with me. CNMall41 (talk) 22:57, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

• Comment: close, but still largely unreferenced sections. Personnel, Set list, and Tour dates are entirely unreferenced and there are existing {{citation needed}} tags. microbiologyMarcus ^{(petri dish·growths)} 22:18, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

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Performance tour

Tour by Pet Shop Boys
Location	Asia North America Europe
Associated album	Behaviour
Start date	11 March 1991
End date	14 June 1991
Pet Shop Boys concert chronology

The Performance Tour was a concert tour by English synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys launched in 1991 to promote their fourth studio album Behaviour (1990). Despite being their second tour overall, this was their first world tour to visit the US. Spanning all in all three continents, the tour lasted three months, starting on 11 March 1991 in Tokyo, Japan, and concluding on 14 June 1991 in Dublin, Ireland.

The show was directed by David Alden and designed by the award-winning stage designer David Fielding, a cutting edge duo known for their their avantgarde reworkings of traditional operas. In the same vein, Performance purported to stage a theatrical presentation of the band's music.

Background and concept

Despite ambitious plans for a theatrical live show in 1986 and 1987, Pet Shop Boys soon realised that the financial realities of the pop music industry clashed with their vision, forcing them to cancel the planned tours. Thanks to a kind offer from a Japanese promoter, the idea was revived in 1989, but even then Pet Shop Boys were not entirely convinced of the idea of nightly performances in front of fans. The band's first small-scale tour consisting of 14 dates visited Japan, Hong Kong and the UK. "We're not a live band, really," remarked lead singer Neil Tennant during one of the press conferences held to promote the tour. Despite this, the band returned to the road two years later announcing that the new tour would be even more theatrical than the previous one.

The Performance tour was conceived with no live band on stage; instead, it involved background singers, dancers and "more costume changes than at a Cher concert". With the emphasis on theatrical elements and choreography, the show prioritised a dramatic presentation over traditional band performance with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe adopting a more actor-like stage presence.

With the set design visualising the themes of the songs in the set list, the show featured a slew of characters including, among others, English schoolboys in uniforms, women in 1950s attire and a ballerina with a gun. The concert's imagery also included an act of self-strangulation with a telephone cord and Neil Tennant being electroshocked while sitting in a cage.

The tour kicked off in Tokyo on 11 March 1991, the same day as the double-A side single 'How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously? / Where the Streets Have No Name" was released.

Critical Response

North America

The tour sparked diverse reactions in the press. Many American reviewers were left unimpressed with stage reimaginings of Pet Shop Boys' songs and the overall emphasis on theatrics over musicianship. "Was all this a crutch for songs that couldn't stand on their own?", asked a reviewer in San Jose Mercury News.

While acknowledging the uniqueness of the theatrical concert experience, critic Barbara Jaeger of The Record (New York) found Performance devoid of both drama and humour. Instead, she described the show as a sequence of "grotesque characters" and disturbing visuals. Dan Aquilante of New York Post described the concert as "a stunning display of pretentiousness", which was "overdone, under-thought and outrageous". He was particularly displeased with the show's eroticism, particularly the scene of simulated masturbation (during the English schoolboy number) at the end of This Must Be the Place I've Waited Years to Leave, calling on the Radio City Music Hall "to install windows to air the place out".

Other reviewers were more favourable, likening the audacity and scope of the show to Broadway productions. Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times compared Performance to other concerts in the rock-theater tradition, such as David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs Tour and Madonna’s Blond Ambition. He particularly praised the set and staging noting that it "serves the sense and the tone of the song".

Continuing the comparisons with Madonna's Blond Ambition tour, Barry Walters of San Francisco Examiner described the show as bold and sensational. He recognised the shared influences between Madonna and Pet Shop Boys noting how both drew on "similar sources – cabaret, disco escapism, post modern deconstruction, religion, sex, camp and the love of a good, gaudy show-stopper." The result, according to Walters, was "more performance art than rock concert", which could be "the future of pop".

Rob Taunenbaum in his Rolling Stone review of the New York concert further acknowledged the show's potential impact, suggesting it could "set a new standard for pop flamboyance and grandiosity" and even become one of "pivotal events in concert history." However, Taunenbaum also recognised how it could be perceived as "an epic display of pretentiousness".

Personnel

Adapted from the Performance Tour DVD box.

Vocals (additional)

Sylvia Mason-James, Derek Green and Pamela Sheyne

Dancers

Petee Aloysius, Trevor Henry, Craig Maguire, Catherine Malone, Mark Martin, Leon Maurice Jones, Suki Miles, Katie Puckrick, Sarah Toner and Noel Wallace

Choreography

Jacob Marley

Recording

The tour was captured on film by director Eric Watson and released as a concert film in 1991. Alongside the live show the film features backstage footage.

The VHS release of the film skips the latter portion of the "Where the Streets Have No Name / I Can't Take My Eyes Off You" medley, which was removed from the recording due to copyrights issues, although it was shown in full length on British television in 1991. The missing segment was later included in a 2004 DVD release.

Set list

Adapted from the Performance Tour DVD box.

1. "This Must Be the Place I've Waited Years to Leave"
2. "It's a Sin"
3. "Losing My Mind"
4. "This Must Be the Place I've Waited Years to Leave" (Reprise)
5. "What Have I Done to Deserve This?"
6. "My October Symphony"
7. "I'm Not Scared"
8. "We All Feel Better in the Dark"
9. "So Sorry, I Said"
10. "Suburbia"

    Interval

11. "So Hard"
12. "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)"
13. "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?"
14. "Rent"
15. "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)"
16. "West End Girls"
17. "Jealousy"

    Encore

18. "Always On My Mind"
19. "Being Boring"
20. "Your Funny Uncle"

Tour dates

Adapted from the Pet Shop Boys official website.

Date	City	Country	Venue
Asia
11 March 1991	Tokyo	Japan	Yoyogi Olympic Pool
12 March 1991	Osaka		Castle Hall
14 March 1991	Yokohama		Gym
15 March 1991	Tokyo		Budokan
North America
20 March 1991	Miami	United States	Knight Center
21 March 1991	New Orleans		McAllister/Saenger
23 March 1991	Houston		Southern Star Amphitheatre
27 March 1991	San Francisco		Warfield Theater
28 March 1991	San Francisco		Warfield Theater
29 March 1991	Los Angeles		Universal Amphitheatre
30 March 1991			Universal Amphitheatre
1 April 1991	Salt Lake City		Kingsbury Auditorium
3 April 1991	Minneapolis		Orpheum Theater
4 April 1991	Chicago		Rivera Theater
5 April 1991	Detroit		Clubland
7 April 1991	Washington DC		Bender Arena/American University
9 April 1991	New York City		Radio City Music Hall
10 April 1991			Radio City Music Hall
11 April 1991	Boston		Orpheum Theater
14 April 1991	Toronto	Canada	Varsity Arena
15 April 1991	Montreal		Verdun Auditorium
Europe
18 April 1991	Paris	France	Zenith
19 April 1991	Brussels	Belgium	Forest National
21 April 1991	Berlin	Germany	Deutscheland Halle
22 April 1991	Bremen		Stadhalle
23 April 1991	Dortmund		Westfallen Halle
25 April 1991	Frankfurt		Festhalle
26 April 1991	Mannheim		Eisstadion
28 April 1991	Munich		Olympia Halle
30 April 1991	Hannover		Eilenriede Halle
2 May 1991	Copenhagen	Denmark	Valby Hotel
3 May 1991	Gothenburg	Sweden	Scandanavium
4 May 1991	Stockholm		The Globe
6 May 1991	Helsinki	Finland	Ishallen
9 May 1991	Prague	Czechoslovakia	CSTV Sportshal
10 May 1991	Ostrava		Palace of Sports and Culture
11 May 1991	Vienna	Austria	Stadhalle
12 May 1991	Budapest	Hungary	Sportshall
14 May 1991	Zagreb	Croatia	Sportshall
16 May 1991	Stuttgart	Germany	Hans Martin Schleyer Halle
17 May 1991	Zurich	Switzerland	Hallen Stadion
18 May 1991	Milan	Italy	Palatrussardi
21 May 1991	Madrid	Spain	Palacio De Los Deportes
22 May 1991	Barcelona		Palau De San Jordi
24 May 1991	Rotterdam	Netherlands	The Ahoy
27 May 1991	Blackpool	England	Opera House
28 May 1991	Glasgow	Scotland	S.E.C.C.
29 May 1991	Aberdeen		Exhibition Centre
1 June 1991	Birmingham	England	N.E.C.
2 June 1991
3 June 1991
5 June 1991	Whitley Bay		Ice Rink
7 June 1991	London		Wembley Arena
8 June 1991
9 June 1991
13 June 1991	Belfast	Northern Ireland	Kings Hall
14 June 1991	Dublin	Ireland	The Point

References

Category:1991 concert tours Category:Pet Shop Boys concert tours