The Pet Shops are this week basking in the glow of a charts resurgence thanks to hit Channel 4 series It’s A Sin. Sales and streams of their 1987 chart-topper of the same name have sky-rocketed by nearly 250% in the UK in the three weeks the show has been on the air compared to the same three-week period last year. In the week following the series premiere on January 22nd alone, sales and streams of the classic track shot up by a remarkable 115%.
Since @Channel4 drama #ItsASin started three weeks ago, streams of the @petshopboys song that inspired its name have increased by an average of 310,000 plays a week. https://t.co/nIaPe4sEOb
— Official Charts (@officialcharts) February 18, 2021
It’s A Sin – which served as the lead single on the synth-pop pioneers’ second album Actually – provided the duo with their second UK Number #1, coming two years after they reached the chart summit with breakthrough hit West End Girls. The song had originally been rejected by the production powerhouse of Stock Aitken Waterman, and was later the subject of an ugly legal wrangle after it eventually hit the shelves; with DJ Jonathan King alleging the group had plagiarised the melody from Cat Stevens’ 1971 folk-pop hit Wild World. The band sued King, and were subsequently awarded out-of-court damages which they donated to charity.
Prior to the first episode of It’s A Sin last month, London electro-pop outfit Years & Years – whose frontman Olly Alexander stars in the show – released a stripped-back cover of the song to raise funds for HIV charity the George House Trust. Speaking to Celeb Mix, Alexander said “I’ve always loved the iconic Pet Shop Boys and this song’s expression of the gay experience. My character Ritchie loves this song too so I’m really excited to put out our own version. I made this mostly from home just me and my piano so it feels pretty raw and exposed, it’s a really beautiful song to sing.”
The new series, created by BAFTA award-winning Swansea writer Russell T. Davies, follows a group of friends whose lives are changed forever when the AIDs crisis hits 1980s London. The drama has received near-universal critical acclaim, with The Guardian hailing it as a “poignant masterpiece” with “humour and humanity” at its heart.
It’s A Sin‘s soundtrack is also a blistering tour-de-force. In addition to the titular Pet Shop Boys number, viewers are treated to an eclectic feast of smash hits of the era from the likes of Blondie (Call Me); Eurythmics (Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)); Yazz (The Only Way Is Up); The Flying Pickets (Only You); Culture Club (Karma Chameleon); Laura Branigan (Gloria); Kate Bush (Running Up The Hill); Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (Enola Gay); Wham! (Freedom); and more.
The new run of It’s A Sin-related exposure coincides with the fortieth anniversary of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe forming the Pet Shop Boys in west London. Last year the two-piece released their fourteenth studio album, Hotspot, to broadly positive reviews. The lead single from the LP – Dreamland – also featured a guest vocal appearance from Olly Alexander; while its follow-up Burning The Heather included a cameo from Suede guitarist Bernard Butler.
In 2022 the group will take to the road across Europe for their first-ever greatest hits tour. Having already been postponed twice due to pandemic-related complications, the twenty-date Dreamworld tour next May and June includes eight UK gigs as follows:
20/05/22 – AO Arena – Manchester
22/05 – The O2 – London
24/05 – Motorpoint Arena – Cardiff
25/05 – BIC – Bournemouth
27/05 – Utilita Arena – Newcastle
28/05 – Resorts World Arena – Birmingham
29/05 – SSE Hydro – Glasgow
31/05 – Bonus Arena – Hull
