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Pet Shop Boys - Literally, by Chris Heath (1990)
"Pet Shops Boys Literally", written with their co-operation, shadows them around Hong Kong, Japan and Britain on their 1989 tour, showing two pop stars in unusally intimate detail as they work, relax, gossip, argue and, every now and then, try to make sense of what they do. "Pet Shops Boys Literally" describes the inspirations, the rows, the frustrations, the confrontations with obsessive fans and the earning and expenditure of vast sums of money. In this book Chris Heath presents more than the document of a tour. He traces the Pet Shop Boys' wider history and tells the extraordinary story of what it is to be a pop star today.
Almost Famous - AKA the lightly fictionalised life of American music writer Lester Bangs - remains the enduring music journalist fantasy. Travelling on the bus with the band, sharing a lifestyle of excess, being of sufficient cultural importance that you, too, might have your own fans. What could possibly be better? I'll tell you what: Chris Heath's 1990 book, Pet Shop Boys, Literally, in which he follows Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe on their long-awaited first tour, of Asia and the UK. There is no sex. There are no drugs. Admittedly, there is quite a bit of drinking and dancing in Japanese discos, often accompanied by Janet Street-Porter. But this superbly reported book transcends tired rock journalism cliché. It's about what it means to be a pop star, what it means to be a Pet Shop Boy - intellectual Tennant and flippant Lowe are firmly against interpretation - and how to love pop, hold it to a higher standard and subvert its expectations.
It is also fantastically dry and snarky. Pet Shop Boys disapprove of most things: Adam and the Ants, Piers Morgan, bobble hats, their own fans. They only approve of shopping and dinner. "'You do find people for whom food isn't a major issue,' acknowledges Neil, 'but for us it's completely a major issue.'" It's not always flattering, either - in the foreword, the duo express surprise at how horrible and obsessed with money they sometimes seem. To their credit, Heath's account goes uncensored, an issue that's often the subject of meta discussions between him and Tennant, captured in the book. As pop conceptualists, the Pet Shop Boys are unparalleled. Dry-witted Heath is the perfect wallflower at their chaste orgy. The only shame is that Literally is no longer in print, and that every musician working today is too scared to let any journalist write their version of Literally.
Laura Snapes (Deputy Music Editor, The Guardian)

1990 UK (Viking Books) [ISBN 0-670-83616-8; hardcover]
1990 UK (Penguin Books) [ISBN 0-140-16533-9; trade paper]
1990 US (Da Capo Press) [ISBN 0-306-80494-8; trade paper]
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    Pet Shop Boys vs America, by Chris Heath (1993)
    No other pop group in recent history has faced fame with such intelligence, humour and shrewdness as the Pet Shop Boys. In 1991, the band toured North America for the first time shadowed by journalist Chris Heath and legendary rock photographer Pennie Smith. They visited fourteen cities in one month, confronting the American music industry and colliding with the likes of Liza Minnelli, Steven Spielberg and Axl Rose. This is more than a documentary of a tour; it is an unusually intimate portrait of two maverick British musicians always reluctant to compromise.
    ‘There was a time when the Pet Shop Boys seemed to exist entirely on radio, television and in magazines. This is the other world of the Pet Shop Boys in concert, travel and backstage, as they bring their art and glamour to America. It’s funny too.’
    Johnny Marr

    1993 UK (Viking) [ISBN 0-670-85274-0] [hc; Oct 93; UKP 16, $CDN 26]
    1994 UK (Penguin) [ISBN 0-14-024261-9] [sc; 5 Jan 95; UKP 10, $CDN 17]
    19?? US (Music Book Services Paperbacks) [ISBN 1-886894-31-1]
    Pet Shop Boys Catalogue, by Chris Heath and Philip Hoare (2006)
    A visual feast of art, music, and design for devoted fans of the Pet Shop Boys and for anyone interested in popular culture.
    The Pet Shop Boys are one of the most influential pop acts ever. With number-one singles such as "West End girls," "It's a sin," and "Go west," numerous gold- and platinum-selling albums such as Please, Actually, and Very, and hundreds of thousands of fans around the world, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are the most successful British writing duo since Lennon and McCartney.
    Spanning the worlds of music, art, film, and theater, the Pet Shop Boys have collaborated with some of the biggest stars of pop, including David Bowie, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Liza Minnelli, and Tina Turner; composers such as Ryuichi Sakamoto and Angelo Badalamenti; and leading artists, designers, and architects such as Yoko Ono, Zaha Hadid, Wolfgang Tillmans, Martin Parr, and Sam Taylor-Wood.
    Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their first album and coinciding with a new album and a major world tour, this book is a lavish visual retrospective of Tennant and Lowe's career. Every aspect of their work is featured: elegantly designed sleeve artwork and packaging; stills and behind-the-scenes shots from every video, film, concert, and theater show; experimental stage sets and cutting-edge fashion and costume designs; collaborations; publications; merchandising; photo shoots; and even their personally designed invitations and Christmas cards.
    Short texts by music journalist Chris Heath and historian Philip Hoare accompany hundreds of illustrations and provide illuminating insights into the genesis and creation of each project. 1955 illustrations, 1727 in color.

    2006 UK (Thames & Hudson Ltd) [ISBN 05-0051-307-4] [336 pages]
    2006 DE (Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf) [ISBN 38-9602-730-1] [translated by Thorsten Wortmann]
    2016 US (Thames & Hudson) [ISBN 0500286949](31 Jan 2016; paperback)
    One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem, by Neil Tennant (2018)
    Over a career that spans four decades and thirteen studio albums with Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant has consistently proved himself to be one of the most elegant and stylish of contemporary lyricists. Arranged alphabetically, One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem presents an overview of his considerable achievement as a chronicler of modern life: the romance, the break-ups, the aspirations, the changing attitudes, the history, the politics, the pain. The landscape of Tennant's lyrics is recognisably British in character - restrained and preoccupied with the mundane, occasionally satirical, yet also yearning for escape and theatrical release. Often surprisingly revealing, this volume is contextualised by a personal commentary on each lyric and an introduction by the author which gives a fascinating insight into the process and genesis of writing. Flamboyant, understated, celebratory and elegiac, Neil Tennant's lyrics are a document of our times.

    2018 UK (Faber & Faber) [ISBN 9780571351695] [272 pages] some signed; some with limited print
    2018 UK (Faber & Faber) [ISBN 9780571351572] [272 pages] Exclusive Edition, signed, 500x