Neil Francis Tennant was born on July 10th in North Shields, Northumberland, a picturesque town in the northeastern part of England. As a young musician, Neil was part of a group in Newcastle called Dust, which was formed in 1975. The band's most popular song, "Can you hear the dawn break?", was a preposterous affair that Neil had written, showcasing the band's unique sound, heavily influenced by The Incredible String Band. Neil and his bandmates were convinced that they would become terribly famous, and in the stoned seventies, they genuinely believed it was absolutely brilliant at the time.
After completing his degree in history at the Polytechnic of North London, Neil embarked on a career that took him far from the world of music. He took a job at Marvel Comics, where he spent his days anglicizing spellings and indicating where risqué women needed to be redrawn decently. During his time there, he even had the opportunity to interview comic fan Marc Bolan, who politely pointed out that Neil's tape recorder wasn't working. Neil's next stop was Macdonald Educational Publishing, followed by ITV Books, where he honed his skills as a writer and editor.
Fast forward to June 1982, when Neil joined Smash Hits, a music magazine that was all the rage at the time. But little did he know that his life was about to take a dramatic turn. On August 19th, 1981, Neil met Chris Lowe by chance in an electronics shop on the Kings Road. As fate would have it, they discovered a shared interest in dance music, and their collaboration was born. Initially, they called themselves West End, but later they came up with the name Pet Shop Boys, inspired by some friends who worked in a pet shop in Ealing.
