Pet Shop Boys have announced a new fine bone china tea set, to celebrate four decades since their first release.
READ MORE: Pet Shop Boys: “This is our queer album”
The range is set to be launched as part of the new ‘Pet Shop Boys Since 1984’ range, which celebrates 40 years since the duo released their breakthrough single ‘West End Girls’.
It was designed by the band’s long-term collaborators, Farrow with Tennant and Lowe, and manufactured by Duchess China in Stoke-on-Trent. The limited-edition range includes a teapot, cups and saucers, a milk jug, and a sugar bowl.
All of the items in the collection come in a classic royal blue and white colourway and are packaged in a bespoke box. A variety of different sets are on offer, with prices starting at £200. Each piece is hand-finished and decorated, and it also comes with a product booklet and certificate of authenticity.
In partnering with Duchess China, the items are made using the same traditional process that the company has used for over 130 years. They all go on sale from November 20. Pre-order them here, and find a video of the making process below.
As well as the tea set, Pet Shop Boys are also about to announce a special expanded edition of their 15th studio album ‘Nonetheless’.
The James Ford-produced album originally arrived in April, and included singles ‘Loneliness’, ‘Dancing Star’, ‘A new bohemia’ and ‘Feel’. Peaking at Number Two in the UK album charts, it marked their highest charting album since 1993. Pre-order the upcoming expanded edition here.
A new double A-side single, ‘New London Boy’ / ‘All The Young Dudes’, is also set to be released on November 7. It will be available as two digital bundles next week, and from November 15 as two CD singles.
Earlier this year the band concluded their run of UK and European tour dates with a sold-out residency at London’s Royal Opera House, and were confirmed for the first edition of The London Soundtrack Festival in 2025.
Meanwhile, in an interview with NME back in April, Pet Shop Boys described ‘Nonetheless’ as their “queer album” and Neil Tennant, who came out as gay in 1994, discussed how things have changed for the queer community in pop culture since then.
“What I think now is that what you might call gay culture has become mainstream,” Tennant said. Several years ago, I went to see Jake Shears in Kinky Boots on Broadway. It was an essentially straight audience, and when the drag queens came on, they all went ballistic. I thought: ‘Wow, this whole thing’s just gone totally mainstream’ – and I think it’s ‘cause of RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
Pet Shop Boys, 2024. CREDIT: Eva Pentel
“It’s like with the It’s a Sin TV series,” he continued, referencing the 2021 Olly Alexander-starring Channel 4 drama that cribbed its name from the Pet Shop Boys’ 1987 chart-topper. “You feel the straight community finally faced up to the AIDS crisis.”
In a four-star review of the album, NME wrote: ‘Nonetheless’ unfolds like a 10-song short story collection, peppered with richly-drawn characters, and esoteric cultural references. The woozily romantic ‘Feel’ – originally earmarked for a Brandon Flowers solo album – paints a picture of somebody counting down the days until they can visit their lover in prison and aches with longing.
“The electroclash ‘Bullet for Narcissus’, meanwhile, combines New Order guitars with the inner-monologue of a bodyguard tasked with protecting a Trump-like tyrant who’s “so banal he’s made of mainstream”
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