Pet Ship Boys
Eisenstein with a disco beat at cult London screening.
There were shades of Queen's re-scoring of Fritz Lang's Metropolis in London last night. Dance legends Pet Shop Boys commandeered a rainy Trafalgar Square to present a live performance of their soundtrack to Eisenstein's classic film, Battleship Potemkin.
Neil Tennant and Chris Low, backed by the Dresdner Sinfoniker orchestra, wisely sheltered under a giant screen to present a mainly intrumental piece - like Tangerine Dream down the disco - peppered with a few songs to appease casual attendees amongst the many thousand that happily braved the bad weather.
The silent film, which helpfully had English subtitles to explain its Russian ones, is based on the historical events surrounding a riot at the battleship Potemkin after the crew was given rotten meat for dinner. Seeing maggot-infested beef projected hundreds of feet high was a little offputting, but the show was otherwise spectacular.
It's rumoured that soundtrack may be released on CD later this year.
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