Pet Shop Boys = legends. How chuffed was I to bag an interview with the enigmatic Mr Chris Lowe of foresaid duo who have kept electro-pop alive, well and kind of post-modern and ironic for over 25 years now? How on Earth have they managed that? After a storming comeback performance at an otherwise lacklustre Brit Awards this year in the UK, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have now unleashed a new album on the world, Yes, and they're about to hit the road while also working on a ballet, naturally. Chris here talks me through pink wigs, Girls Aloud, crap music TV, Little Boots, Dusty Springfield, Tchaikovsky, Bay City Rollers and Bono's make up habits - among other things...

Bob Fear: Your performance at this year's Brit Awards was fantastic. Brilliant medley of your hits, bizarre dancers, pink wig, Brandon Flowers, Lady Gaga... you've come a long way since Neil famously said that he liked proving that you couldn't cut it live...

Chris Lowe: The Brit Awards took 2 months of planning, we worked with a designer, choreographer, commissioned video projections, producer Stuart Price helped us put together the medley of songs, so it was quite a big team effort and it cost a fortune! So we decided that when we were going to play live we were going to put a lot of effort in to it - make the show interesting, right from the beginning right the way through to the end. I think one of our criticisms of going to concerts was that it was always great when the band came on but then it lulled in the middle until you get to the encores at the end. Whereas we always wanted to keep it interesting all the way through from the beginning. Also initially we couldn't see how we could be a live act because the way we used to make records in the studio and the way we used to write songs â“ there was just the two of us putting layer upon layer of musical ideas on top of each other - so we didn't see how we could replicate that music live.

Eventually we got offered to do some concerts in Japan and we thought we'd have a go, test the waters and if it was a disaster then no-one would really know about it! But even with that we got Derek Jarman involved and we used costumes, dancers and he made several films to be projected on these huge screens. We knew that we wanted to create something very theatrical and very visual from the beginning and since then we've become a live act and we've always bought people in to collaborate with. We've worked with architects like Zaha Hadid and we've always tried to keep it exciting and different and keep our own interest level going right the way through the show.

BF: So you have more big gigs lined up?

CL: We've sold out our 02 Arena and Manchester Apollo gigs in the UK and we've got some European dates this summer. We're currently looking at dates now for a world tour starting after that and taking in Europe, North, Central and South America and then in the New Year we're over to South East Asia and Australia. It's funny, we never imagined ourselves touring and what we really didn't imagine was becoming a festival act.

BF: It was brilliant to see you guys play the V Festivals in Australia in 2007...

CL: Yeah it was really great, it was the first year of V FestivaI in Australia and they were good people on the bill, the weather was good and it was the first time we'd got to go to Queensland!

BF: Your list of past collaborations is awesome. Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, Liza Minnelli, Robbie Williams, Boy George, Madonna, Tina Turner, Kylie, Elton John â“ and my personal faves: Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner for Electronic and Suede in '96. Is there a particular one of these where you felt everything just clicked to make the perfect collaboration?

CL: It was amazing when Dusty Springfield walked in to the studio. We'd heard she was living in Los Angeles but we didn't know what state her voice was in but she was an absolute hero of ours. We both think she's the best singer that Britain's produced and love the records she made, so when she came in to the studio and started to sing that really was a great moment - knowing that she could still be Dusty Springfield. I think Neil learnt a lot from her â“ the way that she sings and the way she develops the melody throughout the song so that it never repeats. So we learnt a lot from her and also we gave her the biggest hit she ever had in America with What Have I Done To Deserve This? So we bought her back really coz she wasn't having such a great time in LA, so really it was great turning someone's career around like that. So that was our greatest honour â“ working with Dusty Springfield.

BF: And lately you've been hanging around with Girls Aloud?

CL: Yeah, we were working with Xenomania on co-writing songs for our album and one of the songs we didn't think was right for our album. Producer Brian Higgins said 'Oh great, can I have it for Girls Aloud then?' We were, of course, over the moon - having a song (The Loving Kind) that Girls Aloud were going to perform and even more so that it became a single, so it was fantastic. They were hanging around the studio while we were there and it was a great atmosphere - all these exciting people hanging around. We've always liked contemporary pop music and you certainly got the feeling that you were a part of it there working with Xenomania.

BF: So is there anyone different that you now aspire to work with?

CL: I think if we worked with anyone in the future we'd like to work with some young undiscovered artists. Some non-established people. But that's just an idea â“ no plans as yet.

BF: We also interviewed Saint Etienne recently who talked about the resurgence of electro-pop and the crossover in to indie. Who on the current scene gets the Pet Shop Boys seal of approval?

CL: I'm very aware of Little Boots â“ specifically because she comes from my neck of the woods in Fleetwood! Lady GaGa particularly, MGMT... there's loads. I think The Killers' song Human is fantastic. People are dressing up again aren't they? Which is always a good sign - and wearing make-up. I mean even Bono's wearing eyeliner.

BF: You've certainly sported some outlandish costumes in the past, particularly since David Fielding designed your '91 Performance tour. Are there any costumes that you look back on and wish you hadn't worn?

CL: Wearing the costumes that David Fielding made was a fun thing to do. That was in the early 90s at the height of Madchester baggy so to dress in an orange jumpsuit with a pointy hat and row a boat through Battersea Park lake was quite a brave thing to do - or walk through Red Square in Moscow in some demented space cowboy outfit, it's really amazing. I like dressing up, I don't dress up in real life - I'm a jeans and t-shirt person, I never wear anything smart but I do like dressing up for videos and TV shows. The more outlandish the better really, I have no problem putting a pink wig on television, I don't feel embarrassed, I just enjoy the dressing up process and also I enjoy the collaboration of working with a stylist, wig person and makeup artist to get a look together and it's quite good fun presenting your music in the most exciting way you can.

BF: So Neil started out years ago writing for Smash Hits magazine, and now you've outlasted it! Did you ever foresee that...?

CL: Who'd have thought that? We've outlasted Top Of The Pops as well! I really miss both of those things. I think Smash Hits was great because I was a student and it worked for everyone, students as well as young girls - it had really good humour.

TOTP was great; you don't get that now with MTV. All day long â“ you never see what the artists are really like, you never get that great moment where a new band or artist appears on the scene and you actually see them for the first time. So we miss both of those things.

BF: Is there anything as good around now?

CL: We look at Popjustice because Peter Robinson's got that Smash Hits sensibility and he's totally into pop and he's so funny with it as well. So I think he's the replacement for Smash Hits. There isn't a replacement for Top Of The Pops - TV's turned its back on pop music, and new music in particular. When they do it they do it like a Jools Holland thing and it's very serious. What you really want is Bay City Rollers performing alongside Showaddywaddy with a load of screaming girls around them. There isn't really a place for that on TV at the moment. Even the Album Chart Show is more serious. I'd bring back Shang-A-Lang!

BF: You've sold over 50 million records worldwide so far and congratulations on your new album, Yes. It's just debuted at number four in the UK album charts. For anyone who hasn't yet got a hold of it â“ what should they expect from this, your 10th 'proper' studio album?

CL: When we started writing songs for this album we realised we were writing a lot of really uplifting shiny pop songs and we thought that Xenomania would be the production team to get the best out of these songs. We really wanted to work with them because we loved what they've done with Girls Aloud so we approached them and they wanted to work with us. So the first half of this album is just one great pop song after another and then it gets a bit weirder towards the second half but still very uplifting. I think it's very much of the time, it's electronic pop music. I think it's got a place in today's pop landscape. We're really happy with it. The songs came out effortlessly.

Coming with it is a special edition 'Yes etc' â“ on the second CD there's dub mixes of every track plus one new track with Phil Oakey. So it's worth getting the bonus CD - a good reason to get your hands on CDs while they still exist!

BF: So after your Outstanding Contribution award at the Brits - alongside your numerous other awards, stage shows, film scores - is there any ambition yet unfulfilled?

CL: Our ambition would probably be to have loads more hits!

We're actually writing a ballet, we've written about a third of the music so far. So we're really looking forward to doing that. What we're trying to do is tell the story through dance and music whereas contemporary dance doesn't really tell a story so we're taking it back towards a more Tchaikovsky ballet - like Swan Lake but doing it with electronic music rather than an orchestra so its quite an old fashioned idea but it's a very ambitious project. It's going to involve quite a few people - dancers, set designers, we're even going to try and bring magic in to it so it's quite a big thing we're attempting. The plan is that it'll be on at Sadler's Wells in 2011 and then go on a tour around 10 countries or so. We did a workshop for it before Christmas and the pas de deux, as they say, is rather good!

And if you're going to ask â“ no, we're not in it!

BF: Darn it, I'd have paid twice as much to see that...

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