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Friendly Fire

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 2002
Original album - Closer to Heaven (performed by the Frances Barber)
Producer (PSB version) - Craig Armstrong, Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - Concrete, Format, Nightlife 2017 reissue Further Listening 1996-2000 bonus disc
Other releases - bonus track with single "I Get Along"; bonus disc with the U.S. "special edition" of Release

Before Format, Neil and Chris had three times released their own studio version of this song from their Closer to Heaven stage musical:

First on the four-track "Songs from the musical Closer to Heaven" promo disc—distributed for a single day only (May 12, 2001) with the London Daily Telegraph,
Later on the "I Get Along" DVD single, and
On the Release special edition bonus disc.

A live rendition also appeared on Concrete.

Aside from the obvious difference in vocalists, the Pet Shop Boys' own rendition is extremely similar to the musical's version. And although I personally prefer the PSB performance, this song is nevertheless much more appropriately discussed in the context of the musical. So please see the other entry for this song associated with Closer to Heaven.

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

PSB rendition

Mixer: Goetz Botzenhardt
- Pet Shop Boys version (3:24)
  - On Format, on one of the 2017 Nightlife reissue "Further Listening" bonus discs, on the "I Get Along" DVD single, and on the Release special edition bonus disc

PSB with Frances Barber

Mixer: Tim Weidner
- Live Concrete rendition (3:57)

Frances Barber (as "Billie Trix") rendition

Mixer: Bob Kraushaar
- Closer to Heaven cast album version (2:58)
Mixer: [unknown at this time]
- Musik version (3:24)

Official but unreleased

Mixers: unknown
- Demo (3:22)
- Demo version (aka "Neil demo") (3:24)
  - For the most part, there are only subtle differences between these two different demo versions, the most noticeable (and unsubtle) one being Neil's odd pronunciation of "tirade" as if it were in French ("ti-RAWD") in the first of these demos. Indeed, the English word "tirade" does come directly from the French word tirade meaning and spelled the same but pronounced differently. It's possible he used the French pronunciation initally but then thought better of it and went with the more conventional English pronunciation common to both the U.K. and the U.S.

List cross-references

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