Past – #1. Wise man Neil Tennant predicts the future

One from the archives: Word To The Wise, Word Magazine, Issue 95, January 2011

Currently on tour bringing joy unconfined to the Great British Public, a year on from a glorious Glastonbury performance (still available on the BBCiPlayer), Neil Tennant remains a perky, profound Pet Shop Boy as he inches towards his (gulp) 69th birthday next month. (He shares a birthday with my husband, while I share one with Anita Dobson.)

In November 2010, I interviewed Neil for the Word to The Wise slot in the wonderful Word Magazine, where I worked as Reviews Assistant and then Reviews Editor, from 2003 to 2007. I kept freelancing for them lots in the five years that followed, and wrote this double-page spread feature most months. Word To The Wise remains a great format, which I’d love to revive: an interesting person, often from the worlds of culture, politics or literature, dispenses six to eight polished nuggets of wisdom that they’d learned in their life and would like to share to others. Some nuggets were weighty, others witty, a few just plain daft. In an early issue, one of Terry Wogan’s was “Never Eat A Mango Fully Clothed” which remains with me to this day.

I recently shared my Word To The Wise with Martin Amis, from the very last issue of the magazine (it folded as a paper concern in 2012, but lives on on the Word podcast, which I mentioned in my last post). I’ve loved looking back over them, and they sit among the pieces of work of which I’m most proud (and I’m making these paid posts as freelancers retained their copyright there – of course they did, Word were the good guys – and I think *lank hair swoosh* that they’re worth it). And of course, given the subjects, there’s still a lot to learn from them.

Here, Neil tells us things about social media, singing, moronic lyrics, religion, poverty and what pop should be about, in ways that still hold incredible currency today. Plus his last point is about longevity, which feels apt. “A brilliant starting point is absolutely everything,” he begins, which is quite a way to lead you in.