Before every performance on 1989’s Ultimate Event triple header tour with Sammy Davis Jr. and Liza Minnelli, the American icon born Francis Albert Sinatra in Hoboken NJ one hundred and nine years ago had one little ritual he’d become accustomed to: sipping a nice cup of tea with lemon and honey. He said the brew soothed his vocal chords.
Thirty-five years on, and during the promo rounds for their return-to-form elpee Nonetheless, in April 2024 British pop duo the Pet Shop Boys’ gave a wide-ranging interview to the Hollywood Reporter where, amid myriad tropics, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe reflected on the time they were drinking tea at the Savoy (a swell and swanky London hotel on the very street I was born on, the Strand) with the Rat Pack’s top cats. Oh, and Liza with an M.
This is the illuminating exchange.
TENNANT: The amazing thing about working with Dusty [Springfield] is you get offered everything. That’s how the music industry works. We got offered every female singer. And Liza was really special because, for our generation, she’s Cabaret. In 1973, you’ve got David Bowie, and you’ve got Cabaret. And that all filters into punk rock, as well. It was a big popular culture moment, Liza Minnelli in Cabaret.
And so we were immediately intrigued by this idea. So Liza was in London playing with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. And we met her in a suite at the Mayfair Hotel. And we went up in the lift to meet. And we walked down the corridor and rang the doorbell of the suite. And Liza answered it, and the three of us all laughed. We just burst out laughing. Because it was so ridiculous.
LOWE: It was an amazing moment. Because Liza is so Liza.
TENNANT: She is Liza. She’s Liza in real life.
LOWE: She is Liza. Fantastic.
TENNANT: And, of course, we’re us in real life. And we all laughed. And that was that. We’re doing the album. And we did some demos in New York and then we just got down to it. We only had 10 weeks. The album had a budget, which we weren’t familiar with the concept of, and we did it. And that’s why we did cover versions — because we didn’t have time to write more songs.
One afternoon, we were in Liza’s suite at the Savoy. We liked it because you get tea served by a waiter, the whole thing. And we were having tea served and suddenly a barefoot Sammy Davis Jr. comes in, and he calls Chris and I, “You cats.”
LOWE: Doesn’t get any better than that, does it?
TENNANT: I mean, to be called, “You cats” by Sammy Davis Jr. is a real career high. And actually, he told us — this is a showbiz exclusive for you — that he wanted to play the Phantom of the Opera. And I think he even was in conversation with Andrew Lloyd Webber about doing that.
LOWE: Consequently, we ended up at this amazing dinner for Frank, Liza, and…
TENNANT: And Sammy.
LOWE: In this huge room in the Savoy Hotel. We made an entrance.
TENNANT: Everyone was there. And Liza was very good at making an entrance. And so the three of us came in, us on either arm with Liza, and she was worried that Frank was going to be in a mood because Chris wasn’t wearing a suit. But then he was very nice to us, actually.
LOWE: Yeah. And we saw Frank Sinatra backstage just before we went on stage at the Royal Albert Hall, and that was something you’d never forget.
TENNANT: He came out with a glass of bourbon or whiskey, or whatever it was he drank, and there’s a slope, and he’s wearing his shiny patent leather shoes. And he just slid down it with his bourbon. He looked like someone who meant mischief.
LOWE: Yeah, definitely had a twinkle.
Interview by Seth Abramovitch
Edited by Steve Pafford
© The Hollywood Reporter, 2024
