Gig played on 28/6/06

The staggering history of this heritage site combined with its striking physical presence makes the Tower Of London seem somehow hyper-real and, as night slowly descends, it appears as fantastic as anything imagined by Peter Jackson's CGI crew. Queens have traditionally come to a sticky end here, but now, the duchesses of British disco are hosting a right royal knees-up as part of the TOL Music Festival.

Pet Shop Boys' fans are ageing along with their heroes, but it's not just the receding hairlines and thickened waists that give the game away. The evening's genteel tone is underlined by the fact that the bar serves Pimm's and lemonade on tap and a special cloakroom allows punters to check in their empty hampers after picnicking on the grassy banks of the moat, then settle down to watch the show, unencumbered. Of course, this pair have built a career on their expression of a peculiarly British, middle-class behaviour. Neil Tennant's deadpan yet genuinely poignant, kitchen-sink-real lyrics are the perfect foil for Chris Lowe's clubby, anthemic pop in the likes of "Suburbia", "Shopping", "Rent", "Opportunities" and "West End Girls" - all of which get a workout tonight - reflecting the greedy optimism of Thatcher's Britain while simultaneously revealing its desperately hollow heart.

Politics may have been pushed further up the agenda with Pet Shop Boys' latest album, "Fundamental", as "I'm With Stupid" (about Blair's fawning relationship with Bush) and "Integral" (a direct attack on the proposed introduction of ID cards) prove, but partying is still paramount. Just five songs in and "Suburbia" has the crowd leaping from their plastic seats to flood the aisles. The impact of the stage design is somewhat diminished by lingering daylight, but there's still a wealth of witty, visual detail: the lace curtain backdrop made from swiftly manoeuvred white screens for "Suburbia"; the Mini-Me dancers decked out like Tennant (black suit and top hat) and Lowe (yellow jacket and white baseball cap); the image of Blair's eyes that fills a projected outline of Tennant during "I'm With Stupid"; and most ridiculously, the giant heads of the duo wheeled on for "Always On My Mind" - over the top of which pop sombrero-d figures clutching bunches of flowers.

A mid-set slump (featuring a guest soul diva and the dreary "Before" and "Dreaming Of The Queen") is soon seen off by the dreamily spangled "West End Girls", a strutting "Sodom & Gomorrah Show" and the thumping, Tatu-like "Integral". Whooping and clapping brings the duo and their dancing doppelgangers back for "So Hard", "It's A Sin" and the gay disco anthem that launched a thousand theme parties, "Go West". After centuries of bloody history, the Tower Of London's just gone glam.

by Sharon O'Connell