Chris Lowe Q&A from The Face

Street Style: do people look good to you, on the streets?
I liked it when it was really tribal. Now it's just merged into one mushiness, hasn't it? Get your bloody vintage jeans out. I don't know. Fashion's al over isn't it? A'you know what it is? You just see all the same things going round and round and round. Unless it's just me, moaning. No? Oh good, I thought I was the only person.

Who looks good in music?
D'you know what? A lot of it's to do with your stomach. Like Janet Jackson. The idea for her last video is 'you've got a great stomach'. Similarly, Kylie's bottom. The clothes aren't the issue. And I hate the idea some stylist goes out and buys all these labels that you can't wear 'cause they've been ruined by Hear'Say.

You were the world's foremost 'paninaro' pioneer, of course
That was a very exciting time in clothes, wasn't it? We'd just discovered Armani then, and Armani was only available in Milan and a few other places in Italy. I've always liked things you can't get readily (guffaws loudly).

So everything's a gigantic swizz 'cause everyone can get hold of everything?
That's the problem with society in general. Everything's too readily available. There's no underground anymore. There's no elite! That's what the Pet Shop Boys are all about, for God's sake, elitism. And you can't find it anymore. Someone brings out a great underground tune, it's on Radio 1 the next day, it's ruined! Life has just been ruined by it all!

You have it in for career-pop, don't you?
Oh yes. I really do. It's just gone beyond a joke now, hasn't it? It was bad enough before punk. Even dance music is bordering on progressive rock. It's become such trainspottery, laddish, heterosexual nonsense, a lot of it. I go to some clubs and think 'hands up who's enjoying this please?'

The Stepford Popstars...
What really annoys me is that they don't care where they end up. They do their training and then could be on a west end stage, in a pop group, in The Bill. The whole thing is just entertainment. They don't care about the music.

Who do you blame?
The public. Hahaha! I don't know, it must be what we all want. Mustn't it really? It's the whole culture that's used to this now, that's used to being sold it all, used to accepting it. It can't go on like this forever, can it? That's why we're hoping for the world to end, isn't it? We're acce;lerating to a point which must end in oblivion, so that something new can emerge.

Do you think anything's any good?
The only thing I truly loved last year was the video for 'Crying at the Discotheque', by Alcazar. It was very discoey and trashy. They're wearing sequinned hot pants with these mad people dressed as chickens and this brilliant roller'skating dance, just hilarious and uplifting. Whenever I'm getting ready to go out, I put that record on.

Do you adhere to Tony Wilson's 13-year rule and The Revolution's on for this year?
Well I can't wait. I think The Strokes are refreshing. I went to their gig at Heaven and I thought the tunes were really great. And they look rockstarry.

How about Fischerspooner? Electro-rock, features a loud bisexual man in tons of make-up
We need more of that, don't we? Everyone's so bloody normal.

Eminem's film is coming out this year. Excited about that?
In which he plays... himself? Not really. He should do more cross-dressing. I think that's his forte: Eminem as Britney in The Britney Spears Story. Britney doesn't do it for me, I'm afraid. She doesn't seem terribly good-looking. And her voice! Unbelievable.

You've got your new album coming out and it has an indie element, we hear.
I didn't use the word indie, did I? We just didn't use dance elements. We went to this shop in Newcastle and Neil bought half a dozen guitars.

And Johnny Marr, he plays guitar
On almost every one. He's so funny. Like everyone I know from manchester, just naturally hilarious, he could be a comedian. He does great impressions of Manc scallies. He does one of Neil - but Neil won't let me see it - and Marti Pellow.

Crap pop on one side, potential nuclear war on the other. How do you stop losing faith in the human race?
This tosspot Bin laden wants to drag us back to a time of total intolerance, the sad bastard. You think we've come a long way, where everyone's got rights and freedom of speech, blah de blah, and then you get some nutter who wants to actually take all that away. Whoever invented God is an idiot. God is absolutely man's worst invention.

What will be the Pet Shop Boys' legacy?
I would want it to be that we've written some great songs that meant something to people. We've got fans round the world. Not like these manufactured pop acts. They're only popular in England. It's so parochial!

Does hate, as someone once said, keep a man alive?
D'you know what? I think I'll have that on my tombstone: 'Hate Kept Him Alive'. Nyeheheheh!!!