Chris Lowe has been having a nightmare. He’s in a prison, surrounded by animals. Then the phone rings and he has an interview to do. It’s a truly surreal start to the day.

“Oh, I’m glad you woke me up,” the Pet Shop Boys’ keyboardist says. “It was so weird, really freaky, a horrible dream. What’s the weather like? I bet it’s raining. Hang on, let me look. Oh, look at that, it’s sunshining. It’s absolutely beautiful.” Lowe seems likely to burst into song.

He’s in a London hotel room, and not because he’s on tour. “No, I wanted a change so I sold my flat,” Lowe says. “I’m staying here until I find something else.”

Lowe could probably afford any number of flats. Along with fellow founder member, Neil Tennant, he’s one of half of probably the most successful disco (as Tennant has always labelled their music), electronic pop act in history. Now in its 27th year, the duo has a list of singles (think West End Girls, Love Comes Quickly, It’s A Sin, What Have I Done To Deserve This, Rent, Being Boring, Go West, I’m With Stupid, Always On My Mind to name a few) and albums that have not only dominated the charts over three decades but proved endlessly just how great timeless pop can be.

Their last and ninth studio album, Fundamental, was one of the great albums of 2006 while the latest album, the live Concrete, doesn’t miss a beat. It’s testimony to a duo that loves what it does.

“It sounds a little clichéd,” Lowe says, “but we are enjoying making music as much now as we ever have. We’ve just finished a few weeks writing and it was great. This is a young man’s game but maybe it also keeps you young.

“We saw Molly Meldrum – he’s young at heart.” There’s a chuckle. “He’s a great role model.” Pause. “I love people with lots of enthusiasm.” They are usually characters. And the man on the end of the phone isn’t noted for being one. When it comes to the Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant is generally regarded as the more outgoing and friendly. Wikipedia goes as far as to describe Tennant as an “erudite intellectual, articulate and verbose in speech” while Lowe “appears guarded and terse but nevertheless behaves as casual, flippant and fun-loving”.

Chris takes this onboard with more laughter: “Well, I’d rather not do a lot of interviews if I can help it but when I’m socialising I’m quite a lively person.

“I think one of the things about pop music is that a lot of people like talking about themselves. I mean some of them do nothing else but that. I don’t. I don’t have an ego that needs massaging.

“But, yes, Neil is very witty and funny and [this is important] he’s good to travel with. We have a lot of fun travelling around the world and we also travel with a great bunch of people. It’s one of the things I like about travelling – the camaraderie and partying.

“We had a great time the last time we were in your neck of the woods. We kept being given B-52s [Bailey’s Irish Cream,
Kahlua and Grand Marnier] when we went out after each show. Wherever we went, B52s. We weren’t complaining but it did seem a little odd. Then, after the tour was over, we found out that Kahlua was sponsoring us.” He then rolls into a story about a club and entering when it was dark and coming out when it was light … you know, one of those nights.”

But if big nights out are great in Australia, touring South America is even better. Lowe nominates the party mad nationals of Brazil, Argentina and, even, Chile as the best audiences in the ‘let’s-go-crazy’ business.

“It’s actually being at a football match,” he says. “Every time you end a song they start chanting. The last time we were there it was all ‘ole, ole, ole … ole, ole ole’. They were having a great time. But we have been lucky; we’ve had a pretty good response all over the world.

”I like going to places we haven’t played before and having some time in-between gigs to have a look around. We’ve never been to South Africa {hint}. We wanted to go to Iraq. We wrote the music for [the 1925 classic film], Battleship Potemkin, and wanted to take that to Iran.” In 2004, the duo was commissioned to write a new score for the film. It premiered on a live concert and screening in Trafalgar Square, London, on September 12, 2004.

And talking about the Middle East … This very morning, the sunny one we opened the drapes on, the news of the world has been that Tony Blair is about to announce he is pulling troops out of Iraq. Lowe is delighted. “Even more reason that it’s good you woke me up. Hang on, I’ve got to turn on the TV and see if it’s on the news. That’s good news. If he’d decided to resign… that would have been great news.”

In the meantime the Pet Shop Boys do have to pay the rent, so it’s off to South America, then New Zealand and finally Australia in time for the V Festival.

“The show is conceived by [theatre designer] Es Devlin,” Lowe says. “We worked with her originally when we did the Closer To Heaven soundtrack. She’s put together a show that revolves around projectors and those new light things. It’s visually spectacular. I’m on keyboards, Neil sings, we have three backings singers and two dancers. All the music is computer-generated. It really is a very visual show.”

When told the all dancing, all costume-wearing Gnarls Barkly have said they intend to be the act most impossible to follow on stage and that they will wear a different costume every night, Lowe laughs. “We wear a different costume every song, so we win.” Do you? “Okay, every second song.”

Pet Shop Boys tour with V Festival – Sydney – 31 Mar, Gold Coast – 1 Apr, and the Best Of V in Melbourne and Adelaide. Stay tuned to Same Same for updates.