Pet Shock Boys.... we might have been called Shampooch

Pop duo reveal their close shave

- MARK JEFFERIES

THEY may be our most successful ever music duo but, in another life, the Pet Shop Boys could have been a one-hit wonder in France with an even dafter name.

After a chance meeting in a music shop in 1981, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe bonded over their mutual love of disco and electronica.

They made demos together using the name West End before taking inspiration via some pals and changing their name - narrowly sidestepping greater silliness.

Chris says: "I was staying with some friends in Ealing [West London] and they had friends who worked in, it wasn't a pet shop, it was a poodle parlour.

"As if our name was not bad enough it was called Shampooch."

Neil says: "The pet shop was upstairs and was Shampooch in the basement? We could have been called Shampooch!"

After deciding on Pet Shop Boys, their friends' nickname for their poodle-pampering pals, the pair had a few false starts that might have derailed the careers of lesser acts.