The Pet Shop Boys score ‘Battleship Potemkin’ – Trafalgar Square, September 12 2004
'Spending an evening in Trafalgar Square with several thousand cold, wet people isn’t my usual idea of a good time, but this was something else. Namely a screening of Eisenstein’s 1925 silent movie classic ‘Battleship Potemkin’ given an all-new audio makeover courtesy of the Pet Shop Boys and their pals at the Dresden Sinfonika on one rainy summer evening. It was the first time the soundtrack had been performed in the UK, and the crowd was a mix of cinephiles and PSB nuts. Despite the drizzle, the entire crowd watched in rapt silence from beginning to end, before parting ways in a haze of solidarity which lasted right through until the next morning’s commute.' Eddy Lawrence
One drizzly September night in Trafalgar Square, synth showmen Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe premiered their soundtrack to 1925 silent film ‘Battleship Potemkin’, hailed as one of the most influential propaganda films of all time.
Directed by revolutionary director Sergei Eisenstein, the film recreates the 1905 mutiny of Russian sailors on the eponymous battleship as they rose up against their brutal Tsarist officers. Eisenstein declared the soundtrack should be periodically updated to ensure its validity for modern audiences. Nearly 80 years after the film’s release, he could not have hoped for more forward-thinking composers than Tennant and Lowe. The bleak score fused their trademark electronica with tense orchestral arrangements, charging the film with a chilling contemporary twist.
The free performance of ‘Battleship Potemkin’ in Trafalgar Square was organised by the GLA and ICA and witnessed by 25,000 people. Long-term lovers of audiovisual tinkery, the Pet Shop Boys were a natural choice for the project.
The Pet Shop Boys and Dresden Sinfoniker played live with a screening of the movie, creating a brooding piece of public art so powerful some audience members were moved to tears.
