Pet Shop Boys to compose ballet

The Pet Shop Boys performed a medley at the Brits

The Pet Shop Boys are working on a ballet featuring "electronics and strings" to be staged at Sadler's Wells, Neil Tennant has revealed.

The singer told Radio 2 presenter Stuart Maconie that the piece, based on a Hans Christian Andersen story, could open at the London theatre in 2011.

He and keyboardist Chris Lowe were composing an original score, he said.

Winning an outstanding contribution at Wednesday night's Brit Awards had given the duo "a warm feeling", he added.

It's quite a big project. There's a lot of music to write but we've written half an hour of it

Neil Tennant

Tennant, 54, who told Maconie he liked "Shostakovich a lot" and that Prokofiev was "brilliant", said the ballet was "a very exciting project".

"It's quite a big project. There's a lot of music to write but we've written half an hour of it and we've done a bit of a workshop with them.

"It's got a story, it's like a Tchaikovsky ballet in that it's based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen but we've got the choreographer sorted out now."

He added: "We're going to be working on that across the year but we're touring so we probably won't get it really finished until the end of next year."

Pop victory

The Pet Shop Boys performed a medley of hits at the Brits and were joined on stage by Brandon Flowers of The Killers and US singer Lady GaGa for final number West End Girls.

Pop music is just always taken for granted in this country

Neil Tennant

Tennent said: "I knew we were up for it this year and I thought they'd probably give it to a rock band and so I think it's quite nice they gave it to a pop group.

"Pop music is just always taken for granted in this country, in a way, whereas you can read much more about rock music than you can about pop music.

"At the same time, as we've been saying for 25 years, pop music tends to actually survive, funnily enough."

The duo will release their 10th studio album, Yes, next month and will play live dates in June at Manchester Apollo and London's O2 arena.