Like many, Suede spent the early part of the pandemic stuck at home and tidying up, and after digging through their archives they opted to begin sharing some of the unearthed treasures with fans on their YouTube channel. This included complete live shows from their various eras, and one of those was their December 1996 show at The Roundhouse in London, the final night of three celebrating the chart-topping success of their third record, Coming Up.

Said director Mike Christie of the concert film on his own YouTube page:

I directed this concert film of the last of three nights at London’s Roundhouse, marking the end of a world tour. It took place December 15th, 1996 . From a production point of view, it wasn’t a major number – the concert would be used for promo purposes only – and I had only a few cameras, but I really like the film. There’s 4 songs here, the first two feature a very special guest. Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys) joined Brett to duet ‘Saturday Night’ and sing a uniquely Suede arrangement of the PSB classic ‘Rent’. The band continue as a five piece to perform a personal favourite of mine ‘Europe Is Our Playground’ and the mega hit ‘Beautiful Ones’.

Mike Christie

Christie only shared the back half of the film on his own YouTube page, whereas the band have the entire thing – you can see the segment Christie is talking about starting around 20:30, where Pet Shop Boys‘ Neil Tennant makes his two-song appearance. I actually had no idea this collaboration ever happened, and “Rent” is one of my favourite PSB songs so I was pretty tickled to discover it.

The audio from the show was later released on limited edition, HMV-only vinyl edition but at is also available on streaming services, though if you just let the video run you get all the audio plus visuals of Brett in his prime, shaking his skinny ass.

Suede’s new record Autofiction is out today, and Pet Shop Boys are in town tomorrow night, just for a bit of context.