Songfacts®:

• In "New London Boy," Neil Tennant chronicles his origin story. He takes us back to the early 1970s when, freshly graduated, he leaves his home city of Newcastle for the bright lights of London. There he lands a job in the hushed halls of the British Museum's manuscript department.
  
  "I get a flat with friends, we're all dressing up, you're wondering about your sexuality," Tennant reflected to The Guardian.
• Tennant describes "New London Boy" as a bridge between verses two and three of "Being Boring," the classic Pet Shop Boys track where he reminisces about partying with his childhood friend Chris Dowell (who later tragically succumbed to an AIDS-related illness) and his move south to London.
• Shimmering synths set the scene as Tennant sings about leaving his life in Newcastle behind for London's streets. The vibrant city throws open a world of possibilities, a world where gender lines blur. "Are they girls or boys? Is everyone gay?" he wonders, wide-eyed and open to this new life. But a hint of doubt creeps in, "Am I just kidding myself [that] I'll go all the way?"
  
  "'Going all the way' is a sexual reference," he explained to the BBC, "But it's also about my ambitions to be a singer. And in those days I had a girlfriend, so it's about bisexuality a bit as well."
• The wistful mood of "New London Boy" takes a sharp turn with a rapped section. Here, Tennant confronts the dark reality of his youth, a time when violence shadowed the burgeoning Newcastle gay scene.
  
  "Newcastle in the '70s," he shared with the BBC, "was terrifying. The only time I ever got punched was by a skinhead, just waiting for a bus. I bought that paranoia down to London with me."
  
  Tennant drew inspiration from a local legend: a drag queen who fought back against skinhead attackers outside Newcastle's Eldon pub in the '70s. Prepared for trouble, she wielded her handbag concealing a hefty brick, sending the attackers packing.
  
  "I like the idea that someone would fight back," Tennant said, a hint of admiration in his voice. "But," he added with a wry smile, "I've still never had a handbag of my own."
• The Tennant rap breakdown is a homage to the New York dance records that brought him and his Pet Shop Boys partner Chris Lowe together. "It's done in the style of an early '80s Grandmaster Flash rap," he said. "Which is the rap style that comes naturally to me."
• Pet Shop Boys recorded "New London Boy" for their 15th studio album, Nonetheless. It was produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence + The Machine, Foals) and mostly recorded at his East London studio.