They're not exactly the hardest men in pop but Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe aren't afraid to speak out.

Unconvinced by Eminem's claim that he is "not homophobic, only speaking as a character and representing homophobia in America", the duo wrote The Night I Fell In Love, a retaliation song about a gay rapper.

Neil explains: "I thought it would be quite interesting to take that method and just to imagine a scene where a boy meets a famous rap star backstage at his concert and is surprised to discover he's gay and ends up sleeping with him.

"Just to present rap in this homosexual context. I mean, there obviously are gay rap stars.

"I was thinking of the boy as the schoolboy in Queer As Folk, going to see a concert at Manchester Arena and he ends up backstage because he is cute and he gets off with the rap star.

"I think if rap's going to be provocative, you can be provocative back. But I do like Eminem's records. I think he's brilliant."

The Night I Fell In Love is from the Pet Shop Boy's latest album, Release, which also features songs about Peter Mandelson and Jesus Christ.

Neil says: "A lot of the songs on the album were inspired by things in newspapers at the time.

"I Get Along was written when Peter Mandelson, who was the Northern Ireland secretary, was forced to resign from the government.

"I took the story of that and just turned it into a sort of love song about the breakdown of a relationship.

"Chris wrote the chords for Birthday Boy but I had no idea whatsoever for lyrics. Then Chris flicked through The Sun and said birthday boy because it was Michael Owen's birthday and that was the headline on the sports pages.

"For some reason, I immediately thought of Jesus Christ because on Christmas Day, he is the birthday boy.

"Then I thought of the idea of the birthday boy being Stephen Lawrence, the black kid who was killed by racists in South London, or Matthew Shepherd, the gay boy who was killed by homophobes in America: Someone who's killed out of hatred and whose killing changes everything and makes people confront their own hatred, becoming, in that sense, like Christ and dying for our sins."

Release was recorded at the Pet Shop Boys' studio in Neil's home in the North East and demonstrates a new sound for the duo.

It relies less on the big dance beats for which they are known and more on a new sound which mixes electronics and guitars.

Neil says: "Up there in the North East, we didn't really feel as though we were in the middle of some kind of scene. It's quite a barren landscape, quite bleak and that's reflected in the type of music we were writing and the way it sounds."

Tickets are £25. Call the box office on 0870 900 9100.