LAST WEEK WE reported that Neil Tennant of the pop duo Pet Shop Boys and a lapsed Catholic who has incorporated elements of the liturgy into his songs in the past, has produced his own version of the old spiritual hymn “Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)?” The former altar boy, who was educated at St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School in Newcastle, teamed up with Diamond Version to produce the song, previously also sung by Johnny Cash.Now he has told us the background to the decision. “I heard by chance the [American singer and civil-rights campaigner] Paul Robeson version of the song and was struck by the way the events of the Crucifixion were described in vivid and simple language – tree, cave, stone – which stripped the events of any sense of