Neil plays in a group in Newcastle called Dust: Their most popular song is a preposterous affair he has written called “Can you hear the dawn break?”. They are heavily influenced by The Incredible String Band. “We were convinced we would become terribly famous. It was a very kind of stoned seventies but we used to think it was absolutely brilliant at the time”.
Neil and Chris begin working in New York City with Peter Rauhofer on ‘Kitsch,’ an old song from the sixties. Nothing ever comes of it.
The Boys perform their Battleship Potemkin score in a free concert in Neil’s hometown of Newcastle. It’s probably no coincidence that this event occurs on May Day—an international socialist holiday.
They rehearse for their upcoming charity performance at the Heaven nightclub in honor of their late friend and associate Dainton Connell.
Though it’s dated ‘June/July,’ it’s on the newsstands in this month of May: the Pet Shop Boys appear on the cover of the U.S. gay magazine Out for the second time. Included is a lengthy interview with them by Andrew Sullivan.
Neil appears as a guest on the fifth-anniversary episode of the Bigmouth podcast.