After completing a degree in history at the Polytechnic of North London, Neil takes a job at Marvel Comics, anglicizing spellings and indicating where over-risque woman needed to be redrawn decently. While there he interviews comic fan Marc Bolan, who politely points out that his tape recorder wasn’t working. In 1977 he works at Macdonald Educational Publishing, later moving to ITV Books. In June 1982, he joins Smash Hits.
The Pet Shop Boys make it into The Observer’s readers’ poll of the 100 greatest singles of all time, with ‘West End Girls’ placing at #70.
The Boys compose a one-minute ‘classical’ piece (‘Particle’) that will later be performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra for its upcoming ‘Music and Chance’ project. As Neil later says, ‘Chris basically wrote it and I added a couple of parts.’
Frances Barber is nominated for the Off West End ‘Best Lead Performance’ Award for her role as Billie Trix in the stage show Musik, with songs composed by Neil and Chris.