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 appear this morning as musical guests on the BBC television show Going Live! This same day, ‘Always on My Mind’ hits #1 in the U.K.
The Boys record a guest-DJ stint for Radio One, to be broadcast Christmas Eve.
Chris and Neil attend a Naseem Hamed boxing match in New York City.
At the star-studded London ‘stag party’ for Elton John and David Furnish to celebrate their upcoming civil union ceremony, Neil and Chris perform ‘It’s a Sin,’ followed by the showtune/gay-anthem classic ‘I Am What I Am,’ on which Neil duets with the Scissor Sisters’ frontman Jake Shears.
They wind up their three-date ‘mini-tour’ of South Africa with a concert this evening in Durban.