Skip to navigation Skip to content

History

July 1975

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.

On this day

1999

The Boys perform in Houston. Their renditions this evening of ‘Always on My Mind’ and ‘Being Boring’ later appear on the ‘You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk’ single.

2000

They travel to Cuba on holiday with friends.

2003

BBC Radio 2 airs the first half of an interview/popumentary, Pet Shop Boys, Really.

2007

Resuming their brief series of ‘Fundamental tour addendum’ concerts in Spain, Chris and Neil travel by train from Barcelona to Valencia, where they perform this evening at the Greenspace Festival.

2016

An hour-long show that the Boys have produced and pre-recorded for Berlin-based Radio Eins—part of a series entitled Freundliche Übernahme (‘Friendly Takeover’)—is broadcast this evening. It consists of music chosen, sequenced, and introduced by Neil and Chris. Meanwhile, they bring their Super Tour tonight to Portland, Oregon.

2019

The ‘Dreamland’ single, previously released in streaming and digital formats, is released in physical formats today.