On August 19th, Neil and Chris meet by chance in an electronics shop on the Kings Road. Realizing they have a common interest in dance music, they begin to write together. Initially they call themselves West End; later they come up with the name Pet Shop Boys, a name derived from some friends who work in a pet shop in Ealing. “We thought it sounded like an English rap group”.
Chris and Neil perform a brief two-song set at the London Astoria.
The Performance VHS is released, as is Cicero’s Future Boy album, largely produced by PSB.
Neil records his vocal for ‘Metamorphosis.’
Bilingual debuts on the U.S. album chart.
The Boys conclude an extended period of relative silence with a post on their official website, stating that they’ve been busy in the studio for the past few weeks writing new songs—sixteen of them, to be exact. They expect to begin recording them in November for a likely new album release in 2012.
It’s a big PSB weekend in the States. Chris and Neil are interviewed on today’s edition of World Café on National Public Radio. Also, all weekend, the Pet Shop Boys ‘take over’ Sirius XM satellite radio station ‘1st Wave,’ with a song from their latest album Electric played every hour as well as a ‘Town Hall’ and song intros by Neil and Chris. And they appear in concert this evening in Chicago.
They conclude their Electric Tour (though as they say on their website, ‘for the moment’) with a show in Taipei, Taiwan.
After having spent the previous night in Laguna Beach, Chris and Neil decide to visit the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda on their way back to Los Angeles.
The Boys perform this evening at New York’s legendary Madison Square Garden.