March 1985
They sign to Parlophone Records after long negotiations with Bobby O’, who relinquished his contractual rights over them in return for a substantial royalty on future record sales.
History
April 1985
On April 5th, Neil leaves Smash Hits. In the next issue an ‘obituary’ is written, bidding him a sad adieu and predicting that in a matter of weeks Neil’s pop duo, the Pet Shop Boys “will be down the dumper and he’ll come crawling back on bended knees, ha ha ha”. “I spoke to my mum on the telephone and said how we’d signed with EMI and she said “But you’re not going to give up your job, are you?” and I said, actually I did last week”.
July 1985
On July 1st, the first version of ‘Opportunities’ is released. It reached #116 in the UK.
August 1985
They play a short set as part of the ICA Rock Week in London, Chris showing off his skills on the trombone. Neil and Chris are interviewed on stage by Max Headroom. They re-record ‘West End girls’ with producer Stephen Hague the same month.
October 1985
‘West End girls’ is released on October 28th and goes to #1 in the UK in January. It is subsequently #1 in USA, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and Norway, selling 1.5 million copies. “People endlessly ask us what it’s like having a #1” says Neil at the time. “But what it feels like is vaguely nothing. It feels like having a cup of tea”.
On this day
1991
The Pet Shop Boys appear in concert in Zurich, Switzerland.
2007
Chris and Neil bring their Fundamental Tour to Hamburg, Germany.
2008: Neil appears at the Brighton Festival for a ‘discover the man behind the music’ talk/interview session with writer and cultural commentator Michael Bracewell.
2011
Neil attends a performance of the new ballet Cleopatra (scored by Claude-Michel Schönberg, best known for Les Miserables and Miss Saigon) at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre, where his and Chris’s own ballet The Most Incredible Thing had debuted two months before. On this same day, both Concrete and Battleship Potemkin are released in the U.S. several years after their release in many other countries.
2013
Chris and Neil arrive in Asunción—their first visit to Paraguay—for their Electric Tour concert there the following evening. They hold a press conference shortly after their arrival and expect to do some sightseeing during their stay.
2019
In the studio with Pete Gleadall, the Boys continue working on the Musik tracks. Afterward they meet with Hanif Kureishi and Nikolai Foster of Leicester Curve Theatre to discuss writing music for a new stage production of My Beautiful Laundrette.
2022
The Boys bring their Dreamworld Tour show to Brussels.
- Facts collated by geowayne.com