February 1986
On February 24th, ‘Love comes quickly’, which will remain one of their favourite songs, is released, reaching a disappointing #19 in the UK.
History
March 1986
On March 24th, their first LP ‘Please’ is released. “It’s so people can go into the record shop and say can I have the Pet Shop Boys album, please?”.
April 1986
‘West End girls’ reaches #1 in USA.
May 1986
On May 19th a new version of ‘Opportunities’ is released. “The point of that song is that the humour is black, it’s like a joke. The impression is that the people in it are not going to make any money”.
June 1986
The Pet Shop Boys announce, then cancel, a tour of Europe and America; the cost of using a theatre designer and playing fairly small venues proves prohibitive.
September 1986
On September 22nd, a re-recorded version of ‘Suburbia’, a song inspired by the Penelope Spheeris film of the same name about a group of disenchanted rebellious youths in suburban Los Angeles, is released. “It’s about a riot happening in some decaying suburb. It’s just the description of the riot happening and then the aftermath”. On the B‑side is the first version of ‘Paninaro’, named after an Italian youth cult and featuring a quote they both liked that Chris had said on a TV show: “I don’t like country and western, I don’t like rock music, I don’t like rockabilly… I don’t like much really, do I? But what I do like, I love passionately”.
November 1986
On November 17th ‘Disco’, an LP of disco remixes, is released.
On this day
1992
The Crying Game soundtrack (partly produced by PSB) is released on their Spaghetti label.
1994
The Boys launch their DiscoVery tour in Singapore.
1997
They headline at London’s Equality commemoration, having agreed to perform a ‘hastily arranged’ set only at the last minute. Chris later enthuses, ‘It was our greatest moment… our finest hour.’
2006
The Pet Shop Boys perform in Detroit. By a remarkable coincidence, they’ve done consecutive shows in St. Louis and Detroit at the very same time that those two cities’ baseball teams are battling for the World Series championship.
2008: Neil and Chris attend a concert by the Last Shadow Puppets at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.
2013: Chris and Neil are interviewed by Graham Norton on his midday show on BBC Radio 2.
- Facts collated by geowayne.com