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
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