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
1998
Neil records the vocals for ‘Footsteps.’
2002
The Pet Shop Boys bring their Release Tour to Edinburgh, Scotland. On the same day, ‘I Get Along’ is released as a single.
2009
They perform at the famed Paris Olympia, their first-ever show at this legendary venue—the oldest music hall in Paris, founded in 1889.
2008
Neil duets with singer Carla Marie Williams on a climactic portion of ‘The Way It Used to Be.’
2011
PSB and Take That perform the first of two consecutive nights’ shows in Copenhagen. Earlier in the day, they had worked in Chris’s hotel room on the song ‘Listening.’
2012
Excerpts from the Boys’ ballet The Most Incredible Thing are performed this afternoon at the Latitude festival in Suffolk, U.K.
2019
A script read-through of Musik takes place at Frances Barber’s flat.
- Facts collated by geowayne.com