History

On February 16^th an hour-long film about the Pet Shop Boys is broadcast by the TV arts programme The South Bank Show.

The Pet Shop Boys play a concert at the Hacienda Nightclub in Manchester on May 13^th to coincide with an exhibition of Derek Jarman’s paintings at Manchester City Art Gallery and with the Hacienda’s tenth anniversary. They perform with J.J. Belle and Sylvia Mason-James. In rehearsals they decide they want to play a suitable cover version and — after tinkering with, then discarding The Beatles’ ‘Fool On The Hill’ — choose the Village People’s 1979 hit ‘Go West’. The following month, on June 8^th, the Pet Shop Boys performed with the same line-up at Roseland in New York, a benefit for Lifebeat, an organization for people in the music business with AIDS.

Neil co-writes and sings on a new Electronic single ‘Disappointed’. The title came to him when Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner’s backing track reminded him of ‘Disenchantee’, a song liked by French singer Mylene Farmer. “ ‘Disappointed’ is”, he says, “sort of a love song, about not being disappointed”.

Eric Watson’s film of the 1991 Performance tour — also titled ‘Performance’ — is released on video on September 28^th. It has been delayed after a copyright wrangle with one of the owners of ‘I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’, and all traces of that song have been ruthlessly excised.

On October 26^th, the soundtrack to the Neil Jordan film ‘The Crying Game’ is released on Spaghetti Records. Earlier in 1992 the Pet Shop Boys had been asked whether they would be interested in helping with songs for the film, at that time titled ‘The Soldier’s Wife’. After seeing, and loving, a rough edit, they agreed to release the soundtrack on their Spaghetti label, and to contribute songs produced by them and performed by Cicero and Carroll Thompson. At the last moment, it was suggested that they also produce a new version of Dave Berry’s 1964 single, ‘The Crying Game’, with Boy George singing. They had lunch with him, and a week later it was recorded. ‘The Crying Game’ subsequently became the film’s theme tune. It is a British hit single in September 1992 and then, in the Spring of 1993, it became an American hit in the wake of the film’s immense American success. “I’m as happy as a sandboy”, Boy George will comment, and plans will be hatched for he and the Pet Shop Boys to work together again on his next LP.