On May 2 the Pet Shop Boys appear at Heaven nightclub in London, playing a four song set as part of Can You Bear It?, a benefit for Dainton Connell’s family. For the final song they are joined by Suggs and Carl from Madness, in rambunctious high spirits, to perform a dance version of Madness’s “My Girl”: “It was a very emotional night”.
On October 27 a Pet Shop Boys-produced single by the British artist Sam Taylor-Wood, “I’m in love with a German film star”, is released on the cult German dance label Kompakt. It is the Pet Shop Boys’ third collaboration with Sam Taylor-Wood though the previous one was released under the pseudonym Kiki Kokova. The song is an electronic reinterpretation of the 1981 single by the Passions, a suggestion of Neil’s.
This year’s annual Christmas single from the Killers — “Joseph (Better You Than Me)” — is originally planned as a collaboration between The Killers and Elton John. Neil gets involved after Brandon Flowers asks for help with the lyric; in the end Neil’s short section of guide vocal for the lyric he contributes will remain in the final song when it is made available for download.
An interview with Neil on the subject of PSB being increasingly perceived in America as a ‘gay group’ appears in the Washington Blade, a D.C. gay-community newspaper.
As he subsequently notes on the PSB website, Neil visits London’s Newport Street Gallery this morning to see a new exhibit featuring works by the somewhat controversial American artist Jeff Koons—‘controversial’ because art critics are often sharply divided about the merit of his work. (For his part, Neil writes that he enjoyed the show.)
Back in Edinburgh, Neil attends the next-to-last performance there of Musik, after which he has drinks with Ian McKellen.