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.
The PSB organization puts out a press notice announcing the upcoming release of the Closer to Heaven original cast album the following October.
The Boys perform for the second day in a row at a festival in Norway—this time at the Rått og Råde Festival in Stavanger.
The Pet Shop Boys appear as guests on this evening’s episode of the long-running BBC Radio drama The Archers. Their storyline concerns their performance at the show’s fictional Loxfest music festival. (The recording session for their appearance had taken place several weeks beforehand.)
Neil presents his favorite songs by The Killers on ‘The Electronic Killers,’ an edition of the BBC website’s Artist Icons Collection. Among others, he plays tracks with distinct PSB connections, including the Brandon Flowers solo song ‘I Can Change’ (which features a sample of Neil’s voice) and one of the Boys’ remixes of ‘Read My Mind.’