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History

March 2018

On March 10, the first American production of the Pet Shop Boys’ ballet The Most Incredible Thing premieres at the Knight Theater, Charlotte, North Carolina, performed by the Charlotte Ballet. This premiere is originally scheduled for one day earlier, but is delayed when a truss snaps during the afternoon dress rehearsal. For this new production, the Pet Shop Boys’ recorded score, mixed live, is used instead of a live orchestra, and the competition at the centre of the story is now staged through shadow-play. Neil attends. “In my opinion it was an improvement on the original,” he says. “I thought it was brilliant.”

November 2018

On November 1, a book by Neil, One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem, is published in Britain by Faber & Faber. (Neil had past history with Faber & Faber: “In the late Seventies and early Eighties I used to do freelance work for them as a copy-editor and sometimes as a proof-reader. Then in the mid-Eighties I sold a book, Like Punk Never Happened by Dave Rimmer, to them, and edited it. That was the last thing I ever did in the world of book-publishing.”) He selected the lyrics during train journeys between London and Durham, choosing those he thought would read best in this form. One reason for also including a poem was “to point out that the lyrics aren’t poems, they’re lyrics”. He also wrote an introduction and added annotations to the lyrics. “It is kind of like an autobiography, really,” he says. “Surprisingly, I think it’s quite revealing. More so than I normally would be.”

On this day

1992

The Crying Game soundtrack (partly produced by PSB) is released on their Spaghetti label.

1994

The Boys launch their DiscoVery tour in Singapore.

1997

They headline at London’s Equality commemoration, having agreed to perform a ‘hastily arranged’ set only at the last minute. Chris later enthuses, ‘It was our greatest moment… our finest hour.’

2006

The Pet Shop Boys perform in Detroit. By a remarkable coincidence, they’ve done consecutive shows in St. Louis and Detroit at the very same time that those two cities’ baseball teams are battling for the World Series championship.

2008: Neil and Chris attend a concert by the Last Shadow Puppets at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.

2013: Chris and Neil are interviewed by Graham Norton on his midday show on BBC Radio 2.