On March 19 two books by Chris Heath – Literally from 1990, and Pet Shop Boys versus America from 1993 – were reissued by the Penguin imprint Cornerstone, completely redesigned by Farrow design, and new introductions and afterwords written by the Pet Shop Boys and Chris Heath.
On April 21, Discovery, the film of the Pet Shop Boys 1994 South American tour – “the tour I enjoyed the most,” Chris notes – is released on DVD, accompanied by the release for the first time of a CD of their performance.
On May 7, a new Pet Shop Boys song, the ten-minute “Cricket wife”, is released on CD (accompanied by “West End girls (New lockdown version)”) with the periodical Annually 2021. “Cricket wife”, written during lockdown, began as an extended piece of music created by Chris. “My mum asked me if I would write a piece of classical music for her,” he explains. “I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got nothing else better to do.’ ‘Classical’ in inverted commas, obviously – I’m no classical composer. In the style of classical music.” When Neil received it, it struck him that it might fit a poem he had written some years before. “It’s really about my parents,” he says. “My father played cricket for many years.”
On December 26, the Pet Shop Boys host a three-hour radio show, Pet Shop Boys, Takeover, on BBC Radio 2 between 9pm and midnight, playing a selection of favourite songs; a broadcast also billed by Radio 2 as “Neil and Chris’s Unpredictable Party Playlist”. (The show has been pre-recorded on the afternoon of December 13.) The Pet Shop Boys have recorded five new jingles for the show, titled “Takeover”, “Strings”, “Beautiful”, “Boxing Day” and “Electric”, and introduce a joyously eclectic selection of music, including records by Matt Monro, Alcazar, Paul Weller (their recent remix of his song “Cosmic Fringes”), Gloria Ann Taylor, Eric Prydz, Françoise Hardy and The 1975. “We’ve only ever done radio when we can play records that we want,” says Chris. “I love doing radio. There’s something very satisfying about broadcasting to the nation.”
‘Love Comes Quickly’ is released as a single.
The Boys continue work on ‘The Out Crowd’ (which is later transformed into ‘Hell’).
After working in the studio on ‘Breathing Space,’ they watch the Oscars on television. Later they go out to dinner and then to L.A.‘s famous Troubadour club for a performance by the band Archers of Loaf.
They perform at Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, U.K.
It’s announced that the Pet Shop Boys and New Order have scheduled a co-headlining concert tour, dubbed ‘The Unity Tour,’ in the United States and Canada for late summer and early fall 2020. (Unfortunately, this tour will later be postponed on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.) On this same day, Tom Watkins, the Pet Shop Boys’ first manager, passes away of undisclosed causes following a long series of serious health issues, although his death won’t be announced to the general public for another two weeks.
In the wake of its recent use in an Allstate Insurance commercial during the Super Bowl broadcast, the roughly 35-year-old ‘Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)’ hits #1 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart, where it will remain for four weeks.