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.”
Andy MacKay of Roxy Music records the saxophone solo at the end of ‘Love Comes Quickly’ at London’s Advision Studios. Neil and Chris spend part of the time chatting with Andy’s wife.
‘Left to My Own Devices’ peaks at #84 on the U.S. singles chart. On this same date, Neil attends the final performance of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre. ‘Losing My Mind,’ which the Boys would soon demo and record with Liza Minnelli, comes from this musical, although whether it was Neil’s attendance at the show that inspired their cover or they were already interested in the song beforehand is uncertain.
David Morales mixes the recent PSB recording of ‘New York City Boy’—appropriately enough, in a New York City studio.
The Boys perform in Bremen, Germany.
Disco 3 is released in the United States and a number of other countries. On this same day, the video for the single ‘London’ receives its official ‘launch’ at London’s Rocket Gallery, with Chris and Neil in attendance along with the video’s director, Martin Parr.
Neil is the guest on today’s edition of the famed BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs.
Neil and Chris write the song ‘Invisible.’ Later they go out to dinner and a karaoke bar.
The Pet Shop Boys and Soft Cell are at The Black Prince, a pub in the Kennington district of London, filming scenes for the video for their upcoming collaborative single, ‘Purple Zone.’