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.”
In Los Angeles, the Pet Shop Boys videotape their appearance on the U.S. TV show Soul Train, during which they perform ‘West End Girls’ and ‘Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money).’
In the midst of their Performance tour, the Boys take a day off in Washington, D.C., where Neil tours the Smithsonian museums.
A ‘virtual ride’ featuring the ‘Liberation’ video begins a brief tour of the U.K.
A PSB performance titled Live and Exclusive is broadcast this evening on BBC Radio 2. It features songs from their most recent album Release as well as a number of their classics.
Neil and Chris finish ‘Minimal’ and begin reworking ‘The Sodom and Gomorrah Show.’
It’s Good Friday, and the Boys return to Sydney for their final concert on the Australian leg of the Fundamental Tour.
They work on several tracks: ‘Memory of the Future,’ ‘Vocal,’ and ‘Ball Starts Rolling.’
It’s announced today that the Boys’ scheduled June 5 performance of their Super Tour show at the Olympia Bruno Coquatrix in Paris has been canceled because French law prohibits the use of lasers indoors, and they’ve been unable to find any suitable outdoor venue.
Chris and Neil are the pre-recorded guests on today’s episode of the German radio program The Soundtrack of Our Lives. They take turns selecting some of their favorite songs by other artists from past decades, extending back to the 1960s.
Neil and Chris are guests this morning on BBC Radio 2’s Rylan in the Morning show.