In the opening minutes of the New Year, the Pet Shop Boys appear on British TV as special guests on the now traditional televised New Year’s Eve pop star performance, this year by Years and Years’ Olly Alexander at London’s Riverside Studios. They joined him for two songs, “It’s a sin” and “Dreamland”. (In a more normal year this would have been a live broadcast, but due to the pandemic it has been recorded several weeks earlier, on December 8.)
On March 22, “Purple Zone”, a single credited to Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys, is released. The song had originally been recorded by Soft Cell alone for their forthcoming Happiness Not Included album but after the Pet Shop Boys expressed enthusiasm for the as-yet-unreleased song after hearing Soft Cell perform it at the Hammersmith Apollo in November 2021, an initial invitation to remix the song led to its reworking as a collaboration, and to a joint video shoot in a south London pub. “We’ve always acknowledged Soft Cell,” notes Chris. “It felt like a real moment,” says Neil.
On May 10, after two pandemic-related postponements, the Pet Shop Boys’ Dreamworld: the greatest hits tour – originally scheduled to begin in May 2020 – finally opens in Milan.
On June 26, the Pet Shop Boys perform for the third time at the Glastonbury festival. For the first seven songs, a technical glitch forces Chris to perform hidden behind a screen, but eventually he is revealed. “After that,” says Neil, “it was a real adrenaline rush.”
On September 17 in Toronto the Pet Shop Boys play the first of 13 co-headlining shows with New Order across North America on the Unity tour. The idea that the two groups might tour together in this way was one that Chris has floated some years before: “I just thought it would be something I’d like to go and see.” (The tour’s eventual name, Unity, was Bernard Sumner’s counter-proposal to Chris’s initial suggestion, United.) The two acts alternated opening and closing the show, both performing, as New Order preferred, full ninety-minute sets; before, and in between, Paul Oakenfold DJ-ed. “It felt like,” says Neil, “to use our age-old word, an event. It felt like an event for us and for the audience.”
On December 31 the Pet Shop Boys perform at the Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh. Their set includes a new version of “Paninaro”, its first performance for thirteen years.
The Pet Shop Boys begin their three-week run of Somewhere shows at London’s Savoy Theatre.
The PSB back catalogue is re-released on CD with bonus discs.
The Release Tour comes to San Diego, California.
Neil and Chris are in Paris filming the video for ‘Minimal.’
Playing to an exclusive invitation-only audience, the Boys perform a live show for BBC Radio 2 to mark the re-opening of the historic BBC Radio Theatre in London.
Neil and Miranda Cooper collaborate on the lyrics for ‘Love etc.’
The Boys report on their official website that they have just finished composing the music for their ballet, scheduled to debut in 2011.
Chris and Neil are in Sydney, Australia in preparation for their upcoming three consecutive nights’ concerts at Carriageworks.
Neil records a telephone interview with the BBC’s Zoe Ball. Then he and Chris work on several tracks: ‘Omar’s Theme,’ ‘Ich bin Musik,’ and ‘Angelic Thug.’
The PSB Dreamworld Tour comes to Oberhausen, Germany.
The Boys perform at Sala Apolo in Barcelona, their second concert in that city in less than a week.
‘A New Bohemia’ with bonus tracks is released as a digital single today. (A physical release will follow.) This same evening, the Boys perform in Glasgow.