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History

April 2023

On April 14, a new Pet Shop Boys’ EP, Lost, is released digitally and as part of the latest edition of the Pet Shop Boys periodical, Annually 2023. Lost was planned as a four track EP of songs that were originally demoed in 2015 for Super though now, in some cases, seemly newly relevant. Its title — taken from the first song, “The lost room”, inspired by a film about military school bullying and written in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Crimea — “also seems,” says Neil, “to represent a sort of larger, philosophical or political point, where there’ve been times recently where the world feels a bit lost in terms of the direction it’s going in.” This sense is further amplified by the last-minute addition of a fifth song, a more recent composition “Living in the past”, which the Pet Shop Boys had posted on social media two months earlier in rough demo form, accompanied by a video in which Vladimir Putin appeared to shapeshift into Joseph Stalin. 

Lost

2023 June

On June 16, a new Pet Shop Boys compilation, Smash, presenting 55 Pet Shop Boys’ singles from the years 1985 to 2020 in chronological order, is released. The title was Chris’s. “I was thinking of the artist Roy Lichtenstein,” says Chris. “It seemed very Roy Lichtenstein: Pow! Wham! Smash! And there’s also, ‘It’s a smash!’ – that’s what people used to say about singles. Also, there is the connection with Neil and Smash Hits.” Its sleeve is a combined, distorted version of previous Pet Shop Boys’ sleeves. “Listening through, I felt quite proud of the whole thing,” says Neil. “This astonishing number of singles over such long period of time. And I think the last CD is really good. You sort of imagine a moment where you might think, ‘this is all a bit dodgy now’, but in my opinion that doesn’t happen.” 

SMASH – The Singles 1985-2020

On this day

1999

The Pet Shop Boys perform in concert in Tampa, Florida—an area that just a week earlier had experienced a close brush with Hurricane Irene. Chris mildly complains to an interviewer about the lingering bad weather.

2006

They perform in Austin, Texas.

2008

Chris and Neil discuss packaging art for their next album with Mark Farrow. Later Sam Taylor-Wood and the Boys throw a party at London’s White Cube gallery to celebrate the pending release of their collaborative cover of ‘I’m in Love with a German Film Star.’ Various celebrities attend, including David Walliams of Little Britain.

2013

The Pet Shop Boys receive the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Music’ award at this year’s Q Magazine awards show in London. Robbie Williams presents them with the award.

2016

Having recovered from his bout of food poisoning, Neil travels with Chris by car from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, where they perform this evening their first U.S. date on the Super Tour.