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History

October 2008

On October 27 a Pet Shop Boys-produced single by the British artist Sam Taylor-Wood, “I’m in love with a German film star”, is released on the cult German dance label Kompakt. It is the Pet Shop Boys’ third collaboration with Sam Taylor-Wood though the previous one was released under the pseudonym Kiki Kokova. The song is an electronic reinterpretation of the 1981 single by the Passions, a suggestion of Neil’s.

May 2008

On May 2 the Pet Shop Boys appear at Heaven nightclub in London, playing a four song set as part of Can You Bear It?, a benefit for Dainton Connell’s family. For the final song they are joined by Suggs and Carl from Madness, in rambunctious high spirits, to perform a dance version of Madness’s “My Girl”: “It was a very emotional night”.

December 2007

The 53rd issue of the limited edition art magazine Visionaire is published. This issue, entitled SOUND, contains one hundred exclusive audio pieces over five discs in an elaborate sculptural package. The Pet Shop Boys’ contribution is, as commissioned, a song exactly one minute long. It is called “Transfer”.

November 2007

On November 1 they appear at a War Child benefit at the Brixton Academy in London, a concert arranged by Keane. They perform four songs: “Rent”, “West End girls”, “Integral” and “Being boring”. 

On November 25 the very final date of the Fundamental tour takes place, well over a year after the tour started, at the Sala Palatului in Bucharest, Romania. The very final song is a special performance of “Being boring”, with an accompanying photo tribute, in honour of their friend Dainton Connell who died in a Moscow car accident several weeks earlier on October 5.

October 2007

On October 8 the album Disco 4 is released. Reversing the Disco series’ more usual practice, this album principally consists of mixes that the Pet Shop Boys have done for other artists: The Killers, David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Madonna and Atomizer. Also included are two of their own mixes of Pet Shop Boys songs, including a radically new version of “Integral”. A video is made of “Integral” though the song is not released as a conventional single.

August 2007

At the Edinburgh festival an Australian musical theatre piece, Seriously, which structures a loose narrative out of an eclectic sequence of Pet Shop Boys songs has its first British performances. The Pet Shop Boys attend: “Very moving”.

May 2007

On May 14 Rufus Wainwright’s album Release The Stars is released. Neil is the album’s executive producer and appears on four of the songs.

2007 May

On May 14 Cubism, a DVD of the Fundamental tour, directed by David Barnard and filmed in Mexico City on November 14, 2006, is released. They chose Mexico to film as audiences had seemed so good on their previous visits: “Also, to us it seems almost slightly incongruous: ‘Pet Shop Boys in Mexico City’.” The DVD is also accompanied by a CD of the concert.

March 2007

On March 6 “She’s Madonna”, credited to Robbie Williams with Pet Shop Boys, is released as a single.

On this day

1986

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).’

1991

In the midst of their Performance tour, the Boys take a day off in Washington, D.C., where Neil tours the Smithsonian museums.

1994

A ‘virtual ride’ featuring the ‘Liberation’ video begins a brief tour of the U.K.

2002

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.

2005

Neil and Chris finish ‘Minimal’ and begin reworking ‘The Sodom and Gomorrah Show.’

2007

It’s Good Friday, and the Boys return to Sydney for their final concert on the Australian leg of the Fundamental Tour.

2011

They work on several tracks: ‘Memory of the Future,’ ‘Vocal,’ and ‘Ball Starts Rolling.’

2017

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.

2020

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.

2024

Neil and Chris are guests this morning on BBC Radio 2’s Rylan in the Morning show.