On May 27 the Pet Shop Boys appear at the Sunderland Stadium of Light, joining Take That at their invitation as “special guests” on their first reunion concerts as a five-piece on what will be the biggest British tour ever – 29 British stadium shows – followed by a short European leg. “45 minutes of intensity,” says Chris.
On March 17 the ballet The Most Incredible Thing has its first public performance at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. Its genesis can be traced back to a week in where, by chance, two initially unrelated events took place. Ivan Putrov, a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet whom the Pet Shop Boys had got to know through Sam Taylor-Wood, called Neil to ask whether they would write a piece for him to dance to. Two days later, before Neil had even had a chance to ask Chris, Chris called to say that he’d just read a story in a new translation of Hans Christian Andersen’s tales that he thought would make a great ballet: “The Most Incredible Thing”. This eventually led to the Sadler’s Wells production, choreographed by Javier de Frutos and starring Ivan Putrov, Clemmie Sveaas and Aaron Sillis. All ten performances sell out.
On March 14 a double-CD of the music from the ballet The Most Incredible Thing is released under the name Tennant/Lowe. It contains the full performance score of the ballet with orchestrations by Sven Helbig.
On November 25 a children’s play based on a book by the author David Almond, My Dad’s A Birdman, opened at the Young Vic theatre in London. It includes three songs written by Neil and Chris (two incorporating lyrics from the script) and some other instrumental music. “I loved it,” says Chris. “The place was full of children all chatting away. There’s a great bit where one of the cast goes, ‘Do you think he’ll fly?’ and all the children go, ‘No.’ It was really funny.”
On November 1 a new Pet Shop Boys hits compilation, Ultimate, is released. Intended as a straightforward mass market single CD collection of their most popular songs, it is also released in a version with a bonus DVD including 27 Pet Shop Boys performances at the BBC from the past 25 years, most of them filmed for Top Of The Pops, as well as their triumphant performance in the summer of 2010 at Glastonbury festival.
On October 24 a new Pet Shop Boys single, the rousing dance anthem “Together”, is released, produced and written with Tim Powell who was previously part of the team at Xenomania. “I was imagining, really, that there are two people about to have sex for the first time,” says Neil. “But it’s very revolutionary: ‘together I’ll cry with you, together I’ll die with you, together we’ll go all the way…’” It could be anything about two people. It could be Chris and I at the beginning of our writing career together, thinking we could go all the way with this. It wasn’t written as that, but it definitely could be that as well.” Its video, a drama with an Eastern European dance-off between classical and modern dance styles at its centre, is shot in Estonia. Amongst the extra tracks on the single is a cover of the Dave Clark Five’s “Glad all over”, a traditional song of celebration at Chris’s hometown football team, Blackpool.
On June 26 the Pet Shop Boys appeared at the Glastonbury festival to great acclaim. “It was one of those people-as-far-back-as-you-can-see audiences,” says Neil.
On April 17, as part of the annual music business event known as Record Store Day, the Pet Shop Boys release a seven-inch single in an edition of 1000 copies. On one side is the demo of a song they gave to Alcazar, “Love life”, and on other is the 2003 recording, “A powerful friend”.
On February 15 Pandemonium, a DVD and CD of the Pandemonium tour, is released. It was filmed and recorded at the O2 Arena in London on December 21, 2009. The film is directed by David Barnard. The CD version, which includes fewer songs, has been specially mixed for this release by Stuart Price.
On December 14 a new Pet Shop Boys EP, Christmas, is released. It includes a new version of their 1997 Christmas song, “It doesn’t often snow at Christmas”; a new version of the Yes song “All over the world” with an orchestra on it; a version of a medley that has been a highlight of the Pandemonium shows, combining “Se a vida e” with Coldplay’s “Viva la vida”; and two mixes of their version of Madness’s “My girl”.
‘It’s a Sin’ is released as a single.
The Boys perform on an Italian TV show, images from which later appear on the Disco 2 cover.
They perform in Zurich, Switzerland.
Chris and Neil are in London’s Angel Studios with Trevor Horn supervising the recording of orchestral parts for several songs on their next album: ‘Integral,’ ‘Luna Park,’ and ‘Casanova in Hell.’
The Boys kick off their summer European tour with a concert in Skien, Norway.
The Pandemonium Tour comes to Zurich.
Still in Cardiff for the second of their two shows there with Take That, Neil and Chris post on their official website that they’ve been taking time during the tour to write songs in their hotel rooms on a ‘portable studio…. using Pete Gleadall’s iPad to control the mix.’
They work on two portions of A Man from the Future: ‘Other Ranks’ and ‘The Memory and the Control.’ In the evening they watch the England vs. Sweden ‘Euro 12’ soccer match, which England wins (and which Neil describes as ‘pretty amazing’).
The Pet Shop Boys perform at the Sónar Festival in Barcelona.
They bring their Electric Tour show to the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, U.K.
The Boys’ 1988 film It Couldn’t Happen Here, directed by Jack Bond, is re-released today in the U.K. by the British Film Institute in a Region 2 dual-format (DVD and Blu-ray) package, including assorted special features. On this same day, Neil re-records vocals for ‘Love Is the Law’ at a lower key.
The Dreamworld Tour comes to Stockholm, Sweden.
The Boys perform at L’Olympia in Paris.
Pet Shop Boys headline this evening at Spain’s Mallorca Live festival.