Neil plays in a group in Newcastle called Dust: Their most popular song is a preposterous affair he has written called “Can you hear the dawn break?”. They are heavily influenced by The Incredible String Band. “We were convinced we would become terribly famous. It was a very kind of stoned seventies but we used to think it was absolutely brilliant at the time”.
The Boys do some ‘reprogramming’ of ‘You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk.’
They spend most of the day working with Andrew Dawson on ‘A Face Like That.’ That evening they watch the film WE, directed by Madonna, on DVD.
An online ‘fake news’ page falsely reports that Neil has died in a car crash. Then someone pretending to be Neil goes on Twitter to refute the report. (The next day, the real Neil would comment about all this on the official PSB website, noting that he was of course alive and well, but that he hadn’t gone on Twitter to refute the story, either.)
The Pet Shop Boys perform at the 50th birthday party for Russian billionaire businessman Oleg Tinkov at the Belmond Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Tinkov’s actual birthday was roughly three weeks earlier, but the party took place on this date.)