After completing a degree in history at the Polytechnic of North London, Neil takes a job at Marvel Comics, anglicizing spellings and indicating where over-risque woman needed to be redrawn decently. While there he interviews comic fan Marc Bolan, who politely points out that his tape recorder wasn’t working. In 1977 he works at Macdonald Educational Publishing, later moving to ITV Books. In June 1982, he joins Smash Hits.
Neil and Chris happen upon George Michael at the Rio de Janeiro airport. Afterward they have, in Neil’s own words, ‘a riotous time on the plane.’
The first of two whole days back-to-back they spend working on ‘Hold On.’ Meanwhile, an exhibition opens at the Royal Academy in Piccadilly, London, for which various celebrities have contributed items that represent to them personal happiness. Neil has contributed a poster he got at a 1972 ‘Ziggy-era’ David Bowie concert, which was subsequently autographed at the stage door by both Bowie and his guitarist Mick Ronson. As Neil says, it made him ‘very happy.’
This evening singer Tracey Thorn, formerly of Everything But the Girl, posts on Twitter than she has ‘Just had dinner with the Pet Shop Boys and in case you’re wondering, they’re lovely.’