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.
‘West End Girls’ is named the ‘International Hit of the Year’ at the Ivor Novello Awards.
The Pet Shop Boys perform in Montreal, Canada, the final gig on the North American leg of their Performance tour.
They begin working on a demo of a song drafted by Neil two years before, ‘Breathing Space.’
Starting with a backing track composed by Chris, they work on what quickly becomes ‘Entschuldigung!’ and essentially complete it in a single day.
The Boys appear in concert this evening at the Majestic Theatre in Dallas, Texas. Earlier in the day they did some ‘touristing’ in Dallas. Neil visited the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum to see what he subsequently describes on their website as the former president’s ‘strangely fascinating paintings of world leaders.’
In London, Neil attends the special live 20th anniversary celebration of the BBC Radio 3 classical music program Private Passions with his friend Janet Street-Porter.