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.
‘What Have I Done to Deserve This?’ is released as a single.
Liza Minnelli, accompanied by Chris and Neil, performs ‘Losing My Mind’ on Top of the Pops.
The Boys arrive in Osaka, where the following evening they will perform the first of two shows in Japan. The same day, the online Sun reports that Damon Albarn, late of Blur, had denied them permission to include their remix of ‘Girls & Boys’ on their upcoming Disco 4 album—a story that Neil immediately denies, stating that they hadn’t even made the request.
The first of two nights of PSB shows in Utrecht, Netherlands.
A ‘Pet Texts’ posting on the official PSB website indicates that Neil is in Edinburgh for the city’s annual August festivals. (He doesn’t say whether Chris is there as well.)
Neil is interviewed this evening by DJ/producer Kölsch on BBC Radio 1.