On August 19th, Neil and Chris meet by chance in an electronics shop on the Kings Road. Realizing they have a common interest in dance music, they begin to write together. Initially they call themselves West End; later they come up with the name Pet Shop Boys, a name derived from some friends who work in a pet shop in Ealing. “We thought it sounded like an English rap group”.
Boy George’s ‘The Crying Game,’ produced by the Pet Shop Boys, reaches its U.K. peak position of #22.
The Boys perform in Las Vegas—their final U.S. date on the Pandemonium Tour.
Neil’s reading of Chapter 11 of Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick is webcast as part of the online project ‘The Big Read.’
The Pet Shop Boys stage the penultimate show of the ‘2014 leg’ of their Electric Tour at AsiaWorld Expo Hall in Hong Kong.
The Boys are still in Los Angeles working with Stuart Price on tracks for their next album. This evening Neil makes a surprise appearance at Brandon Flowers’s solo show at L.A.‘s famed Wiltern Theatre. As Chris notes the following day on the official PSB website, Neil performed ‘a couple songs’ with Brandon, those two songs being the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Rent’ and the Killers’ ‘Human.’ (Chris attended the show as well but didn’t appear onstage. He would later mildly complain that he should’ve worn earplugs: ‘It was too loud for me. But it was very, very good.’)
Although there have been several advance performances, tonight sees the official opening night of the stage production of My Beautiful Laundrette at the Curve Theatre in Leicester. It features two new songs as well as instrumental music and a number of ‘old classics’ by Chris and Neil.