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”.
With ‘West End Girls’ entering the U.S. Top 40, Neil and Chris fly from London to New York on the Concorde.
The Boys, in London, take part in shooting the video for ‘Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You).’
‘She’s Madonna’ is released as a single, credited to ‘Robbie Williams with Pet Shop Boys.’
An exhibition by German photographer/artist Wolfgang Tillmans (who had previously created the ‘Home and Dry’ music video for the Boys) has been at the Tate Modern gallery in London since mid-February. Today, as a special one-day event, it features a ‘sound installation’ described as ‘a reconstruction of ‘It’s a Sin’ by the Pet Shop Boys,’ which gradually builds, over the course of more than 2½ hours, from a single drum track through 30 layers that make up the entire recording. This ‘reconstruction’ occurs twice today.