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”.
Exactly one week after filming the ‘U.S. scenes’ for their ‘Suburbia’ music video, the Boys are in Kingston-upon-Thames to film its ‘U.K. portions.’
Alternative debuts on the U.S. album chart at its #103 peak.
As part of their ongoing research for writing their musical, Chris and Neil watch videos of Annie, Oliver!, and Carousel.
Neil records background vocals no fewer than forty times for ‘The Sodom and Gomorrah Show,’ creating a falsetto chorus of ‘Sun, sex, sin, death, and destruction.’
The Pet Shop Boys perform at the State Theater in Minneapolis.
They perform the first of two consecutive nights’ shows at the Beacon Theater on Broadway in New York City.
‘Say It to Me’ is released as a single. The Boys also appear as guests on Chris Evans’s morning show on BBC Radio 2.
The London luxury fashion house Burberry uses a full program of PSB music for its September 2017 show this afternoon. Meanwhile, one day after the PSB show at Rock in Rio, Neil and their musical assistant Pete Gleadall are robbed while out taking a walk in Rio de Janeiro. Reports differ: some say that they were mugged at knifepoint, but Neil himself states on their website that merely his pocket was picked and he lost his iPhone.