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”.
The Moscow Choral Academy records the choral background vocals for ‘A Red Letter Day.’
The Pet Shop Boys appear on the U.K. TV show This Morning. During the interview, co-host Richard Madeley famously asks Neil how his ‘wife’ is. Neil is understandably amused by the question.
Elvis Costello and Neil Tennant serve as eulogists at the funeral of Dusty Springfield in Henley, U.K., which Chris Lowe also attends.
Still in Los Angeles as work on their next studio album progresses, Neil and Chris pay a visit today to Hollywood Forever cemetery. They’re sufficiently impressed by what they describe as the ‘very rock-and-roll memorial’ to Johnny Ramone that the following day they post a photo of it on their official website.
They visit Mark Farrow’s studio to check out some ideas for the cover of their next album, Electric.
Chris and Neil are on the guest list for the funeral today in Porthcawl, U.K. of former Visage vocalist and ‘New Romantic’ icon Steve Strange.
They take part in filming the video for the second single from their upcoming album Nonetheless, although they haven’t yet at this time revealed which song it is. (It turns out to be ‘Dancing Star.’)