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 Boys take part in filming the ‘Se A Vida E’ video with Bruce Weber at the Wet ‘n Wild theme park in Orlando, Florida.
While Neil and Chris are still working on ‘Psychological,’ their friend Sam Taylor-Wood invites them to meet and have lunch with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who’s upstairs at Sam’s studio to be photographed.
Chris and Neil begin two new songs: ‘Youth’ (which soon becomes ‘Gin and Jag’) and ‘King of Rome’ (which they temporarily call ‘King of Pop’). Chris, on his own, also writes a new instrumental that he titles ‘Moronic.’ (This will later be developed into ‘The Grind’ for their ballet The Most Incredible Thing.)
Following a week-long promotional campaign teasing the public with the mysterious (and anonymous) question ‘What Is Super?’ the Pet Shop Boys reveal that Super is title of their next album, scheduled for April 1 release, and they release via digital outlets one track from the album, ‘Inner Sanctum.’