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 Pet Shop Boys perform in Oslo, Norway.
Neil is at home, sick in bed with the flu. But that doesn’t stop him from starting to work on the lyrics for ‘I’m with Stupid.’
Using lyrics already written by Neil, he and Chris compose a new song, ‘This Used to Be the Future.’
Neil and Mark Farrow are interviewed onstage this evening by artist and art director Scott King at the Barbican Centre in London, focusing on the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘visual image,’ especially their album and single sleeve designs. It’s part of a series of presentations on the subject of ‘The Look of Music’ sponsored by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
Neil posts both on the PSB website and on their Facebook page that he and Chris have just returned from Los Angeles, where they had been working with producer Stuart Price on their next album.
It’s a major PSB day. Their concert film Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live at the Royal Arena Copenhagen debuts in special-event screenings in movie theaters around the world. They also digitally release ‘Loneliness,’ the first single from their upcoming (April) album Nonetheless along with two new ‘b‑side’/bonus songs.