February 1986
On February 24th, ‘Love comes quickly’, which will remain one of their favourite songs, is released, reaching a disappointing #19 in the UK.
History
March 1986
On March 24th, their first LP ‘Please’ is released. “It’s so people can go into the record shop and say can I have the Pet Shop Boys album, please?”.
April 1986
‘West End girls’ reaches #1 in USA.
May 1986
On May 19th a new version of ‘Opportunities’ is released. “The point of that song is that the humour is black, it’s like a joke. The impression is that the people in it are not going to make any money”.
June 1986
The Pet Shop Boys announce, then cancel, a tour of Europe and America; the cost of using a theatre designer and playing fairly small venues proves prohibitive.
September 1986
On September 22nd, a re-recorded version of ‘Suburbia’, a song inspired by the Penelope Spheeris film of the same name about a group of disenchanted rebellious youths in suburban Los Angeles, is released. “It’s about a riot happening in some decaying suburb. It’s just the description of the riot happening and then the aftermath”. On the B‑side is the first version of ‘Paninaro’, named after an Italian youth cult and featuring a quote they both liked that Chris had said on a TV show: “I don’t like country and western, I don’t like rock music, I don’t like rockabilly… I don’t like much really, do I? But what I do like, I love passionately”.
November 1986
On November 17th ‘Disco’, an LP of disco remixes, is released.
On this day
1996
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.
2005
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.
2008
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.)
2016
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.’
- Facts collated by geowayne.com