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
1995
The Boys begin working with K‑Klass on ‘Metamorphosis.’
1999
‘New York City Boy’ hits the U.S. singles sales chart at its #53 peak.
2008
Neil announces on the official PSB website that they completed work today on their next, as yet unnamed album, scheduled for Spring 2009 release. The final task was completing the mix on the song slated to be the first single, ‘Love etc.’ (The album, of course, would soon be titled Yes.)
2016
The Pet Shop Boys perform this evening in Köln (Cologne), Germany. The concert is recorded in its entirety by WDR (a German public broadcasting organization) for a special New Year’s Eve radio broadcast.
2017
Perhaps inspired by the Berlin Christmas lights they recently went out to view, Neil and Chris write a new (and as yet unreleased) Christmas song, ‘You Know Where You Are with Winter.’
- Facts collated by geowayne.com