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
1948
Zelda Fitzgerald dies in a fire in an Asheville, North Carolina mental hospital. She’s important in PSB history for having written the lines that inspired the song ‘Being Boring.’
1990
The issue with today’s date of the U.K. magazine Record Mirror has a cover story on Liza Minnelli, referring to her as ‘Pet Shop Girl,’ which harkens back to the previous year’s album Results, produced and largely composed by the Pet Shop Boys.
2005
Continuing work on ‘Indefinite Leave to Remain,’ Neil finishes the lyrics and records vocals.
2018
Although this afternoon’s scheduled matinee performance of The Most Incredible Thing by the Charlotte Ballet had, just as the previous evening’s show, been canceled on account of technical problems, this evening’s performance goes off without a hitch, becoming, in effect, the work’s ‘opening night’ in America.
- Facts collated by geowayne.com