On February 28 the Pet Shop Boys begin a short, four-concert Russian tour, visiting Moscow and St. Petersburg, inspired by their visit to St. Petersburg to see Brian Eno the previous summer. In Moscow they perform twice in one night, once in a large arena then later in the middle of an over-crowded nightclub. The local media ask them whether they speak Russian, “We’re very good at saying ‘nyet’,” they explain.
On April 13, Twentieth Century Blues: The Songs of Noel Coward is released. It is an album of Noel Coward songs covered by contemporary musicians, co-compiled by Neil, who has been working on it for the past eighteen months. He has loved Noel Coward’s music since he first heard it in about 1970. “I think as a songwriter he’s slightly underrated,” Neil says, “simply because his plays are so famous, and people forget.” The Pet Shop Boys do a version of “Sail Away”, and amongst the other interpreters are Elton John, Paul McCartney, Suede, Robbie Williams and the Divine Comedy. “We tried to choose artists,” Neil explains, “who somehow seem to be in the Noel Coward tradition of wit, theatrically and style.” To promote the album, Neil appeared along on TFI Friday where he sang along with a busker playing Pet Shop Boys songs on an acoustic guitar.
At the request of their former American record company, the Pet Shop Boys agreed to the release of ‘Essential Pet Shop Boys’, a compilation of early Pet Shop Boys songs recorded between 1985 — 1990, including a number of rare remixes, as part of a series of limited edition CDs by other artists.
At the behest of director Gus Van Sant, the Pet Shop Boys wrote a new song, with Tom Stephan, at extremely short notice for the soundtrack of Van Sant’s remake of ‘Psycho’. It is called “Screaming”. “It’s about an obsessive fan, written from the obsessive fan’s point of view,” Neil says. “Or actually just by someone obsessed with someone who doesn’t love them.”
Several months after its U.K. world premiere, the film Women in Love has its U.S. debut in New York City. It’s mentioned here not on account of its (in)famous nude wrestling scene—which prompts more than one critic to suggest it should instead have been titled Men in Love—but because of a totally different scene that briefly features a teenaged Neil Tennant as one of several unnamed ‘child extras,’ a job for which he had been paid £3 per day. (He then used the money to buy a copy of the Beatles’ ‘White Album.’)
The Pet Shop Boys appear on U.S. television on The Tonight Show. Chris walks off mid-performance because the camera is ignoring him.
Neil attends Elton John’s 50th-birthday costume party dressed as a royal dragoon.
Neil has dinner with Robbie Williams and several others at Luciano, a posh London restaurant.
The Boys conclude the South American leg of their Fundamental world tour with a show in Santiago, Chile.
Having spent roughly two months in southern California working on their next album, Chris and Neil are now back in London to attend the opening night at Sadler’s Wells Theatre of the second run of their ballet The Most Incredible Thing, which includes a new scene and several other modifications. This same day, an interview with Neil in which he discusses the ballet can be heard on BBC Radio 2’s Weekend Wogan.
They’re guests on Graham Norton’s TV show, during which they perform their current single, ‘The Pop Kids.’
At home during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, Chris records (the day before) and posts (today) a 13-minute video of him performing a solo instrumental rendition of ‘It’s Alright’ on his digital piano.
Neil is one of several vocalists (also including Jake Shears) who appear with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra conducted by Anne Dudley at the London Soundtrack Festival, performing classic film songs. Neil sings ‘Everybody’s Talkin’’ from Midnight Cowboy, ‘Nothing Has Been Proved’ from Scandal, and (with Shears) ‘Rent,’ which had been used in Saltburn.