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History

February 1998

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.

April 1998

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.

June 1998

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.

1998 June

November 1998

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.”

On this day

1995

Neil begins a week-long holiday in Spain, first in Santiago de Compostela—a locale that will provide inspiration for the first verse of ‘To Step Aside.’

2002

The Pet Shop Boys perform in Nyon, Switzerland.

2010

The Summer 2010 leg of the Pandemonium Tour comes to the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena.

2011

British singer Amy Winehouse dies at the age of 27. Neil and Chris—who had been falsely rumored back in 2008 to have recorded a James Bond theme with her—issue a statement of sadness at the news on their official website.

2014

very busy day for the Boys. Following its final rehearsal in the morning, Chris and Neil premiere their new symphonic/electronic work A Man from the Future this evening at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Chorus, narrated by Juliet Stevenson. (Also part of the program are other Tennant-Lowe compositions: ‘Overture to Performance’ and ‘Four Songs in A Minor’ sung by guest vocalist Chrissie Hynde.) And if all that weren’t enough, our musical heroes manage to squeeze in (between the rehearsal and the concert) a recording session at Maida Vale Studios for their appearance the following month on the long-running BBC Radio drama The Archers.

2016

The Pet Shop Boys’ four-night ‘Inner Sanctum’ residency at London’s Royal Opera House concludes with this evening’s performance. Afterwards Neil writes on their official website about having enjoyed ‘four extraordinary nights… with wonderful audiences.’

2024

The first of five consecutive sold-out PSB Dreamworld concerts takes place tonight at London’s Royal Opera House.