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.”
Chris and Neil complete their work on ‘Positive Role Model’ as a ‘Pet Shop Boys track.’ All subsequent work they do on the song is as part of Closer to Heaven.
The Boys work in the studio on ‘Luna Park’; they decide to ‘strip it down’ somewhat, making it more ‘electronic’ than it had been previously.
They perform in Atlanta, Georgia.
Neil and Chris had been scheduled to perform in Bucharest today, but that concert has been postponed so that they could attend the North London funeral of their longtime friend and assistant Dainton Connell, killed in a Moscow automobile accident two weeks before.
Jonathan Harvey visits the Boys in the studio to discuss their upcoming Billie Trix stage show, Musik.
Back in London following the conclusion of their Unity Tour, Neil and Chris attend a performance at Wilton’s Music Hall of the stage show Only an Octave Apart starring Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Ross Costanzo. While there they ‘bump into’ Marc Almond, also in attendance.
Neil attends the opening night of a revival of the famed musical Cabaret at the Playhouse Theatre in London. After the show, he goes backstage to congratulate Jake Shears for what Neil describes as his ‘triumphant opening-night performance’ in the role of the MC.