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 write and begin recording ‘It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas.’
Eight years to the day after they wrote the song, the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas’ appears on the limited-edition charity compilation CD Elton John’s Christmas Party.
For the second time in less than a week, the Boys perform on U.S. television, this time on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
The Boys begin writing their ballet. Pete Gleadall assists with the programming.
Most unusually, Neil and Chris perform this evening in a small town rather than a large city: historic Morristown, New Jersey, with a population of fewer than 20,000. But it’s on the edge of the greater New York metropolitan area, quite close to Newark, and less than two hours’ drive from Philadelphia, so there’s no shortage of nearby fans happy to travel to Morristown’s Mayo Performing Arts Center for a PSB concert.
They work on ‘The One I Want’ (soon to be retitled ‘You Are the One’).
Although it won’t be broadcast for nearly a week, today Neil is in Berlin recording his guest appearance on Sven Helbig’s radio show Schöne Töne. Accompanied by an orchestra, Neil sings two PSB songs, ‘Cricket Wife’ and ‘Legacy,’ that have never previously been performed ‘live.’
At this evening’s MTV EMA (Europe Music Awards) held in Manchester, the Pet Shop Boys receive the Pop Pioneers Award and perform a medley of ‘All the Young Dudes’ and ‘West End Girls’ with the Manchester Camerata.