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.”
‘In Private’ by Dusty Springfield, written and produced by the Pet Shop Boys, is released as a single.
The Boys perform the first of two consecutive nights’ shows at the Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City.
Nightlife debuts on the U.S. album chart at its #84 peak.
Neil and Chris spend some time ‘playing tourist’ out in the desert near Monterrey, Mexico.
After a month-long break, the Boys begin what they describe as the ‘winter leg’ of the Pandemonium Tour with a concert in Athens, their first show in Greece in seven years. They also appear on Greek television this evening in a pre-recorded segment of the local version of X Factor, during which they perform ‘It’s a Sin.’
Neil and Chris attend the Evening Standard Theatre Awards show at London’s Savoy Hotel. There they, along with their collaborator Javier De Frutos, receive the ‘Beyond Theatre’ award for their ballet The Most Incredible Thing. Their friend (and also sometimes collaborator) Sam Taylor-Wood presents the award to them, explaining that it’s in recognition of ‘people who swap genres and break boundaries.’
They work in the studio on their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Last to Die.’
The Boys perform for the second night in a row in Mexico City, only this time at a different venue: the Teatro Metropólitan.