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.”
The Pet Shop Boys’ film It Couldn’t Happen Here premiers in London to mixed reviews.
PSB performs in Brighton, U.K.
They perform at the Volt Festival in Sopron, Hungary.
2008: Chris and Neil take part in a photo shoot, pictures from which will later appear in the Autumn 2008 issue of the U.K. magazine Pop.
One of the ‘great dames’ of British pop music, Shirley Bassey, is reportedly in a London studio today recording a new Tennant-Lowe song, ‘The Performance of My Life.’ Meanwhile, the Boys are themselves performing this evening in Madrid.
Four years to the day following a previous festival performance in Hungary, our musical heroes are back in that country as the headliners of the first night of the Balaton Sound Festival.
Although the Boys themselves aren’t present, principal filming takes place today for the ‘Winner’ music video at York Hall in the Bethnal Green district of London. A number of fans participate as extras.
Chris and Neil serve for two hours as guest hosts on Iggy Pop’s BBC Radio 6 show, during which they offer the world premiere of the new Carl Craig remix of ‘Inner Sanctum.’
In Spain for the first of two consecutive shows in that nation, the Boys perform at the Cruïlla Summer Festival in Barcelona.
Using a title suggested by Chris, Neil writes and sings the lyrics for ‘No Boundaries.’