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.”
Neil and Chris take part in a photo shoot with Eric Watson. Some of these photos become iconic PSB images, gracing the ‘Suburbia’ single and, much later, the cover of the book Pet Shop Boys Catalogue.
A remix of Cicero’s ‘Heaven Must Have Sent You Back to Me’ is released as a single; the video is directed by Chris Lowe.
Johnny Marr records the guitar part on ‘Up Against It.’
The Pet Shop Boys perform their Battleship Potemkin score with the Dresdner Sinfoniker in Dresden as part of the celebrations of the city’s 800th anniversary.
The first episode of Mad About the Boy: The Songs of Noel Coward, a three-part series narrated by Neil, airs on BBC Radio 2.
‘Love etc.’ hits #1 on Billboard magazine’s Dance Club Play chart. The same day, the Pet Shop Boys appear for the first time on Israeli television, peforming that very song, ‘Love etc.’ on Kochav Nolad, the Israeli version of Pop Idol.
They perform at Bournemouth International Centre.
They work in a Berlin studio on the song ‘Hell.’
The first of the Boys’ four sold-out ‘Inner Sanctum’ concerts takes place this evening at the Royal Opera House in London.
Now in Italy, they bring their ongoing Dreamworld Tour to the Lucca Summer Festival.