On May 2 the Pet Shop Boys appear at Heaven nightclub in London, playing a four song set as part of Can You Bear It?, a benefit for Dainton Connell’s family. For the final song they are joined by Suggs and Carl from Madness, in rambunctious high spirits, to perform a dance version of Madness’s “My Girl”: “It was a very emotional night”.
On October 27 a Pet Shop Boys-produced single by the British artist Sam Taylor-Wood, “I’m in love with a German film star”, is released on the cult German dance label Kompakt. It is the Pet Shop Boys’ third collaboration with Sam Taylor-Wood though the previous one was released under the pseudonym Kiki Kokova. The song is an electronic reinterpretation of the 1981 single by the Passions, a suggestion of Neil’s.
This year’s annual Christmas single from the Killers — “Joseph (Better You Than Me)” — is originally planned as a collaboration between The Killers and Elton John. Neil gets involved after Brandon Flowers asks for help with the lyric; in the end Neil’s short section of guide vocal for the lyric he contributes will remain in the final song when it is made available for download.
‘Opportunities’ debuts on the U.S. singles chart.
‘Can You Forgive Her?’ is released as a single.
The official opening night of Closer to Heaven at the Arts Theatre in London.
Neil and Chris attend the U.K. premiere of Torsten Rasch’s composition My Heart Is on Fire (based on the music and lyrics of the band Rammstein) at London’s Royal Festival Hall. It was their exposure to this work several years earlier that had led the Pet Shop Boys to tapping Rasch to orchestrate their score for Battleship Potemkin.
The fourth and final night of Take That’s string of shows at the Sunderland Stadium of Light featuring PSB as their opening-act ‘special guests.’
The Pet Shop Boys are in Frankfurt, Germany for their concert there this evening.
Still developing what later will become ‘An Open Mind’ (which, at this time, bears an earlier title, ‘One Track Mind’), Chris and Neil also work on the unreleased song ‘He’s Not Coming Home.’ After dinner, they watch a couple of episodes of Frasier.
The Pet Shop Boys conclude the U.K. leg of their Dreamworld Tour with their first-ever concert in city of Hull.
They kick off the Summer 2023 continuation of their Dreamworld Tour with a show at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona.
Pet Shop Boys headline the O Son do Camiño Festival in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.