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.
Actually is released.
Boy George’s ‘The Crying Game’ single, produced by PSB, is released.
The Pet Shop Boys perform at the Rock ‘n’ Coke Festival in Istanbul—the largest outdoor music festival in Turkish history.
They perform at a free concert in the city square of Skopje, Macedonia.
Elysium is released in Germany. It will subsequently be released in various other countries over the next few days.
The Pet Shop Boys perform their one-hundredth Electric Tour show this evening at the Portmeirion Festival in Wales. To help commemorate the occasion, they’re joined onstage by the Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir for an especially powerful climactic performance of ‘Go West.’