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.
The Pet Shop Boys perform in Bern, Switzerland.
They play before Neil’s hometown crowd in Newcastle.
Chris and Neil attend a live performance by the Paddingtons at the Water Rats Theatre in London.
The Boys perform at the Melt Festival in Gräfenhainichen, Germany.
An NME online gossip column claims that Neil had ‘snubbed’ Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty backstage after the Boys’ recent ‘T in the Park’ show—an allegation that is immediately denounced as ‘utter rubbish’ on the official PSB website. Meanwhile, on this evening off from the Pandemonium Tour, Neil attends a performance in Manchester of Rufus Wainwright’s new French-language opera Prima Donna, which had made its world debut the preceding weekend.
They perform in Zurich, Switzerland.
The Boys begin work on a song titled ‘I Will Fall.’ Neil later notes that it’s the last song they wrote for the album Super, although it doesn’t actually end up appearing on that album.
Neil travels to Sheffield to see the new ‘jukebox show’ Dusty — The Dusty Springfield Musical, written by the Boys’ sometime collaborator Jonathan Harvey.
The Pet Shop Boys make their first-ever concert appearance in the Canary Islands at Santa Cruz de Tenerife.