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.
Cicero’s ‘Live for Today’ (with Sylvia Mason-James), produced by the Pet Shop Boys, is released as a single.
Neil tapes an appearance on the U.S. MTV show Loveline.
The Boys’ promotional rounds related to their Ultimate hits collection continue: this afternoon Chris and Neil are guests on Richard Bacon’s Radio Five Live show.
They appear on this evening’s episode of the U.K. TV program The Jonathan Ross Show. At the very end of the show, they perform their new single ‘Thursday.’
Although some ‘pre-show problems’ (as Neil subsequently describes them on the PSB website) make it ‘a tough day’ for their road crew, the Pet Shop Boys end up presenting a successful Super Tour show this evening in Houston, Texas.
Borrowing its title from a Depeche Mode song, the autobiography of legendary radio DJ Richard Blade, World in My Eyes, is published today. The Boys mention it on their official website, stating that it has an entire chapter about them. (If for no other reason, longtime PSB fans should recognize Blade on account of his appearance as one of the onscreen commentators in the 2006 documentary Pet Shop Boys: A Life in Pop.)
As announced on the Pet Shop Boys’ official website, today sees the debut of a new short film titled Sophis on the Frieze magazine website. One of a series of eight shorts collectively titled The Thing, in which various artists discuss an object of cultural and/or personal significance, Sophis is written and narrated by Neil Tennant. In this case, Neil talks about a 1974 poster for Bryan Ferry’s album Another Time, Another Place and the impact its imagery had on him at the time.