On February 15 Pandemonium, a DVD and CD of the Pandemonium tour, is released. It was filmed and recorded at the O2 Arena in London on December 21, 2009. The film is directed by David Barnard. The CD version, which includes fewer songs, has been specially mixed for this release by Stuart Price.
On April 17, as part of the annual music business event known as Record Store Day, the Pet Shop Boys release a seven-inch single in an edition of 1000 copies. On one side is the demo of a song they gave to Alcazar, “Love life”, and on other is the 2003 recording, “A powerful friend”.
On June 26 the Pet Shop Boys appeared at the Glastonbury festival to great acclaim. “It was one of those people-as-far-back-as-you-can-see audiences,” says Neil.
On October 24 a new Pet Shop Boys single, the rousing dance anthem “Together”, is released, produced and written with Tim Powell who was previously part of the team at Xenomania. “I was imagining, really, that there are two people about to have sex for the first time,” says Neil. “But it’s very revolutionary: ‘together I’ll cry with you, together I’ll die with you, together we’ll go all the way…’” It could be anything about two people. It could be Chris and I at the beginning of our writing career together, thinking we could go all the way with this. It wasn’t written as that, but it definitely could be that as well.” Its video, a drama with an Eastern European dance-off between classical and modern dance styles at its centre, is shot in Estonia. Amongst the extra tracks on the single is a cover of the Dave Clark Five’s “Glad all over”, a traditional song of celebration at Chris’s hometown football team, Blackpool.
On November 1 a new Pet Shop Boys hits compilation, Ultimate, is released. Intended as a straightforward mass market single CD collection of their most popular songs, it is also released in a version with a bonus DVD including 27 Pet Shop Boys performances at the BBC from the past 25 years, most of them filmed for Top Of The Pops, as well as their triumphant performance in the summer of 2010 at Glastonbury festival.
On November 25 a children’s play based on a book by the author David Almond, My Dad’s A Birdman, opened at the Young Vic theatre in London. It includes three songs written by Neil and Chris (two incorporating lyrics from the script) and some other instrumental music. “I loved it,” says Chris. “The place was full of children all chatting away. There’s a great bit where one of the cast goes, ‘Do you think he’ll fly?’ and all the children go, ‘No.’ It was really funny.”
Chris and Neil write and begin recording ‘It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas.’
Eight years to the day after they wrote the song, the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas’ appears on the limited-edition charity compilation CD Elton John’s Christmas Party.
For the second time in less than a week, the Boys perform on U.S. television, this time on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
The Boys begin writing their ballet. Pete Gleadall assists with the programming.
Most unusually, Neil and Chris perform this evening in a small town rather than a large city: historic Morristown, New Jersey, with a population of fewer than 20,000. But it’s on the edge of the greater New York metropolitan area, quite close to Newark, and less than two hours’ drive from Philadelphia, so there’s no shortage of nearby fans happy to travel to Morristown’s Mayo Performing Arts Center for a PSB concert.
They work on ‘The One I Want’ (soon to be retitled ‘You Are the One’).
Although it won’t be broadcast for nearly a week, today Neil is in Berlin recording his guest appearance on Sven Helbig’s radio show Schöne Töne. Accompanied by an orchestra, Neil sings two PSB songs, ‘Cricket Wife’ and ‘Legacy,’ that have never previously been performed ‘live.’
At this evening’s MTV EMA (Europe Music Awards) held in Manchester, the Pet Shop Boys receive the Pop Pioneers Award and perform a medley of ‘All the Young Dudes’ and ‘West End Girls’ with the Manchester Camerata.