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History

March 2011

On March 14 a double-CD of the music from the ballet The Most Incredible Thing is released under the name Tennant/Lowe. It contains the full performance score of the ballet with orchestrations by Sven Helbig.

2011 March

On March 17 the ballet The Most Incredible Thing has its first public performance at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. Its genesis can be traced back to a week in where, by chance, two initially unrelated events took place. Ivan Putrov, a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet whom the Pet Shop Boys had got to know through Sam Taylor-Wood, called Neil to ask whether they would write a piece for him to dance to. Two days later, before Neil had even had a chance to ask Chris, Chris called to say that he’d just read a story in a new translation of Hans Christian Andersen’s tales that he thought would make a great ballet: “The Most Incredible Thing”. This eventually led to the Sadler’s Wells production, choreographed by Javier de Frutos and starring Ivan Putrov, Clemmie Sveaas and Aaron Sillis. All ten performances sell out.

May 2011

On May 27 the Pet Shop Boys appear at the Sunderland Stadium of Light, joining Take That at their invitation as “special guests” on their first reunion concerts as a five-piece on what will be the biggest British tour ever – 29 British stadium shows – followed by a short European leg. “45 minutes of intensity,” says Chris.

December 2011

On December 31 the Pet Shop Boys appear at a New Year’s Eve concert on an island in Sydney Harbour.

History

On this day

1967

Frankie Valli’s ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’—which Chris and Neil will much later turn into a medley with ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’—debuts on the U.S. singles chart.

1986

RIAA awards a U.S. gold album to Please.

2000

Essentially: The Pet Shop Boys Story airs this evening on BBC Radio 2.

2006

The Pet Shop Boys are interviewed on BBC2’s The Culture Show.

2007

The Boys’ Cubism concert DVD is released in the U.K. On the same day, they conclude the eight-city ‘German leg’ of their Fundamental Tour with a concert in Stuttgart.

2010

Neil and Chris pay a surprise visit to São Paulo, Brazil, where they perform a brief set at the festivities commemorating the first anniversary of the launch of Sky HDTV at the Golden Hall of the World Trade Center of São Paulo.

2012

Neil notes in his diary that he has begun reading the novel Nice Work by David Lodge. As it soon turns out, it inspires a new PSB song, ‘Love Is a Bourgeois Construct.’

2021

Neil visits the immersive exhibition by Japanese audiovisual artist Ryoji Ikeda at The Strand in London. Afterward, on the Boys’ official website, Neil describes it as ‘extraordinary.’

2022

Wolfgang Tillmans’s single ‘Insanely Alive,’ featuring two PSB remixes, is released today digitally and on 12-inch vinyl. Meanwhile, the Boys perform this evening in Manchester—the first of their Dreamworld Tour shows in the U.K.

2023

The BBC2 television network devotes most of its prime-time programming this evening to the Pet Shop Boys. Among tonight’s three PSB shows is Reel Stories: Pet Shop Boys, in which Neil and Chris comment on assorted videos and performances of theirs with host Dermot O’Leary.