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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.

On this day

1986

With ‘West End Girls’ entering the U.S. Top 40, Neil and Chris fly from London to New York on the Concorde.

1991

The Boys, in London, take part in shooting the video for ‘Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You).’

2007

‘She’s Madonna’ is released as a single, credited to ‘Robbie Williams with Pet Shop Boys.’

2017

An exhibition by German photographer/artist Wolfgang Tillmans (who had previously created the ‘Home and Dry’ music video for the Boys) has been at the Tate Modern gallery in London since mid-February. Today, as a special one-day event, it features a ‘sound installation’ described as ‘a reconstruction of ‘It’s a Sin’ by the Pet Shop Boys,’ which gradually builds, over the course of more than 2½ hours, from a single drum track through 30 layers that make up the entire recording. This ‘reconstruction’ occurs twice today.