On April 22, the Pet Shop Boys musical Closer to Heaven is performed in London for the first time in fourteen years, in a sold-out month-long run at The Union Theatre. (It will return for a further five weeks beginning on October 21.). For this revival, at the Pet Shop Boys’ request, the musical’s original final number, “Positive role model”, is replaced by “Vocal”.
On August 15, the final date of the much-extended Electric tour – which began in March, 2013 – takes place at the Flow Festival in Helsinki. The tour has visited over forty countries.
On December 2, the Pet Shop Boys appear at MAMA – the Mnet Asian Music Awards – in Hong Kong. They are given the Worldwide Inspiration award and play a lengthy live medley, joined for their final two songs, “What have I done to deserve this?” and “Vocal”, by the K‑Pop artist f(x). At the organisers’ request, they wear the Electric tour straw jackets for, possibly, the final time.
BPI awards a U.K. double-platinum album to Actually.
Neil starts a week of working on the remastering of the album reissues, during which time he runs into Johnny Marr, who agrees to play guitar on their next album, Release.
The Pet Shop Boys complete work on the song ‘We’re All Criminals Now,’ slated as a bonus track for their next album’s first single, ‘Love etc.’
Following their New Year’s Eve performace in Sydney and a week’s holiday in Australia, Chris and Neil fly to Los Angeles, where they will rent a house in the hills and remain for about ten weeks working on their next studio album, Elysium.