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.
Chris and Neil are interviewed in Chris’s London home by Chris Heath. (The interview ultimately appears in the Somewhere show souvenir booklet.)
A promotional CD titled Pet Shop Boys Story, consisting of eleven tracks (mostly singles) taken from various phases of their career, is given away with copies of the U.K. Mail on Sunday newspaper.
Unhappy with some of the vocals he has recently re-recorded for ‘Give It a Go,’ Neil has Andrew Dawson reinstate some of the demo’s original vocal tracks.
Two weeks to the day after the Boys had started work on it, the new PSB recording ‘Oppressive (The Best Gay Possible),’ which puts to music excerpts from a recent speech by Irish drag artist Panti Bliss, debuts online.