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.
The Boys learn of the death of Princess Diana under very different circumstances. Neil is at home when he turns on the radio and hears the news, while Chris finds out mid-route to Ibiza for vacation.
Chris and Neil visit the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
The issue of The New Yorker bearing this date on its cover includes in its ‘Critic’s Notebook’ section a brief but glowing article by Sasha Frere-Jones promoting the Pet Shop Boys’ upcoming dates at the city’s Hammerstein Ballroom. The writer describes them as an ‘utterly brilliant dance-music duo… [who] are part of a great tradition of slipping intense emotions into an envelope of wit that runs straight from Oscar Wilde to Noel Coward to the Boys.’
‘Love Is a Bourgeois Construct’ is released as a single via digital bundle in Germany and several other countries in continental Europe. (It will be released in the U.K. the following day and several days later in the U.S.)
The Pet Shop Boys perform at the Bingley (U.K.) Music Live Festival.