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 Pet Shop Boys perform in Irvine, California.
They perform ‘Miracles’ at a live televised ‘AIDS Gala’ in Berlin.
They kick off a Latin American ‘mini-tour’ at the Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic.
Neil gets a haircut at Bill’s Downtown Barbers in Denver. That evening they perform at Denver’s Paramount Theatre. Meanwhile, an exhibition of portraits of the Pet Shop Boys opens at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Chris and Neil attend a Rufus Wainwright concert at Hammersmith Apollo. Backstage after the show, Rufus presents Neil with a gold record for Rufus’s album Release the Stars, which had been executive-produced by Neil.
The Boys are guests on Graham Norton’s BBC2 radio show. Along the way, Chris chooses to play Eric Carmen’s ‘All by Myself,’ Neil chooses The Church’s ‘Under the Milky Way’ and says that a revival of Closer to Heaven is under consideration, and they state that they’re not planning to retire but that Chris would like to take a bit of a break. Of course, their brand new single ‘Together’ is also played.