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 Oslo, Norway.
Neil is at home, sick in bed with the flu. But that doesn’t stop him from starting to work on the lyrics for ‘I’m with Stupid.’
Using lyrics already written by Neil, he and Chris compose a new song, ‘This Used to Be the Future.’
Neil and Mark Farrow are interviewed onstage this evening by artist and art director Scott King at the Barbican Centre in London, focusing on the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘visual image,’ especially their album and single sleeve designs. It’s part of a series of presentations on the subject of ‘The Look of Music’ sponsored by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
Neil posts both on the PSB website and on their Facebook page that he and Chris have just returned from Los Angeles, where they had been working with producer Stuart Price on their next album.
It’s a major PSB day. Their concert film Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live at the Royal Arena Copenhagen debuts in special-event screenings in movie theaters around the world. They also digitally release ‘Loneliness,’ the first single from their upcoming (April) album Nonetheless along with two new ‘b‑side’/bonus songs.