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History

March 2018

On March 10, the first American production of the Pet Shop Boys’ ballet The Most Incredible Thing premieres at the Knight Theater, Charlotte, North Carolina, performed by the Charlotte Ballet. This premiere is originally scheduled for one day earlier, but is delayed when a truss snaps during the afternoon dress rehearsal. For this new production, the Pet Shop Boys’ recorded score, mixed live, is used instead of a live orchestra, and the competition at the centre of the story is now staged through shadow-play. Neil attends. “In my opinion it was an improvement on the original,” he says. “I thought it was brilliant.”

November 2018

On November 1, a book by Neil, One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem, is published in Britain by Faber & Faber. (Neil had past history with Faber & Faber: “In the late Seventies and early Eighties I used to do freelance work for them as a copy-editor and sometimes as a proof-reader. Then in the mid-Eighties I sold a book, Like Punk Never Happened by Dave Rimmer, to them, and edited it. That was the last thing I ever did in the world of book-publishing.”) He selected the lyrics during train journeys between London and Durham, choosing those he thought would read best in this form. One reason for also including a poem was “to point out that the lyrics aren’t poems, they’re lyrics”. He also wrote an introduction and added annotations to the lyrics. “It is kind of like an autobiography, really,” he says. “Surprisingly, I think it’s quite revealing. More so than I normally would be.”

History

On this day

1992

Cicero’s ‘Live for Today’ (with Sylvia Mason-James), produced by the Pet Shop Boys, is released as a single.

1999

Neil tapes an appearance on the U.S. MTV show Loveline.

2010

The Boys’ promotional rounds related to their Ultimate hits collection continue: this afternoon Chris and Neil are guests on Richard Bacon’s Radio Five Live show.

2013

They appear on this evening’s episode of the U.K. TV program The Jonathan Ross Show. At the very end of the show, they perform their new single ‘Thursday.’

2016

Although some ‘pre-show problems’ (as Neil subsequently describes them on the PSB website) make it ‘a tough day’ for their road crew, the Pet Shop Boys end up presenting a successful Super Tour show this evening in Houston, Texas.

2017

Borrowing its title from a Depeche Mode song, the autobiography of legendary radio DJ Richard Blade, World in My Eyes, is published today. The Boys mention it on their official website, stating that it has an entire chapter about them. (If for no other reason, longtime PSB fans should recognize Blade on account of his appearance as one of the onscreen commentators in the 2006 documentary Pet Shop Boys: A Life in Pop.)

2018

As announced today on the Pet Shop Boys’ official website, today sees the debut of a new short film titled Sophis on the Frieze magazine website. One of a series of eight shorts collectively titled The Thing, in which various artists discuss an object of cultural and/or personal significance, Sophis is written and narrated by Neil Tennant. In this case, Neil talks about a 1974 poster for Bryan Ferry’s album Another Time, Another Place and the impact its imagery had on him at the time.