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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.”

On this day

1997

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.

2003

Chris and Neil visit the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

2009

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.’

2013

‘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.)

2014

The Pet Shop Boys perform at the Bingley (U.K.) Music Live Festival.