History

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.”

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.”