On March 19 two books by Chris Heath – Literally from 1990, and Pet Shop Boys versus America from 1993 – were reissued by the Penguin imprint Cornerstone, completely redesigned by Farrow design, and new introductions and afterwords written by the Pet Shop Boys and Chris Heath.
On April 21, Discovery, the film of the Pet Shop Boys 1994 South American tour – “the tour I enjoyed the most,” Chris notes – is released on DVD, accompanied by the release for the first time of a CD of their performance.
On May 7, a new Pet Shop Boys song, the ten-minute “Cricket wife”, is released on CD (accompanied by “West End girls (New lockdown version)”) with the periodical Annually 2021. “Cricket wife”, written during lockdown, began as an extended piece of music created by Chris. “My mum asked me if I would write a piece of classical music for her,” he explains. “I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got nothing else better to do.’ ‘Classical’ in inverted commas, obviously – I’m no classical composer. In the style of classical music.” When Neil received it, it struck him that it might fit a poem he had written some years before. “It’s really about my parents,” he says. “My father played cricket for many years.”
On December 26, the Pet Shop Boys host a three-hour radio show, Pet Shop Boys, Takeover, on BBC Radio 2 between 9pm and midnight, playing a selection of favourite songs; a broadcast also billed by Radio 2 as “Neil and Chris’s Unpredictable Party Playlist”. (The show has been pre-recorded on the afternoon of December 13.) The Pet Shop Boys have recorded five new jingles for the show, titled “Takeover”, “Strings”, “Beautiful”, “Boxing Day” and “Electric”, and introduce a joyously eclectic selection of music, including records by Matt Monro, Alcazar, Paul Weller (their recent remix of his song “Cosmic Fringes”), Gloria Ann Taylor, Eric Prydz, Françoise Hardy and The 1975. “We’ve only ever done radio when we can play records that we want,” says Chris. “I love doing radio. There’s something very satisfying about broadcasting to the nation.”
David Bowie and the Pet Shop Boys videotape a performance of ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ to be shown the following day on Top of the Pops.
The Pet Shop Boys kick off a brief four-date Russian tour. Tonight they perform the first of two consecutive nights’ concerts in Moscow.
Chris and Neil fly to Naples.
Madonna’s ‘Sorry’ featuring the PSB ‘Maxi-Mix’ is released as a single in the U.S.
Neil attends the ‘Convention on Modern Liberty’ in London this afternoon, where he listens to lectures and discussions on how civil liberties are currently under threat from government, corporations, and technology.
The Boys write the song ‘Inside.’
Sonos add vocals to ‘Hold On’ and ‘The Way Through the Woods.’
The PSB concert scheduled for this evening at the Olympia Bruno Coquatrix in Parisis is canceled on account of insurmountable technical difficulties—at least insurmountable in time for the show. The Boys promise on their website that the concert will be rescheduled for a later date.