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.”
After Neil and Chris help pay for a gay-supportive anti-Clause 28 newspaper ad, a spokesperson tells the Daily Mirror that ‘they support a variety of causes.’
The Boys perform in Berlin.
Neil finishes recording vocals for ‘Fugitive.’
The Pet Shop Boys had been nominated for two 2006 Grammy Awards—Best Dance/Electronic Album (Fundamental) and Best Dance Single (‘I’m with Stupid’)—but lose out to Madonna (Confessions on a Dance Floor) and Justin Timberlake (‘Sexy Back’), respectively.
Chris appears as a witness at St. Pancras Coroner’s Court in London during the inquest into the death of PSB friend and assistant Dainton Connell in an automobile accident the previous October in Moscow. He testifies how he’d seen Dainton only shortly before the accident at a dinner celebrating his (Chris’s) birthday.
Despite that he’s suffering from a nasty bout of either food poisoning or stomach flu, Neil is interviewed via telephone for a radio show on various subjects, including the upcoming new album Yes, the BRITS Awards, and submitting a song shortly before Christmas to Shirley Bassey, who’s in the process of recording a new album of her own.
They begin writing a new song titled ‘Vocal.’
Just as they had attended the first ‘preview’ show nearly a week earlier, both Chris and Neil attend the ‘official’ opening night performance of the second London run of Musik.
Neil posts on the official PSB website that he has just received the COVID vaccine.