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.”
Dusty and Neil record together the concluding vocal bits—‘We don’t have to fall apart, we don’t have to fight…’—for ‘What Have I Done to Deserve This?’
‘What Have I Done to Deserve This?’ debuts on the U.S. singles chart. On the same day, the Boys appear on Top of the Pops, performing ‘Always on My Mind.’
Chris and Neil perform three songs (‘The Patience of a Saint,’ ‘Disappointed,’ and ‘Getting Away with It’) live with Electronic at London’s Wembley Hall.
They wind up their DiscoVery tour in São Paulo, Brazil.
Neil sits down in the upstairs living room of his London home with Chris Heath for a lengthy interview that appears in the February 2008 issue of the PSB Fan Club magazine Literally. (Chris—Lowe, that is—arrives at the house just as the interview is about to begin but, after making tea and sandwiches, he heads downstairs so as not to eavesdrop.)
The Pet Shop Boys perform in Münster, Germany.
After working on a new track titled ‘A Dream,’ they start on another new song, ‘Hold On,’ based on the chord progression of Handel’s ‘Eternal Source of Light Divine.’ Afterwards they have dinner at a Chinese restaurant.
Neil is one of many celebrities who attend a private exhibition this evening at London’s Royal Theatre of paintings and photographs by Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood.
This evening they perform in Johannesburg, the first of three shows in South Africa, and their first ever in that nation. In fact, it’s their first-ever concert on the entire continent of Africa. (The Boys have now performed on every continent except Antarctica.)