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.”
Discography and Videography are released simultaneously.
Chris Heath’s book Pet Shop Boys vs. America is published.
The Boys perform in Sydney, Australia.
In Seattle for their Fundamental concert the following evening, Chris and Neil attend a showing of the film Borat at a local cinema. Neil subsequently describes it (on their official website) as ‘wickedly funny and highly recommended.’
Excerpts from the Warchild benefit concert three nights before, including one song by PSB (‘West End Girls,’ wouldn’t you know?), air on late-night U.K. television, carrying over into the wee hours of the following morning.
‘Thursday’ is released as a single in both physical and digital formats.
Neil appears this evening with the Boys’ chief graphic designer, Mark Farrow, at London’s University of the Arts for an onstage ‘conversation’ with the school’s Chair of Visual Communication, Scott King, including Q&A with members of the audience.
Neil and Chris are in Nashville, Tennessee for their first visit ever to ‘Music City, U.S.A.’ They present their Super Tour show there this evening at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Hall.
Working with a full band in Berlin’s Hansa Studios, the Boys record ‘I Don’t Wanna.’