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.”
‘So Hard’ debuts on the U.S. singles chart, where it will peak at #62.
The Boys launch their Nightlife Tour in Miami, Florida.
They perform at the Jockey Club in Lima, Peru—the final date of the South American leg of the Pandemonium Tour, after which Chris and Neil have scheduled a month-long break from concert appearances.
Chris and Neil go to the EMI offices to meet with their manager Angela Becker to play her their demos of songs planned for their next album and to discuss ideas for a producer.
The Pet Shop Boys were scheduled to appear this evening on the U.S. CBS network’s The Late, Late Show with James Corden, but Neil comes down with a nasty case of food poisoning, forcing them to cancel their appearance.
The albums Yes and Elysium are reissued today, both with ‘Further Listening’ discs of bonus tracks.
The Pet Shop Boys reissue their album Relentless in a newly remastered edition on the thirtieth anniversary of its original release as a bonus disc with limited-edition copies of Very.