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.”
The Boys record new versions of ‘My Night’ and ‘For All of Us.’
They work on two new tracks: ‘Your Early Stuff’ and ‘The Out Crowd,’ the latter of which will eventually become the song ‘Hell.’
They listen to orchestral arrangement demos for their next album, Elysium. The singers of Sonos also add support vocals to ‘Ego Music’ and ‘Breathing Space.’
Inspired by a speech on the subject of homophobia made at the beginning of the month by Irish drag artist Panti Bliss, Neil and Chris begin work on a new recording, ‘Oppressive (The Best Gay Possible),’ that sets excerpts from that speech to music.
It’s announced today that on March 17 the Terence Higgins Trust will auction off an opportunity to ‘meet ‘n’ greet’ the Pet Shop Boys at one of their upcoming Royal Opera House shows. The money raised will go toward providing services for people living with HIV.
They perform this evening in Edinburgh, Scotland—their fourth U.K. concert in five days.