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.”
Chris and Neil settle on the final running order of the tracks on Nightlife.
In the wee hours of the morning they appear on Craig Kilborn’s CBS Late Late Show.
They wind up the U.K. leg of the Fundamental Tour with a show in Swindon.
The Boys resume work on ‘In Slow Motion,’ a song they had started writing the day before. Chris composes music while Neil works on the lyrics.
A very busy, productive PSB day in Berlin. Among other things, they listen to some of the music they’ve already composed for A Man from the Future, select the Gareth Pugh designs for the clothes they will wear for their appearance during the closing ceremony of the Olympics, and begin work on ‘Love Is a Bourgeois Construct’ based on a Michael Nyman composition Chris had downloaded earlier in the day.
Having arrived in Copenhagen in preparation for their concert there two days from now, the Boys enjoy a relaxing day of dining and shopping.
The second Electric Tour concert Sydney.
The Pet Shop Boys provide the closing performance of the three-day TresSesenta Festival in Pamplona, Spain.
Continuing work from the day before, they develop ‘Johnny’s Dark Side’ and ‘Beautiful Laundrette,’ the latter track based on their old Bobby ‘O’ demo of ‘I Get Excited.’
They perform this evening in Leipzig, Germany.
Despite heavy rain just before going onstage, the Boys manage a successful show for their second night in a row in Madrid, this time at the Primavera Sound festival at the Cívitas Metropolitano.