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 new issue of Smash Hits features Neil’s interview with Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet of Yazoo.
‘I’m with Stupid,’ the first single from the upcoming PSB album Fundamental, is released. On the same day, the Pet Shop Boys (with guest vocalists Robbie Williams, Rufus Wainwright, and Frances Barber) perform an exclusive concert of both old and new material with the BBC Concert Orchestra. It’s recorded for transmission on BBC Radio 2 later in the month, and it will subsequently appear on CD as Concrete.
The Boys perform in Frankfurt, Germany.
Neil is sick, so Chris works with Pete Gleadall on a remix of the MGMT track ‘Kids.’
After having spent about six weeks in Berlin, the Boys fly back to London.
They fly to Los Angeles, where they will meet with Stuart Price making the finishing touches on Electric.
Chris and Neil are in Dubai today in anticipation of their concert there the following evening. Today they go sightseeing, visiting (among other things) the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa.
Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is being read in daily installments in an online ‘Big Read’ production by the University of Plymouth. Today’s segment, ‘Episode 21,’ is read by Neil Tennant.
Chris and Neil are in Milan, Italy in preparation for the first show, two evenings from now, of their much-delayed Dreamworld Tour.