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.”
On the eve of its release as a single, the Pet Shop Boys perform ‘Rent’ on the U.K. TV show Live from the London Palladium.
Dusty Springfield records her vocal for the PSB-written and ‑produced ‘Daydreaming.’
Nightlife is released.
The Boys appear in concert in Toronto.
They perform at the Pilar Festival in Zaragosa, Spain.
Neil and Chris visit Brazil’s capital city, Brasilia, for the first time. They spend much of the day playing tourist, appreciating the architecture, and are photographed in front of the Presidential Palace. That evening they perform at the city’s Marina Hall.
Chris and Neil attend a performance in London of the duo My Bad Sister—the twins Sophie and Polly Duniam, who had performed as backup singers and dancers on the Boys’ Pandemonium Tour.
They write the new song ‘Odd Man Out,’ while Pete Gleadall begins mixing their demo of ‘Winner.’
They perform in Las Vegas.
Alex Needham of The Guardian visits the studio where Chris and Neil are working and interviews the latter for his book One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem. Meanwhile, they continue working on the song ‘On Social Media.”
Neil and Chris are driving up the coast of California from Los Angeles to San Francisco, the next stop of the Unity Tour. Along the way they stop at Big Sur, where Neil snaps a photo of a local cat who has decided to perch him/herself atop some of his luggage.