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 write and begin recording ‘It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas.’
Eight years to the day after they wrote the song, the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas’ appears on the limited-edition charity compilation CD Elton John’s Christmas Party.
For the second time in less than a week, the Boys perform on U.S. television, this time on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
The Boys begin writing their ballet. Pete Gleadall assists with the programming.
Most unusually, Neil and Chris perform this evening in a small town rather than a large city: historic Morristown, New Jersey, with a population of fewer than 20,000. But it’s on the edge of the greater New York metropolitan area, quite close to Newark, and less than two hours’ drive from Philadelphia, so there’s no shortage of nearby fans happy to travel to Morristown’s Mayo Performing Arts Center for a PSB concert.
They work on ‘The One I Want’ (soon to be retitled ‘You Are the One’).
Although it won’t be broadcast for nearly a week, today Neil is in Berlin recording his guest appearance on Sven Helbig’s radio show Schöne Töne. Accompanied by an orchestra, Neil sings two PSB songs, ‘Cricket Wife’ and ‘Legacy,’ that have never previously been performed ‘live.’
At this evening’s MTV EMA (Europe Music Awards) held in Manchester, the Pet Shop Boys receive the Pop Pioneers Award and perform a medley of ‘All the Young Dudes’ and ‘West End Girls’ with the Manchester Camerata.