In the opening minutes of the New Year, the Pet Shop Boys appear on British TV as special guests on the now traditional televised New Year’s Eve pop star performance, this year by Years and Years’ Olly Alexander at London’s Riverside Studios. They joined him for two songs, “It’s a sin” and “Dreamland”. (In a more normal year this would have been a live broadcast, but due to the pandemic it has been recorded several weeks earlier, on December 8.)
On March 22, “Purple Zone”, a single credited to Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys, is released. The song had originally been recorded by Soft Cell alone for their forthcoming Happiness Not Included album but after the Pet Shop Boys expressed enthusiasm for the as-yet-unreleased song after hearing Soft Cell perform it at the Hammersmith Apollo in November 2021, an initial invitation to remix the song led to its reworking as a collaboration, and to a joint video shoot in a south London pub. “We’ve always acknowledged Soft Cell,” notes Chris. “It felt like a real moment,” says Neil.
On May 10, after two pandemic-related postponements, the Pet Shop Boys’ Dreamworld: the greatest hits tour – originally scheduled to begin in May 2020 – finally opens in Milan.
On June 26, the Pet Shop Boys perform for the third time at the Glastonbury festival. For the first seven songs, a technical glitch forces Chris to perform hidden behind a screen, but eventually he is revealed. “After that,” says Neil, “it was a real adrenaline rush.”
On September 17 in Toronto the Pet Shop Boys play the first of 13 co-headlining shows with New Order across North America on the Unity tour. The idea that the two groups might tour together in this way was one that Chris has floated some years before: “I just thought it would be something I’d like to go and see.” (The tour’s eventual name, Unity, was Bernard Sumner’s counter-proposal to Chris’s initial suggestion, United.) The two acts alternated opening and closing the show, both performing, as New Order preferred, full ninety-minute sets; before, and in between, Paul Oakenfold DJ-ed. “It felt like,” says Neil, “to use our age-old word, an event. It felt like an event for us and for the audience.”
On December 31 the Pet Shop Boys perform at the Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh. Their set includes a new version of “Paninaro”, its first performance for thirteen years.
CyberWorld 3D starts appearing in IMAX Theaters across the U.S. One of the short animated films featured is the Boys’ ‘Liberation’ video.
Continuing their ‘touristing’ in Chile, Chris and Neil visit the coastal city of Valparaiso, considered the nation’s ‘cultural capital.’
The Boys work some more on ‘Winner’ and begin writing a new song called ‘Ego Music.’
Neil and Chris enjoy a Sunday off in San Francisco between their Saturday and Monday Electric Tour dates in neighboring Oakland. Chris can see Alcatraz from his hotel room, and he had considered taking a tour of the island today. But he is unable to do so on account of the current U.S. federal government shutdown (caused by budgetary wrangling in Congress), which has forced the temporary closure of all federal parks and landmarks—Alcatraz among them.
The Pet Shop Boys headline the Breakfest Festival this evening in Medellín, Colombia. It’s their final anticipated tour date of the year.
The new album, For All the Dogs, by Canadian singer/rapper Drake is released today. One of its tracks, ‘All the Parties,’ includes (uncredited) the melody and lyrics from the chorus of ‘West End Girls.’ Immediately (the same day) the Pet Shop Boys post on their website a statement of ‘surprise’ at this occurrence, pointing out ‘No credit given or permission requested.’