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History

April 2023

On April 14, a new Pet Shop Boys’ EP, Lost, is released digitally and as part of the latest edition of the Pet Shop Boys periodical, Annually 2023. Lost was planned as a four track EP of songs that were originally demoed in 2015 for Super though now, in some cases, seemly newly relevant. Its title — taken from the first song, “The lost room”, inspired by a film about military school bullying and written in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Crimea — “also seems,” says Neil, “to represent a sort of larger, philosophical or political point, where there’ve been times recently where the world feels a bit lost in terms of the direction it’s going in.” This sense is further amplified by the last-minute addition of a fifth song, a more recent composition “Living in the past”, which the Pet Shop Boys had posted on social media two months earlier in rough demo form, accompanied by a video in which Vladimir Putin appeared to shapeshift into Joseph Stalin. 

Lost

June 2023

On June 16, a new Pet Shop Boys compilation, Smash, presenting 55 Pet Shop Boys’ singles from the years 1985 to 2020 in chronological order, is released. The title was Chris’s. “I was thinking of the artist Roy Lichtenstein,” says Chris. “It seemed very Roy Lichtenstein: Pow! Wham! Smash! And there’s also, ‘It’s a smash!’ – that’s what people used to say about singles. Also, there is the connection with Neil and Smash Hits.” Its sleeve is a combined, distorted version of previous Pet Shop Boys’ sleeves. “Listening through, I felt quite proud of the whole thing,” says Neil. “This astonishing number of singles over such long period of time. And I think the last CD is really good. You sort of imagine a moment where you might think, ‘this is all a bit dodgy now’, but in my opinion that doesn’t happen.” 

SMASH – The Singles 1985-2020

On this day

1995

The Boys work on two songs: ‘Latino’ (which becomes ‘Single’) and ‘Get On It’ (not yet completed).

1999

An early version of Nightlife is previewed for EMI convention delegates.

2007

Having just completed a brief holiday in Scotland, Neil rejoins Chris in Norway as they prepare for the next leg of the Fundamental Tour.

2009

The Pet Shop Boys appear on the Italian TV show Quelli Che, where they perform ‘Love etc.’

2013

They listen for the first time to Stuart Price’s final mixes of most of the tracks on Electric.

2014

The Pet Shop Boys conclude the 2014 U.S. leg of their Electric Tour with a performance at Terminal 5 in New York City.

2016

This evening Neil reportedly attends a Rufus Wainwright concert at St. John at Hackney, London, during which Rufus performs several of his recently released musical settings of sonnets by Shakespeare.

2017

Neil and Chris note on their website that they’re ‘back in the studio’ working with Olly Alexander of the band Years & Years.

2024

The 15th PSB studio album, Nonetheless, is released today.