Here you can find, in chronological order, events from the world of the Pet Shop Boys
Further information are available in sections
Neil Tennant,
Chris Lowe,
collaboration,
discography,
psb and film,
tour
and literally.
Commentaries on some songs are available in the section
between the lines.
| August | 19 | Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met by a chance in an electro-shop on Kings Road in London. Chris thought that Neil is clever (because of his glasses). Neil thought that Chris is a bit mad (because of his laugh). When they found out that they share interest in dance music they started to write songs together. At first they called themselves West End, later they started to use the name Pet Shop Boys (Chris had three friends in Ealing who worked in a pet shop and Neil and Chris had used to tell to start a group. Neil: "We thought it was funny because it sounded like an American hip-hop group." Then they start to use the name themselves. |
| August | Neil is in New York to interview Sting (then a member of The Police) for Smash Hits (a UK magazine). By this time, the Pet Shop Boys were obsessed by hi-energy records made by New York producer Bobby Orlando, known as Bobby 'O'. Neil had a lunch with him (two years to the day since Neil and Chris had met) and Bobby 'O' suggests making a record with the Pet Shop Boys. |
| April | They release the first version of a song West End Girls. It is a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco and a small hit in France and Belgium. | |
| October | They made their first ever stage appearance at the Fridge nightclub in Brixton. The Pet Shop Boys performed songs One More Chance, I Get Excited, Opportunities, West End Girls, Later Tonight and Rent. |
| March | The Pet Shop Boys sign to Parlophone Records (a division of EMI) after long negotiations with Bobby 'O', who gives up his rights in exchange for salary fees on three future albums by EMI. The Pet Shop Boys also gave up earnings for the first version of West End Girls. | |
| April | Neil leaves Smash Hits. | |
| July | 1 | The first version of Opportunities is released. |
| August | The Pet Shop Boys play a short set as part of the ICA Rock Week in London, Chris showing off his skills on the trombone. | |
| In the same month they re-record West End Girls with producer Stephen Hague. | ||
| October | 28 | The Pet Shop Boys release a new version of West End Girls. It becomes the UK number one in January. It was subsequently number one in the USA, Canada, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Israel, Hong Kong and New Zealand, selling 1,5 million copies. It was their first big hit. |
| February | 24 | A single Love Comes Quickly is released. |
| March | 24 | Their first LP, Please, is released. "It's so people can go into the record shop and say: 'Can I have the Pet Shop Boys album, please?'" |
| May | 19 | A new version of Opportunities is released. |
| September | 22 | A single Suburbia is released. The song was inspired by the Penelope Spheeris film of the same name about a group of disenchanted rebellious youths suburban Los Angeles. A song Paninaro is released on the b-side. |
| November | 17 | Disco, a remix album, is released. |
| February | The Pet Shop Boys receive the Best Single award for West End Girls at the BPI Awards. They also consider whether to tour. "I can't see the point really," said Neil at the time. "I quite like the idea of being on the coach, having the meal beforehand, the party in the room afterwards, going in the swimming pool, signing the autographs in the lobby, wrecking the mini-bar. The only thing I don't like the idea of is being on the stage and having to sing for rather a long time." He now dismisses this comment as flippant; it had been inspired by his happy memories of going on tour with Depeche Mode for Smash Hits in autumn of 1984. | |
| May | The Pet Shop Boys receive the Best International Hit award for West End Girls at the Ivor Novello Awards. | |
| June | 15 | A single It's a Sin is released. It reaches number one in the UK chart. "It's about being brought up as a Catholic. When I went to school, you were taught that everything was a sin." Jonathan King accused them of plagiarism (he later apologised and paid damages to a charity on their request). A teacher at Neil's old school, St. Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle, got very steamed up about the picture Neil painted of his education and castigated Neil in the press. The Salvation Army magazine, War Cry, put the Pet Shop Boys on the front page and noted, approvingly: "It's interesting that someone's raised the concept of sin in our modern life again." Neil was also asked to appear with Cardinal Hume in a press advert for CAFOD (Catholic Agency For Overseas Development). He politely declined the offer, explaining that he wasn't a practising Catholic. |
| August | 10 | A song What Have I Done To Deserve This?, a duet with Dusty Springfield (Neil's favourite female singer), is released as a single. The Pet Shop Boys had wanted to record this song for Please, but had not been able to arrange it in time. "She sounds right because her voice has got that world-weary quality." |
| 16 | The Pet Shop Boys appeared on a Granada TV special, Love Me Tender, commemorating the tenth anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. They were asked to perform an old song he had made famous. In the end, they played Always On My Mind. They had no plans to release their version at the time. | |
| September | 7 | An album Actually is released. The title was simply a word they say an awful lot. |
| October | 12 | A single Rent is released. |
| November | The Pet Shop Boys spent three weeks in Clacton and South London, shooting a film It Couldn't Happen Here. It had originally been conceived as an hour-long video base around the Actually LP, turned into a full-scale feature film to be released cinematically. It was directed by Jack Bond, co-starring Barbara Windsor, Joss Ackland and Gareth Hunt. "We just do what we normally do," explained Chris, "walk around, me a few paces behind Neil..." | |
| 30 | The song Always On My Mind is released as a single and it becomes the Christmas number one. |
| January | A song I'm Not Scared, written and produced by the Pet Shop Boys for Patsy Kensit, is released as a single by her group Eighth Wonder. It is their first hit. | |
| February | At the BPI Awards, the Pet Shop Boys win the Best Group award. | |
| March | 21 | A single Heart is released. It becomes number one in Great Britain. The video, shot in Yugoslavia, was a resetting of the Dracula story with Ian McKellen in the title role. |
| May | The Pet Shop Boys win the Best International Hit award at the Ivor Novello Awards again, this time for It's a Sin. | |
| June | Ian McKellen persuades the Pet Shop Boys to play live at an anti-Clause 28 benefit, Before The Act, at London's Piccadilly Theatre in London against Clause 28 (a law prohibiting at school support of homosexuality as a life-choice). They perform It's a Sin and One More Chance. "A brilliant event," they said afterwards. | |
| July | 8 | The film It Couldn't Happen Here is released to mixed reviews; it wins an award at the Houston film festival. |
| August | The Pet Shop Boys win the Berolina award in Germany for 'Group of the Year'. The award is presented to them by Miss Venezuela. | |
| September | 12 | A new single, Domino Dancing, is released. This song was recorded in February in Miami with producer Lewis Martinee. A video was shot in Puerto Rico. |
| October | 10 | An album Introspective is released. So called because "all the songs, although it's a dance album, are introspective". The title was chosen after considering and dismissing 'f', 'Dogmatic', 'Bounce' and 'Hello'. |
| November | 14 | A single Left To My Own Devices, "an exagerrated autobiography", is released. The second verse refers to a time when Neil's mother would worry about him because he'd wait in a corner of the back garden, pretending to be a Roundhead soldier. |
| February | 13 | Dusty Springfield releases a single Nothing Has Been Proved. It was written by the Pet Shop Boys, produced by them and Julian Mendelsohn. It was taken from the film Scandal. The other track that the Pet Shop Boys wrote for Dusty for the film, In Private, was passed on by the film-makers because they thought it sounded too contemporary. |
| Meanwhile, the Pet Shop Boys are busy producing - with Julian Mendelsohn - an album for a famous actress Liza Minnelli. | ||
| June | 26 | A single It's Alright is released. The Pet Shop Boys originally heard this song - by Chicago house artist Sterling Void - on the "Acid Tracks: The House Sound Of Chicago Vol. 3" CD while recording I Get Excited. They were immediately impressed by this song. For the single, they re-recorded it in a more poppy style and Neil added a verse about the threat facing the world environment. |
| 29 | The Pet Shop Boys begin their first world tour called MCMLXXXIX. They play fourteen dates in Hong Kong, Japan and Great Britain. The tour is directed by film-maker Derek Jarman. He has specially shot several films to be back-projected. There are extravagant costumes and the cast includes six dancers, four singers, an extra keyboard player, a percussionist and a saxophonist (Courtney Pine). "They asked for a theatrical concert and that's what we're doing," said Derek Jarman. "I suppose some people think pop music and theatre shouldn't mix, but I think pop music is theatre and I don't see why it shouldn't be so. To my mind, there's two ways of doing it - you either just sit there and sing on a stool and do it the simple way, or you go for it." | |
| August | The first single from the Pet Shop Boys' collaboration with Liza Minnelli, a hi-energy version of Stephen Sondheim's Losing My Mind, is released. It's her first hit single. An album Results is released in October. | |
| December | 4 | A song Getting Away With It, the first single by Electronic - the group formed by Bernard Sumner (New Order) and Johnny Marr (former member of The The and The Smiths) - is released. The words are co-written by Neil, who also sings on the record and appears in the video. |
| July | Dusty Springfield's album Reputation is released. One half of the album is a collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys; they wrote and produced four songs and produced one another. | |
| August | The Pet Shop Boys make their first public live appearance in America, guesting on two songs with Electronic at the Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium. Electronic have been invited to play by the headline act Depeche Mode. They repeat the same performance the following night. | |
| September | 24 | A single So Hard is released. The video was shot in Newcastle co-stars Paul Gascoigne's sister, Anna. The KLF took part on remixes among other remixers. |
| October | 22 | The Pet Shop Boys release a new album called Behaviour. It was recorded in Munich and co-produced by Harold Faltermeyer (known for main theme - titled Axel F - from the film Beverly Hills Cop) who they originally chose because they were interested in using old analog synthesizers. Though at the time of release they didn't consider ot to reflect a substantial shift in mood, later they conceded it had been. "It was more reflective and more musical-sounding, and aldo it probably didn't have irritatingly crass ideas in it, like our songs often do." |
| November | 6 | The Pet Shop Boys play their first American concert at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles. |
| 12 | The second single from Behaviour, a song Being Boring, is released. Its video was made by photographer and film-maker Bruce Weber. It was shot in one day at a house in Long Island, with a cast that included a horse and a chimpanzee on roller-skates. Though many TV channels (including American MTV) refused to show the video because of the nudity included, it won Music Week's Best Video Of The Year. | |
| 12 | On the same day, a book Pet Shop Boys, Literally, an official work by Chris Heath based around the 1989 tour, is published. At a London bookshop on November 23 they sign over 800 copies before the police break up the waiting crowd. | |
| December | An edited videorecord from the 1989 tour is released under the name Highlights. |
| March | 11 | The next single from Behaviour had initially been a song How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? (a video in which the Pet Shop Boys parody a number of stars was filmed). Meanwhile they have recorded a new track, a hi-energy version of a famous song Where The Streets Have No Name by U2 segued with Can't Take My Eyes Of You by Frankie Walli. Eventually they release both songs as a double A-side on March 11. Pressed for comment, U2 issued the statement 'What have we done to deserve this?'. |
| 11 | Also on March 11, a new Pet Shop Boys' tour called Performance begins. The first concert took place in Tokio, the last one in Dublin on June 17; altogether the Pet Shop Boys perform in 19 countries. The show is put together in conjunction with director David Alden and designer David Fielding, best known for their avant garde opera productions. Among performers are two musicians (J. J. Belle and Scott Davidson), three singers and ten dancers, choreographed by Jacob Marley. | |
| May | 27 | The first album by Electronic is released. The album Electronic contains among others songs Getting Away With It (not on the UK release) and The Patience Of A Saint, on that Neil and Chris collaborated. |
| 28 | A song Jealousy is released as a single, with a real orchestra now. It's a song they had written nine years earlier. The extended mix contains a quote from a Shakespeare's tragic study on jealousy, Othello. In the video, shot in a west London car showroom, the Pet Shop Boys stand by as a roomful of dining villains move from jealousy to violence. | |
| August | Neil and Chris are invited to take over Simon Bates' mid-morning show on BBC Radio One for a week. They choose all the records, principally dance music. They're invited again in July 1992. | |
| September | The Pet Shop Boys release on their own, newly launched label Spaghetti, a single Heaven Must Have Sent You Back To Me by young Scottish singer, synthesizer player and songwriter Cicero. | |
| October | 14 | A single DJ Culture is released. |
| 5 | The Pet Shop Boys play a one-off concert at the London club Heaven at a party after the premiere of Edvard II, the latest film by Derek Jarman. | |
| November | 4 | Discography, a collection of Pet Shop Boys' singles from the second release of West End Girls to the forthcoming single Was It Worth It?, is released. A video compilation called Videography is released as well. |
| December | 9 | The single Was It Worth It? is released. The video mixes footage from the Heaven concert with the Pet Shop Boys among a clubland crowd mostly recruited from London event Kinky Gerlinky. Remix of a song Miserablism by Moby appears on American release of the single. |
| February | An hour-long film about the Pet Shop Boys is broadcast by TV arts programme The South Bank Show. | |
| May | 13 | The Pet Shop Boys play a concert at the Haçienda club in Manchester, to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the club and with an exhibition of paintings by Derek Jarman in Manchester City Art Gallery. They perform with J. J. Belle and Sylvia Mason-James. In rehearsals they decide want to play a suitable coverversion. After discarding Fool On The Hill by the Beatles, they chose the Village People's 1979 hit, Go West. They perform with the same line-up at Roseland in New York, a benefit for Lifebeat, an organization for people in the music business with AIDS. |
| June | Neil co-writes and sings on a new Electronic single called Disappointed. The title came to him when the backing track reminded him of Disenchantée, a song by French singer Myléne Farmer. "Disappointed is sort of a love song," Neil says. | |
| September | 28 | A videorecord of the 1991 world tour by Eric Watson is released under the name Performance. It has been delayed after a copyright wrangle with one of the owners of I Can't Take My Eyes Off You; all traces of that song have been excised. |
| October | 26 | The soundtrack to the Neil Jordan's film The Crying Game is released on Spaghetti Records. The Pet Shop Boys had been earlier asked whether they would be interested in helping with songs for the film. They liked a rough edit and agreed to release the soundtrack on their label. They produced songs for Boy George, Cicero and Caroll Thompson for this soundtrack. |
| June | A new single called Can You Forgive Her? is released. For the video, the Pet Shop Boys appear in orange bodysuits and dunces caps designed by David Fielding. "We wanted to do something that is the opposite of what everyone else is doing," Neil explains. "Everyone else is being real, so we're being artificial." | |
| July | The Pet Shop Boys travel to Moscow for the opening of MTV Russia. | |
| September | 6 | A song Go West is released. It reaches number two in the UK chart. The video, partially filmed in Moscow, finds the Pet Shop Boys in a new set of costumes - Neil in blue, Chris in yellow, and both of them wearing blue-and-yellow domes on their heads. |
| 27 | An album Very is released. "It is called Very," says Neil, "because it is Very Pet Shop Boys: it's very up, it's very hi-energy, it's very romantic, it's very sad, it's very pop, it's very danceable and some of it is very funny..." The CD is released in an unusual orange box. It reaches number one in the UK chart. A limited edition with an album called Relentless album, that contains six dance tracks (described by the Pet Shop Boys as "non-structured"), is released as well. | |
| October | 24 | The Pet Shop Boys appear at the London Palladium as part of The Equality Show, a benefit as part of Stonewall's campaign to equalise the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual people in Britain. They perform four songs: Can You Forgive Her?, To Speak Is A Sin, One In A Million (incorporating part of a song Mr. Vain by Culture Beat) and Go West. They are joined by the London Gay Men's Choir for the final song. |
| November | 4 | A book titled Pet Shop Boys versus America by Chris Heath, detailing the American leg of their Performance tour, is published. |
| 15 | A song I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing is released as a single. The single version, remixed by the Beatmasters, is accompanied by a video, where Neil and Chris wear new costumes (Neil in pink and black, Chris in pink and white) and Sixties wigs. | |
| December | All the films Derek Jarman has made as backdrops to live Pet Shop Boys' performances during their 1989 tour and at the Haçienda club in 1992, are released on a video called Projections. |
| February | The Pet Shop Boys appear at the Brit Awards, performing Go West. They are dressed as miners and backed by a choir. They originally conceived this idea for the 1992 Royal Variety Show as a protest against coal pit closures. | |
| April | A single Liberation is released. The video is completely computer-generated and has been projected in IMAX cinemas. | |
| May | 31 | A single Absolutely Fabulous is released. It's a result of Pet Shop Boys' collaboration with Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley from the TV series Absolutely Fabulous. The single isn't released under the name Pet Shop Boys - the artist's name is nominally Absolutely Fabulous. The song features snippets of dialogue from the mentioned series and additionally recorded bits. The Pet Shop Boys wrote the music and produced the single. The record's profits are donated to the British Charity, Comic Relief. |
| June | The first remix that the Pet Shop Boys ever done for someone else is released. It's a remix of a song Girls & Boys by Blur. They did it because they thought it would be fun. "And we thought it could be more of a dance track," says Chris. | |
| August | 29 | Yesterday, When I Was Mad is released as a single in a new version remixed by the Pet Shop Boys and Julian Mendelsohn. |
| September | 12 | The Pet Shop Boys release Disco 2, a sequel to their 1986 remix album Disco. It is a continuous mix of dance versions of their songs edited by London DJ Danny Rampling. "It is really good for driving to and getting ready to go out to," says Chris. |
| October | 26 | The Discovery tour began in Singapore. The Pet Shop Boys further play in Australia, Puertorico, Mexico, Columbia, Chile, Argentina and Brasil. The tour is inspired by a trip Chris made to Brazil in the summer, and by a July visit the Pet Shop Boys made to the Sound Factory in New York, where they saw go-go dancers covered only by American flags, while live percussionists played along to the records. The performers included four dancers, two percussionists, an additional singer (Katie Kissoon) and programmer Pete Gleadall, who also played the guitar on Suburbia. In addition to songs released by the Pet Shop Boys themselves, they also perform Girls Boys by Blur; there are four medleys by the end of the tour: in addition to Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You), One In A Million incorporates Mr. Vain, It's A Sin merges with I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor and Left To My Own Devices contains an extract of The Rhythm Of The Night by Corona. "We're much more free spirited on this tour," Chris announces. "We do what we want. We party on down. It's not a totally choreographed, staged and rehearsed show. I suppose it is more rock'n'roll in its attitude. You get to express yourself. And take your clothes off." |
| March | 6 | A collection of recent videos is released under the name Various. |
| July | 31 | A single Paninaro '95 is released. It's a new version of the song they had first released in 1986. The new version is based upon the new arrangement performed on the Discovery tour and contains new, updated lyrics. |
| August | 7 | A compilation called Alternative is released. It contains 30 songs that were released as b-sides on existing Pet Shop Boys singles. The first copies of the CD and album have a hologram on the cover which shifts between two photographs, one of Neil, one of Chris, both in fencing masks. "They're some of our favourite songs," Neil explains, "and it just seemed like a good idea to have them in one place." |
| 7 | On the same day, Discovery, a videorecord of the concert in Rio de Janeiro from the eponymous tour, is released. | |
| December | 19 | The Pet Shop Boys record a two-hour radio programme, Merry Pet Shop Boys, for BBC Radio One to broadcast on Christmas Eve. They play their favourite records from the previous year. |
| February | 19 | David Bowie releases a single Hallo Spaceboy. The single version was produced by the Pet Shop Boys. On the day the single is released the Pet Shop Boys perform play the song with David Bowie at the Brit Awards. |
| April | A new album by Tina Turner, Wildest Dreams, is released. The album contains a song Confidential, written and co-produced by the Pet Shop Boys. | |
| 22 | A single Before is released. "It's a love song," says Neil. "It's about someone I know. It's a song of encouragement." | |
| August | 12 | A song Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) is released as a single. A video was filmed in the beginning of the year at Wet'n'Wild theme park in Orlando, Florida. It is directed by Bruce Weber - it's the second pop video (after Being Boring) he has ever made. |
| September | 2 | The Pet Shop Boys release a new album called Bilingual. It was initially planned as some kind of Latin record. Although there are many Latin moments on the finished album (rhythmically, linguistically and emotionally), as time passed, this idea provided more an attitude and orientation than a strict musical blueprint. "Another reason for doing the album like this," says Neil, "was as a reaction against Britpop. We like being part of Europe; ve are a very international group and we like the fact." |
| November | 7 | Neil gave an interview over the internet. At the end of the scheduled hour he stayed on-line for a while, reading what people were saying and adding his own comments. |
| 11 | A single Single-Bilingual is released (the title differs to the album version because Everything But The Girl just released a single called Single). A video was filmed at Stansted airport. Neil performs a businessman, Chris is a policeman. "That is," comments Chris, "what Neil is really like. It beings out Neil's true humour. He's not acting. Behind that sombre facade, that's what's there. Personality." To promote the single, the Pet Shop Boys make a semi-live TV appearance on TFI Friday, performing two songs and being interviewed by Chris Evans. | |
| December | 8, 15 | A two-part radio documentary, About The Pet Shop Boys, is broadcast on BBC Radio One. It includes for example excerpts from early demo-records and interviews with many of their collaborators. |
| 15 | Neil appeared on stage at the Camden Roundhouse with Suede. He performed a song Saturday Night as a duet with Suede's frontman Brett Anderson and then solo with the band a song Rent. Both songs are released in July next year on second part of a single Filmstar by Suede. |
| March | 17 | A song A Red Letter Day is released as a single. The single version is a new version, using elements from a Motiv 8 remix. |
| June | 5 - 21 | The Pet Shop Boys play concerts at Savoy theatre in West End in London. |
| 23 | A new single, a coverversion of Somewhere - a song that originally appeared in the musical West Side Story - is released. | |
| 27 | The Pet Shop Boys play 16 songs at Roskilde festival in Denmark. It is their first performance on rock festival ever. On June 29 they perform at another festival in Turku in Finland. | |
| July | 5 | The Pet Shop Boys headlined Gay Pride in London. They play Somewhere, It's A Sin and Go West to an endless sea of people. |
| 7 | A special 2CD edition of Bilingual called Bilingual Special Edition is released. A bonus CD contains seven recent remixes. | |
| August | 16 | The Pet Shop Boys perform on a floating stage at Stockholm's Water festival. |
| September | 14 | Neil and Chris filmed with Elton John for his programme 'An Audience With Elton John'. They play, together with Elton John, a song I Believe, and intermingle it with an older Elton's hit called Song For Guy. |
| October | 26 | The Pet Shop Boys headline Stonewall's Equality Show at London's Royal Albert Hall. They perform songs Sixteen Going On Seventeen (from the movie The Sound Of Music), Being Boring, Climb Every Mountain (also from The Sound Of Music) and Go West and they finished with It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones. "It was our greatest moment," says Chris. "Our finest hour." |
| November | 24 | A videorecord of the Pet Shop Boys's show in the Savoy theatre is released. |
| December | A CD with a song called It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas is sent as a Chrismas gift to members of Literally, the PSB official fanclub. |
| February, March | The Pet Shop Boys play four concerts in Russia - two in Moscow and two in St. Petersburg. | |
| March | A limited edition CD called Essential is released in the USA and Japan, containing early Pet Shop Boys songs. Some of them hadn't been released on a CD before. A very few original copies is labeled Early. | |
| April | 13 | An album called 20th Century Blues: The Songs Of Noël Coward (Neil was one of executive producers), is released. It is a compilation of various songs by Noël Coward, newly interpreted by various singers and groups. It is released as the Red Hot Aids Trust benefit. The Pet Shop Boys contributed with a coverversion of a song Sail Away, Neil also collaborated on a song There Are Bad Times Just Around The Corner, recorded by Robbie Williams. |
| November | The Pet Shop Boys wrote, on request of director Gus Van Sant, a song for Van Sant's remake of famous Hitchock's film Psycho. The song is called Screaming (it isn't in the film). |
| March | 2 | Dusty Springfield died. The Pet Shop Boys collaborated with her on a song What Have I Done To Deserve This? and on her album Reputation in the past. |
| June | A new tour is announced. Members of the official fanclub received a leaflet that informed that the Pet Shop Boys will perform in Great Britain, Germany, Holland and the Czech Republic in the autumn. More countries were added later, including the United States. | |
| July | 19 | A new single called I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More is released. |
| August | 11 | The Pet Shop Boys performed at Radio 1 Eclipse Show, which took place on the occassion of total eclipse. They recorded a track called Casting A Shadow for this event. |
| 28 | The Pet Shop Boys perform at Creamfields festival. | |
| September | 27 | A single New York City Boy is released. |
| October | 11 | An album Nightlife is released (in Japan already on October 8, in the USA on November 2). The album reached number seven in the UK chart. "All the songs take place at night. People's perceptions of life are different at night, people's needs are different, people's fears are greater, people's need for love or sex is greater, people are maybe of their head on drink or drugs, people want to dance," Neil explains. "The night is also scary. It's dark. Vampires come out at night. People exploit each other. And nowadays the night, in clubbing terms, extends into the day - you can find people in clubs still dancing at midday, so, although it's light outside, for them it's still the night. All of these themes come into the album. It represents theg ood and bad sides of nightclubbing, and maybe the good and bad sides of human nature." |
| 20 | The Nightlife tour begins in Miami. The Pet Shop Boys perform in fifteen countries; the last concert takes place in Mannheim in Germany on February 12, 2000. | |
| December | The Pet Shop Boys won their legal dispute trial with British author and philosopher Roger Scruton, who said that they had little to do with the making of their records and that it is rather a matter of sound engineers. |
| January | 3 | A single You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk is released. |
| May | 25 | The Pet Shop Boys got a prestige music award for outstanding contribution to British music - "Ivor Novello Award". The award was presented to them by Elton John. Among earlier awarded musicians are for example Pink Floyd, Queen, The Rolling Stones or Morrissey. |
| June | 1 | The Pet Shop Boys begin their summer tour in Jerusalem. During this tour, they also performed at a few European festivals. |
| 5 | Pet Shop Boys' remix of a song Jerusalem is included on an eponymous single by Fat Les. | |
| 24 | The Pet Shop Boys perform at Glastonbury festival. | |
| 30 | A tragic event took place during Roskilde festival in Denmark, where the Pet Shop Boys were scheduled to appear. While Pearl Jam played, a large number of people were crushed and nine of them died. The Pet Shop Boys were to play on the same stage like Pearl Jam. The festival carried on, but the Pet Shop Boys (and also Oasis and The Cure) cancelled their performance with respect to victims and their families. | |
| July, August | Pet Shop Boys's remixes of a song Mope are released on singles Mope and The Ballad Of Chasey Lain by the Bloodhound Gang. |
| January | 6 | In a poll for the most favourite song in the UK since 1950s till present (results were presented by British TV station Channel 4 in a programme 'The 100 Greatest No. 1 Singles'), the Pet Shop Boys finished on 70th place with their song West End Girls. |
| May | 12 | A voucher that could have been exchanged for a free PSB CD in HMV shops in the UK appeared in The Daily Telegraph. The CD includes four songs from the musical Closer To Heaven - Closer To Heaven (slow version), Friendly Fire, Shameless and Closer To Heaven. The CD was also sent to members of Literally, the official fanclub. |
| The official site of the Pet Shop Boys has undergone great changes. First thing that a visitor will notice is a new design from Mark Farrow's studio, who has already collaborated with PSB on sleeves of their records. But also the contents has changed - for the better. For example in media section, there are videos from Bilingual era available. You also have a chance to ask Neil and Chris whatever you want in the questions section of the official site. | ||
| 31 | The premiere of the musical Closer To Heaven took place in Arts Theatre in London (previews ran since May 15). The musical was directed by Jonathan Harvey, music was written by the Pet Shop Boys. | |
| June | 4 | Six first PSB albums - Please, Actually, Introspective, Behaviour, Very and Bilingual - are reissued on CDs. Actually even got into Top 100 again. The reissues consist of two CDs - each double-CD contains a remastered album, the other CD includes b-sides, demos and PSB remixes from the respective period. |
| 4 | On the same day, a PSB signing - the first after eleven years - took place in London Tower Records store on Piccadilly Circus. | |
| 5 | An album with coverversions of fifteen Pet Shop Boys' songs was released. The title of the album is Very Introspective, Actually and you can find for example Momus, David J or Human Drama among the performers. | |
| July | The Wotapalava tour, which had been scheduled for this year's July and August, when the Pet Shop Boys, Rufus Wainwright, Soft Cell and other artists should have played in the United States and Canada, was cancelled. | |
| August | A CD with a song Run Girl Run performed by Frances Barber (character Billie Trix in the musical Closer To Heaven) went on sale in Arts Theatre. This song was by all accounts written and produced by the Pet Shop Boys, although pseudonyms are stated on a sleeve. CD contains two versions of the song (original 1971 single version and 1981 post-apocalyptic nightmare mix). Fictious information on the sleeve say that the first track was produced by Merlin Zoot (featuring Hank Quarshie on tambourine) and the second one by Lenny Snatch. | |
| September | A single Break 4 Love - a coverversion of an old track by Raze, on that have collaborated Peter Rauhofer and Neil Tennant - was released. | |
| October | 13 | The last performance of the musical Closer To Heaven took place on October 13. |
| 15 | The original Closer To Heaven cast recording was released. | |
| A coverversion of Break 4 Love, recorded by Peter Rauhofer and Neil Tennant, reached number one in the US club chart. | ||
| November | 5 | A videorecord Montage from the Nightlife tour was released on VHS and DVD. DVD contains in addition three videos and the introductory concert projection. |
| February | The Pet Shop Boys are on a tour, playing a few UK universities. | |
| March | 18 | A new single Home And Dry is released. |
| April | 1 | A new album Release is released (in the USA on April 23). It reaches number seven in the UK chart. |
| Japanese singer Miyuki Motegi (called Miu) release her album M. I. U.. It contains a song All Or Nothing, co-written by the Pet Shop Boys. Neil sings backing vocals in the song. | ||
| A competition in making a remix of Home And Dry is launched by the Pet Shop Boys in Denmark. On this occassion, all sound tracks from the song are made available on-line. | ||
| May | 14 | The Pet Shop Boys began a new world tour Release in Miami. They performed in the United States, Europe and Asia; the last concert took place on August 2 in Bangkok, Thailand. |
| July | 15 | A single I Get Along is released. |
| October | 14 | A new single London is released (only in continental Europe). |
| February | 3 | PSB release another album of the Disco series, this time number 3. |
| March | 2 | Pet Shop Boys' remixes of the song Hooked On Radiation (by Atomizer) are released. |
| June | 2 | Yoko Ono's song Walking On Thin Ice is released on a single again. It was remixed by the Pet Shop Boys among others. |
| August | Pet Shop Boys changed their manager. Dave Dorell took up the post after Mitch Clark. | |
| November | 17 | A new single Miracles is released and reaches Top 10 in the UK singles chart. Pet Shop Boys have had Top 10 singles in three decades. |
| 24 | A 2CD compilation called PopArt is released. It contains all PSB singles, that reached Top 20 in the UK singles chart (that means that only the song Was It Worth It? is missing) and one yet unreleased song called Flamboyant (which will reach Top 20 in spring 2004 as well).
A triple-CD edition called PopArtMix is also released - the third CD features remixes of ten tracks. French release of the compilation contains a song Paris City Boy - French version of New York City Boy. |