After completing a degree in history at the Polytechnic of North London, Neil takes a job at Marvel Comics, anglicizing spellings and indicating where over-risque woman needed to be redrawn decently. While there he interviews comic fan Marc Bolan, who politely points out that his tape recorder wasn’t working. In 1977 he works at Macdonald Educational Publishing, later moving to ITV Books. In June 1982, he joins Smash Hits.
The Boys spend the afternoon with Derek Jarman, making plans for filming their upcoming show at Wembley.
Neil attends an AIDS-charity concert headlined by the band Suede in Clapham, seated in a private box with Derek Jarman and Jon Savage.
Neil is sighted at Madonna’s ‘Drowned World Tour’ concert at London’s Earls Court Arena.
The Boys perform in Manchester, U.K.
The Pet Shop Boys re-sign with Parlophone/EMI, their record label since 1985.
They perform at the ‘T in the Park’ festival near Kinross, Scotland.
The Take That/PSB tour moves to the European continent, the first such show taking place this evening in Milan.
Electric is released.
They bring their Electric Tour to Liepāja, Latvia.
Today sees the debut airing of the BBC Radio 4 documentary The House of the Windy City – Dance Music’s Forgotten Heroes, to which the Pet Shop Boys have contributed. The documentary covers the development and rise in Chicago of house music, which became arguably the pop world’s most pervasive and influential style of dance music of the ‘post-disco’ era.
Despite coughing from a cold, Neil works all day in the studio with Chris on the song ‘Hoping for a Miracle,’ based on a piano demo composed by Chris while on holiday in Le Touquet, France.
At the offices of Mark Farrow, the Boys discuss the artwork for the ‘Dreamland’ single and its parent album, Hotspot.