On August 19th, Neil and Chris meet by chance in an electronics shop on the Kings Road. Realizing they have a common interest in dance music, they begin to write together. Initially they call themselves West End; later they come up with the name Pet Shop Boys, a name derived from some friends who work in a pet shop in Ealing. “We thought it sounded like an English rap group”.
‘Before’ is released in 12-inch single format in the U.S.
The official PSB website announces that a new ‘Greatest Hits’ collection will be released in the autumn.
Chris and Neil make a surprise guest appearance with Yoko Ono at the Meltdown Festival in London. They perform the PSB mix of Yoko’s ‘Walking on Thin Ice.’
They perform in Copenhagen.
In the wee hours of the morning, the Boys perform as the closing headline act at the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden—a show marred somewhat by pouring rain.
Spinning off from ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’ Neil and Miranda Cooper turn it into a different song altogether that they call ‘Dreaming.’ It will soon evolve into ‘More Than a Dream.’
Twenty years and three days since their Performance show in Dublin, the Boys are back there again on their current tour with Take That. This evening, however, they’re free, so they visit a pub and enjoy a few beers with friends.
In spite of what Neil describes on their website as ‘very heavy rain,’ the Pet Shop Boys perform their Super Tour show this evening at Bergenfest in Bergen, Norway.
They continue work on ‘Love Is the Law.’
As the Boys describe it on their website, it’s ‘a misty, moisty evening’ in Oslo, Norway, where they perform their Dreamworld Tour show this evening at the OverOslo Music Festival.
They perform at OVO Arena Wembley, London’s second-largest indoor arena after the O2.