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History

March 1985

They sign to Parlophone Records after long negotiations with Bobby O’, who relinquished his contractual rights over them in return for a substantial royalty on future record sales.

April 1985

On April 5th, Neil leaves Smash Hits. In the next issue an ‘obituary’ is written, bidding him a sad adieu and predicting that in a matter of weeks Neil’s pop duo, the Pet Shop Boys “will be down the dumper and he’ll come crawling back on bended knees, ha ha ha”. “I spoke to my mum on the telephone and said how we’d signed with EMI and she said “But you’re not going to give up your job, are you?” and I said, actually I did last week”.

July 1985

On July 1st, the first version of ‘Opportunities’ is released. It reached #116 in the UK.

1985 July

August 1985

They play a short set as part of the ICA Rock Week in London, Chris showing off his skills on the trombone. Neil and Chris are interviewed on stage by Max Headroom. They re-record ‘West End girls’ with producer Stephen Hague the same month.

October 1985

‘West End girls’ is released on October 28th and goes to #1 in the UK in January. It is subsequently #1 in USA, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and Norway, selling 1.5 million copies. “People endlessly ask us what it’s like having a #1” says Neil at the time. “But what it feels like is vaguely nothing. It feels like having a cup of tea”.

On this day

1986

Chris Heath interviews Neil and Chris for Smash Hits—one of their earliest major magazine interviews. Later the Boys watch the BPI Awards on TV, followed by dinner and a visit to a London dance club where they persuade the DJ to play an acetate of their new dance mix of ‘Love Comes Quickly.’

1987

The Boys receive the ‘Best Single of 1986’ award from BPI for ‘West End Girls.’ After the show, Neil (but not Chris) poses for a backstage group photo with a number of major artists, including Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Mark Knopfler, and the Bangles, among others.

2000

The Nightlife Tour performance this evening in Dortmund, Germany, is filmed for eventual release as Montage.

2005

Neil and Chris finish their demo of ‘Girls Don’t Cry’ and record Neil’s vocals for ‘Fugitive.’

2011

They complete their preliminary demo work for ‘Invisible.’

2015

Chris and Neil are in Berlin, where they work in the studio on a new song titled ‘Former Children’ (later to be retitled ‘Gramophone’).

2023

Quite unexpectedly, without any advance fanfare, the Pet Shop Boys release on YouTube a ‘home demo’ of a brand new song, ‘Living in the Past,’ inspired by the unveiling in Volgograd, Russia only a week before of a monument to Joseph Stalin.