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History

March 1997

On March 17th, ‘A Red Letter Day’ is released as a single. It was a song which began when the Pet Shop Boys were experimenting with taking the chord changes from famous pieces of classical music (in this case Beethoven’s Song Of Joy) and putting them to a 4/4 beat, and it features the choir of the Choral Academy of Moscow. “It’s about waiting for someone to tell you they love you”, says Neil. The seven-inch version is a new mix, using elements from a Motiv 8 remix of the song, and the Pet Shop Boys are also particularly taken with the hypnotic ‘Trouser Enthusiasts Autoerotic Decapitation mix’.

1997 March

June 1997

On June 4th, the Pet Shop Boys begin a residency, ‘Somewhere’, at London’s Savoy Theatre, staged in collaboration with the artist Sam Taylor-Wood.

1997 June

On June 23 the Pet Shop Boys release a new single, a version of “Somewhere” from West Side Story. “Because we like it,” Neil explains.

1997 June

On June 27 the Pet Shop Boys play their first ever festival show, headlining the Roskilde festival in Denmark. “We’re playing fifteen hit singles and one obscure song.” Neil tells the press beforehand. “We’re not taking any chances,” Chris explains. After a fairly triumphant reception, Chris says, “We didn’t look too keen, did we? It’s easy to get carried away at moments like that and do things you regret later.” Two days later they play at another festival in Turku, Finland. During “Go West” a preposterously large ship comes up the river, alongside the stage, as though choreographed.

July 1997

A new version of ‘Bilingual’ is released on July 7th titled ‘Bilingual Special Edition’. It features a bonus CD containing 7 remixed tracks, including the extended version of ‘Somewhere’ and a previously unavailable mix of ‘The boy who couldn’t keep his clothes on’.

1997 July

The Pet Shop Boys agree to headline Gay Pride, an all-day celebration on Clapham Common in London on July 5th. They perform ‘Somewhere’, ‘It’s a sin’, and ‘Go West’ to a sea of people, as far as you can see, their arms in the air.

August 1997

On August 16 the Pet Shop Boys headline the final night of the Stockholm Water Festival in Sweden. The stage is on a man-made island floating on water, which sways noticeable as they perform.

September 1997

On September 14 the Pet Shop Boys appear on the TV programme ‘An Audience With Elton John’ performing with Elton John an arrangement of theirs which melds together two of his songs, “Believe” and “Song For Guy”.

October 1997

On October 26 the Pet Shop Boys headline Stonewall’s Equality Show at London’s Royal Albert Hall, having agreed to do so at the last minute. Before finishing with a hastily arranged version of Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual”, they played a medley which included “Sixteen Going On Seventeen” (from The Sound Of Music), “Being boring”, “Climb Every Mountain” (also from The Sound Of Music) and “Go West”, “It was our greatest moment,” Chris declares. “Our finest hour.”

November 1997

On November 24 a longform video, Somewhere: Pet Shop Boys in Concert, is released. Directed by Annie Griffin, it comprises of a half-hour documentary about the staging of the Somewhere show followed by a film of most of the show itself.

1997 November

On this day

1990

The Pet Shop Boys perform their first full-length live concert in the U.S. at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles.

2007

Neil visits London’s Tate Modern Art Museum, where he takes in (among other things) the Louise Bourgeois exhibition.

2012

At their new recording studio in East London, Chris and Neil work on ‘Inside a Dream,’ during which Neil sings new vocals. They also work on ‘One Night.’

2015

As Chris notes the following day on the PSB website, he and Neil spend ‘a couple hours’ this evening at the Lab LDN (London): ‘A lot of fun and great music from Nic Fanciulli and Lauren Lane.’

2016

The Boys perform tonight in Toronto: the second of two Canadian dates on the Super Tour.

2017

After walking to Hansa Studios on what Neil describes in his journal as ‘a beautiful sunny morning,’ the Boys work with Stuart Price on a new version of ‘Wedding in Berlin,’ featuring Neil’s revised lyrics to remove specific references to the wedding for which it was originally written.