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History

February 2003

On February 3 the Pet Shop Boys release the latest in their intermittent series of dance albums, Disco 3. It combines some more rhythmic mixes of songs on Release with a number of the more dance-oriented songs they have recorded but not yet released over the same period, and new versions of two of songs they recently recorded for their John Peel session which seemed in keeping: their 1983 song “If looks could kill” and their cover of “Try it (I’m in love with a married man)”. Its sleeve, a view of London and the Thames at night, was shot by Wolfgang Tillmans. 

2003 February

On February 22 the Pet Shop Boys DJ in London at Arthur Baker’s Return To New York, at an event billed as a soundclash between them and New Order (represented by Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook). To New Order’s amusement, Neil and Chris don’t physically play the records themselves — they choose and sequence them, and their programmer Pete Gleadall operates the decks — but they feel fully validated in this approach when Arthur Baker tells them that this was exactly how Afrika Bambaataa used to do it. 

March 2003

The Pet Shop Boys remix of “Hooked On Radiation”, a single by Atomizer (Fil OK and Johnny Slut, who run London’s premiere electroclash night Nag Nag Nag) is released in a limited edition of 500 copies on the Pet Shop Boys’ Olde English Vinyl label. It is subsequently re-released on International DJ Gigolo records. “That’s enough for me,” says Chris. “We’ve had a record on Bobby O’s label and one on Gigolo and that’s enough really.”

The Pet Shop Boys’ second Kiki Kokova record, a cover of Donna Summer’s “Love To Love You, Baby”, is also released as a limited edition of 500 copies on the Pet Shop Boys’ Lucky Kunst label. It is the second Kiki Kokova orgasm in an ongoing series. (Sam Taylor Wood sung the lyric four or five times but performed this latest orgasm only once. “We’re kind of used to it now,” says Neil.) 

June 2003

On June 2 the Pet Shop Boys remix of Yoko Ono’s “Walking On Thin Ice” is released, along with remixes by Danny Tenaglia, Felix Da Housecat and FKEK . It reaches number one in the American Billboard Club Play chart. 

September 2003

On September 7 the Pet Shop Boys headline the Rock’n’Coke Festival in Turkey, wearing one-off glam outfits made especially for the occasion. 

October 2003

On October 23 the Pet Shop Boys are presented with the World Arts Award 2003 by former Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, in Hamburg “for their extraordinary dedication to art, their social engagement and their unique contribution to popular music as well as their overall patronage of the arts.” In his acceptance speech, Neil quotes Jimi Hendrix: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” Gorbachev’s daughter tells them afterwards that she used to play their music when she was growing up in the Kremlin.

November 2003

On November 17 the Pet Shop Boys release a new single, “Miracles”. It is a song written with English dance producer Adam F and his associate Dan Fresh. “We had this idea of a kind of record to make, which was to get a hip hop producer but then to use electro-clash sounds with them,” says Neil. “It’s a love song. It’s about how, when you’re in love with someone, they have a kind of magic and they seem to transform everything: ‘Thunder is silent before you…roses bloom more to adore you’.” One of the extra tracks on the CD is called “We’re the Pet Shop Boys”, a song recently written and recorded by the New York artist My Robot Friend which the Pet Shop Boys like enough to cover. 

2003 November

On November 24, PopArt: The Hits is released. It includes all of the Pet Shop Boys hit singles over two CDs, including the just-released “Miracles” and one further new song, “Flamboyant”. They liked the title PopArt because, says Neil, “I think it explains what we are. We’re pop music…” “…with some art pretensions,” chips in Chris. “With art influences,” suggests Neil. On the sleeve, the word “Pop” takes its orange pattern from the “Can you forgive her?” pointy hats and the word “Art” its grey stripes from Chris’s “Suburbia” sunglasses. “So you have the Eighties and Nineties,” says Neil. Initial copies include a third CD of some of the Pet Shop Boys’ favourite dance remixes of their songs, including mixes by Moby, Sasha, Rollo, Shep Pettibone, Love To Infinity, Peter Rauhoffer and David Morales. A companion PopArt DVD is released on the same day. 

On this day

1987

The Pet Shop Boys perform at the Sanremo Festival in Sanremo, Italy.

1991

A snowy day in London. Following a visit to a studio in the city’s southwestern Battersea district where dancers are rehearsing for the Boys’ upcoming Performance tour, Chris and Neil sit down with Chris Heath for a lengthy interview that will appear in the tour program.

2000

‘You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk’ is released as a single in Sweden.

2005

Working in their London studio, Neil and Chris add the bridge to ‘Psychological.’

2011

Chris states on their official website that he and Neil have begun writing songs for their next album. One of the songs they work on today, ‘Axis,’ they had written several nights before. (As it turns out, it won’t appear on their next album, Elysium, but instead serves as the opener for the next album after that, Electric.)

2012

Neil re-records vocals for ‘Winner.’

2014

For the second time in less than a week, Neil is the subject of a false report online. This time a horrible rumor spreads that he has suffered a major heart attack while visiting Germany and is in the intensive-care unit of a Bremen hospital. Spin magazine quickly refutes this rumor, followed in the wee hours of the next morning by Neil himself, writing on the Boys’ official website. He notes that not only is he in good health but he isn’t even in Germany. Rather, he was enjoying a dance performance at Sadler’s Wells in London when this rumor broke.

2019

The third track from the EP Agenda, ‘What Are We Going to Do About the Rich?’ makes its debut.

2021

A commercial for Allstate Insurance featuring the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)’ debuts during the post-game portion of today’s broadcast of Super Bowl LV. It quickly stimulates dramatically increased U.S. digital sales and streaming of the song.