On February 15 Pandemonium, a DVD and CD of the Pandemonium tour, is released. It was filmed and recorded at the O2 Arena in London on December 21, 2009. The film is directed by David Barnard. The CD version, which includes fewer songs, has been specially mixed for this release by Stuart Price.
On April 17, as part of the annual music business event known as Record Store Day, the Pet Shop Boys release a seven-inch single in an edition of 1000 copies. On one side is the demo of a song they gave to Alcazar, “Love life”, and on other is the 2003 recording, “A powerful friend”.
On June 26 the Pet Shop Boys appeared at the Glastonbury festival to great acclaim. “It was one of those people-as-far-back-as-you-can-see audiences,” says Neil.
On October 24 a new Pet Shop Boys single, the rousing dance anthem “Together”, is released, produced and written with Tim Powell who was previously part of the team at Xenomania. “I was imagining, really, that there are two people about to have sex for the first time,” says Neil. “But it’s very revolutionary: ‘together I’ll cry with you, together I’ll die with you, together we’ll go all the way…’” It could be anything about two people. It could be Chris and I at the beginning of our writing career together, thinking we could go all the way with this. It wasn’t written as that, but it definitely could be that as well.” Its video, a drama with an Eastern European dance-off between classical and modern dance styles at its centre, is shot in Estonia. Amongst the extra tracks on the single is a cover of the Dave Clark Five’s “Glad all over”, a traditional song of celebration at Chris’s hometown football team, Blackpool.
On November 1 a new Pet Shop Boys hits compilation, Ultimate, is released. Intended as a straightforward mass market single CD collection of their most popular songs, it is also released in a version with a bonus DVD including 27 Pet Shop Boys performances at the BBC from the past 25 years, most of them filmed for Top Of The Pops, as well as their triumphant performance in the summer of 2010 at Glastonbury festival.
On November 25 a children’s play based on a book by the author David Almond, My Dad’s A Birdman, opened at the Young Vic theatre in London. It includes three songs written by Neil and Chris (two incorporating lyrics from the script) and some other instrumental music. “I loved it,” says Chris. “The place was full of children all chatting away. There’s a great bit where one of the cast goes, ‘Do you think he’ll fly?’ and all the children go, ‘No.’ It was really funny.”
The Pet Shop Boys perform at the Sanremo Festival in Sanremo, Italy.
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.
‘You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk’ is released as a single in Sweden.
Working in their London studio, Neil and Chris add the bridge to ‘Psychological.’
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.)
Neil re-records vocals for ‘Winner.’
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.
The third track from the EP Agenda, ‘What Are We Going to Do About the Rich?’ makes its debut.
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.