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History

March 2018

On March 10, the first American production of the Pet Shop Boys’ ballet The Most Incredible Thing premieres at the Knight Theater, Charlotte, North Carolina, performed by the Charlotte Ballet. This premiere is originally scheduled for one day earlier, but is delayed when a truss snaps during the afternoon dress rehearsal. For this new production, the Pet Shop Boys’ recorded score, mixed live, is used instead of a live orchestra, and the competition at the centre of the story is now staged through shadow-play. Neil attends. “In my opinion it was an improvement on the original,” he says. “I thought it was brilliant.”

November 2018

On November 1, a book by Neil, One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem, is published in Britain by Faber & Faber. (Neil had past history with Faber & Faber: “In the late Seventies and early Eighties I used to do freelance work for them as a copy-editor and sometimes as a proof-reader. Then in the mid-Eighties I sold a book, Like Punk Never Happened by Dave Rimmer, to them, and edited it. That was the last thing I ever did in the world of book-publishing.”) He selected the lyrics during train journeys between London and Durham, choosing those he thought would read best in this form. One reason for also including a poem was “to point out that the lyrics aren’t poems, they’re lyrics”. He also wrote an introduction and added annotations to the lyrics. “It is kind of like an autobiography, really,” he says. “Surprisingly, I think it’s quite revealing. More so than I normally would be.”

History

On this day

1986

The Pet Shop Boys perform ‘Love Comes Quickly’ and ‘West End Girls’ at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles.

1987

‘It’s a Sin’ debuts on the U.S. singles chart, beginning a 19-week run during which it peaks at #9.

2000

PSB’s 7‑inch remix of the Bloodhound Gang’s ‘Mope’ is released.

2005

Tennant & Lowe’s score for Battleship Potemkin is released on CD. On the same day, the Potemkin ‘mini-tour’ of Germany concludes with a performance in Hamburg.

2006

PSB continue their Fundamental Tour with a concert in Barcelona.

2009

The Boys perform at the House of Blues in Boston.

2012

Chris and Neil perform a special live show in Berlin to celebrate the launch of their new album Elysium, during which most of its songs get their live debut. On this same day, Japan becomes the first country where the album is actually released.

2014

They perform at Glasgow’s Clyde Auditorium.

2017

The Pet Shop Boys deliver the first of two consecutive nights’ performances in Dublin, Ireland.

2023

Neil attends Rufus Wainwright’s two BBC Proms concerts these evening, during which he performs his classic albums Want One and Want Two in their entirety with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

2025

A special centenary screening of Battleship Potemkin, complete with the Tennant-Lowe score, appears on a double bill this evening with It Couldn’t Happen Here at BFI Southbank in London. During an onstage Q&A session, Neil reveals that he and Chris have been in the studio working on a new recording of A Man from the Future with the Manchester Camerata and narrator Juliet Stevenson.