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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

1999

After their American record company expresses doubts whether Nightlife has any tracks that would make a good single in the U.S., the Pet Shop Boys begin writing ‘Happiness Is an Option’—which, as it turns out, is never released as a single anyway.

2007

The Boys perform in Bergen, Norway.

2014

Still in New York City, Neil and Chris enjoy an evening with Danny Tenaglia at Brooklyn’s Output dance club. (The next day, Chris enthuses on their website that they ‘just had the BEST time’ there.)

2015

New in U.K. record stores today: ‘Perfect Motion’ — Jon Savage’s Secret History of Second-Wave Psychedelia 1988–93, a vinyl-only various-artists compilation that includes the Extended Version of the PSB track ‘The Sound of the Atom Splitting.’