History

The first album by Electronic, ‘Electronic’ including the collaboration with Neil and Chris, ‘Patience of a saint’, is finally released on May 27^th.

The plan is to release ‘How can you expect to be taken seriously?’, a sharp dig at “the aspirations and pomposities of pop stars” as the first Pet Shop Boys single of 1991. They drastically remix it in conjunction with British dance duo Brothers In Rhythm and film a video in which they parody a number of stars. Meanwhile they have recorded another track, initially to release much later in the year: a hi-energy version of U2’s ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ segued with the Frankie Valli standard ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’. Eventually they resolve to release both songs as a double A‑side on March 11^th, and make a complementary video for ‘Where the streets have no name (I can’t take my eyes off you)’. “It worked as a concept: one song is about rock stars so to have a U2 song with it serves as a further comment”. (Pressed for comment on this new cover version, U2 issued the wry statement “What have we done to deserve this?”). The Pet Shop Boys second tour, ‘Performance’, also begins on March 11^th in Tokyo. After Japan it visits the USA, Canada, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Holland and the United Kingdom and Eire. It is put together in conjunction with director David Alden and designer David Fielding, best known for their avant garde opera productions. “It’s going to be more theatrical than the last tour”, Neil announces. “We felt that with the last tour there were still elements of a rock concert that we’d like to get rid of”. There are no musicians on stage, (though two, guitarists J.J. Belle and keyboard player Scott Davidson, do skulk in the wings), just three singers (Pamela Sheyne, Derek Green and Sylvia Mason-James) and ten dancers (Petee Aloysius, Trevor Henry, Craig Maguire, Catherine Malone, Mark Martin, Leon Maurice Jones, Suki Miles, Katie Puckrick, Sarah Toner and Noel Wallace) choreographed by Jacob Marley.

‘Highlights’, a video of eight songs from the 1991 tour, is finally released. An earlier plan to release footage of the entire show has had to be cancelled because Neil and Chris thought the footage disappointing.

In Los Angeles, at the Mayan Theatre on the night of November 6^th, the Pet Shop Boys play their first American concert as the Pet Shop Boys using a collection of performers (Casper and Hugo Huizar dancing, Dominic Clarke playing keyboards and operating the computer equipment, and two backing singers) with whom they had appeared the previous day on the Arsenio Hall Show.

The second single taken off ‘Behaviour’ is ‘Being boring’ released on November 12^th. The song is inspired by a party invitation from Neil’s Newcastle days which quoted Zelda Fitzgerald’s line “She was never bored, mainly because she was never boring”. Its video was the first to be made by photographer and film-maker Bruce Weber, “I loved the lyrics”, he explains “and really felt it was something I wanted to be part of… in it there’s the feeling that times are different today, and the feeling of abandoness we can’t have today because of the way the world is”. It is shot in one day at a house in Long Island, near New York, with a cast that included a selection of Weber’s beautiful friends, a horse and a chimpanzee on roller-skates. Though MTV in America, and several British TV shows refuse to show it because of the nudity included, it won Music Week’s Best Video Of The Year Award. On the same day, a book about the Pet Shop Boys, ‘Pet Shop Boys Literally’, written with their consent and based around their 1989 concerts is published. At a London bookshop on November 23^rd they sign over 800 copies before the police have to break up the waiting crowd.

‘Behaviour’, the Pet Shop Boys’ fifth LP, is released on October 22^nd. It was recorded in Munich and co-produced by Harold Faltermeyer who they originally chose because they were interested in using old analog synthesizers. On two songs, ‘This must be the place I waited years to leave’ and ‘My October symphony’, Johnny Marr plays guitar. Though at the time of release they don’t consider it to reflect a substantial shift in mood, later they concede it has been. “It was more reflective and more musical-sounding, and also it probably didn’t have irritatingly crass ideas in it, like our songs often do”.

On September 24^th ‘So hard’ is released. It is about “two people living together; they are totally unfaithful to each other but they both pretend they are faithful and then catch each other out”. The black and white video is shot in Newcastle and co-stars Paul Gascoigne’s sister, Anna. A second twelve-inch mix is released featuring a virtual re-recording of both ‘So Hard and the B‑side ‘It must be obvious’ by the KLF.

On August 4^th, the Pet Shop Boys make their first public live appearance in America, guesting on two songs with Electronic at the Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium. Electronic have been invited to play by the headline act Depeche Mode. They repeat the same performance the following night.

Dusty Springfield’s first LP since the Pet Shop Boys recorded ‘What have I done to deserve this?’ with her is released. It is called ‘Reputation’ and one half of the LP is a collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys. “She’s very much a pop singer”, says Neil, “and her voice instinctively goes very well with our music”. He explains that they also admire her melodramatic determination, “She looks at making records as like climbing a mountain, you have to grind yourself up, it’s going to be quite a long journey”.

The Pet Shop boys begin recording their new LP in Munich with producer Harold Faltermeyer.