PET SHOP BOYS CHRONOLOGY 1954 - July Neil Francis Tennant is born on July 10th in North Shields, Northumberland. 1959 - October Christopher Sean Lowe is born on October 4th in Blackpool, Lancashire. 1970 - 1971 Neil plays in a group in Newcastle called Dust: Their most popular song is a preposterous affair he has written called "Can you hear the dawn break?". They are heavily influenced by The Incredible String Band. "We were convinced we would become terribly famous. It was a very kind of stoned seventies but we used to think it was absolutely brilliant at the time". 1975 - July After completing a degree in history at the Polytechnic of North London, Neil takes a job at Marvel Comics, anglicizing spellings and indicating where over-risque woman needed to be redrawn decently. While there he interviews comic fan Marc Bolan, who politely points out that his tape recorder wasn't working. In 1977 he works at Macdonald Educational Publishing, later moving to ITV Books. In June 1982, he joins Smash Hits. 1976 - 1978 Chris plays trombone in a seven-piece dance band wittily named One Under The Eight, who perform old-time popular favourites like "Hello Dolly", "La Bamba", and "Moon River". 1978 Chris goes to Liverpool University to study architecture. During 1981 -1982 he spends a year gaining practical experience in a London architectural practice, designing a staircase in an industrial development in Milton Keynes. "It's not a remarkable staircase", he comments when visiting it in 1988, "It's just a functional staircase". 1981 - August On August 19th, Neil and Chris meet by chance in an electronics shop on the Kings Road. Realizing they have a common interest in dance music, they begin to write together. Initially they call themselves West End; later they come up with the name Pet Shop Boys, a name derived from some friends who work in a pet shop in Ealing. "We thought it sounded like an English rap group". 1983 - August Neil is sent to New York by Smash Hits to interview The Police. By this time the Pet Shop Boys are obsessed by a stream of hi energy records made by New York producer Bobby Orlando, known as Bobby O'. "I thought well, if I've got to go and see The Police play then I'm also going to have lunch with Bobby O'". Neil and Bobby O share a cheeseburger and carrot cake at a restaurant called The Apple Jack on August 19th (two years to the day since Neil and Chris met) and Bobby O', flatered by Neil's compliments, suggests making a record with the Pet Shop Boys. 1984 - April The first version of 'West End girls' is released. It is a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco and a small hit in France and Belgium. 1984 - October They make their first ever stage appearance at the Fridge Nightclub in Brixton, singing and playing over tapes. 1985 - March 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. 1985 - April 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". 1985 - July On July 1st, the first version of 'Opportunities' is released. It reached #116 in the UK. 1985 - August 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. 1985 - October '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". 1986 - February On February 24th, 'Love comes quickly', which will remain one of their favourite songs, is released, reaching a disappointing #19 in the UK. 1986 - March On March 24th, their first LP 'Please' is released. "It's so people can go into the record shop and say can I have the Pet Shop Boys album, please?". 1986 - April 'West End girls' reaches #1 in USA. 1986 - May On May 19th a new version of 'Opportunities' is released. "The point of that song is that the humour is black, it's like a joke. The impression is that the people in it are not going to make any money". 1986 - June The Pet Shop Boys announce, then cancel, a tour of Europe and America; the cost of using a theatre designer and playing fairly small venues proves prohibitive. 1986 - September On September 22nd, a re-recorded version of 'Suburbia', a song inspired by the Penelope Spheeris film of the same name about a group of disenchanted rebellious youths in suburban Los Angeles, is released. "It's about a riot happening in some decaying suburb. It's just the description of the riot happening and then the aftermath". On the B-side is the first version of 'Paninaro', named after an Italian youth cult and featuring a quote they both liked that Chris had said on a TV show: "I don't like country and western, I don't like rock music, I don't like rockabilly... I don't like much really, do I? But what I do like, I love passionately". 1986 - November On November 17th 'Disco', an LP of disco remixes, is released. 1987 - February The Pet Shop Boys receive the Best Single award for 'West End girls' at the BPI Awards. "It's a bit like the school prize giving day, isn't it?", mutters Neil who turns up to receive the award from Boy George. Chris stays at home and watches on TV. Meanwhile, they have been working on the next LP and considering, once more, whether to tour. "I can't see the point really", says Neil at the time. "I quite like the idea of being on the coach, having the meal beforehand, the party in the room afterwards, going in the swimming pool, signing the autographs in the lobby, and wrecking the mini- bar. The only thing I don't like the idea of is being on the stage and having to sing for rather a long time". He later dismisses this comment as flippant; it had been inspired by his happy memories of going on tour with Depeche Mode for Smash Hits in the autumn of 1984. 1987 - May The Pet Shop Boys receive the Best International Hit award for 'West End girls' at the Ivor Novello Awards. Vera Lynn performed at the lunch. 1987 - June On June 15th, 'It's a sin', a song that originally appeared on the demo Neil had in his pocket when he took Bobby O' out to lunch, is released. "It's about being brought up as a Catholic. When I went to school you were taught that everything was a sin". It reaches #1 and causes several notable rumpuses. Jonathan King accuses them of plagiarism (he later apologizes and pays damages to a charity at their request). A teacher at Neil's old school, St. Cuthbert's Grammar School, Newcastle, gets very steamed up about the picture Neil has seemingly painted of his education and castigates Neil in the press. The Salvation Army magazine, War Cry, put the Pet Shop Boys on the front page and note, approvingly, "It's interesting that someone's raised the concept of sin in our modern life again". Neil is also asked to appear with Cardinal Hume in a press advert for CAFOD; he politely declines the offer, explaining that he isn't a practising Catholic. The song's video, a sombre tale of guilt and punishment featuring the seven deadly sins, was the first time the Pet Shop Boys work with Derek Jarman. 1987 - August On August 10th, 'What have I done to deserve this?', a duet with Dusty Springfield, is released. They had actually wanted to record the song with Dusty - Neil's favourite female singer - for 'Please' but had not been able to arrange it in time. "She sounds right because her voice has got that world- weary quality". On August 16th, the Pet Shop Boys appear on a Granada TV special, Love Me Tender, commemorating the tenth anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. They have been asked to perform an old song he had made famous so they sifted through some Elvis cassettes and decided to do both a house version of 'Baby Let's Play House' and 'Always On My Mind'. In the end, they only did the latter. At the time they had no plans whatsoever to release it. 1987 - September On September 7th, the 'Actually' LP is released. The title is simply a word they frequently say. "We were thinking of calling it Jollysight, actually", said Chris at the time "which was the name of a hotel we saw in Italy - so that, when people asked why, we could say because it's a jolly sight better than the last one..." 1987 - October On October 12th, 'Rent', a mercenary love song, is released.