Early years (1981–1984) Neil Tennant and
Chris Lowe met in a
hi-fi shop, Chelsea Record Centre, at 203 King's Road, in
Chelsea, London, on 19 August 1981. Tennant needed a connector for a
Korg MS-10 synthesiser he had purchased, which sparked a conversation with Lowe. Discovering that they had a mutual interest in disco and electronic music, they became friends. In particular, the pair drew inspiration from two synth-pop records: "
Souvenir" by
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD); and "
Bedsitter" by
Soft Cell, which reflected their lifestyles at the time. According to Tennant, he and Lowe would listen to "pioneers of electronic music", including OMD, Soft Cell,
Kraftwerk,
the Human League, and
Depeche Mode. The duo began to work together on material, "
Jealousy", written in 1982, was among the first songs they recorded there. They briefly labelled their demo tapes under the band name West End before settling on Pet Shop Boys. They say that their band name was taken from friends who worked in a pet shop in
Ealing and were known as the "pet shop boys". They also noted a naming similarity with the recently formed rap rock group
Beastie Boys. In August 1983, Tennant, who was an assistant editor at
Smash Hits, went to New York to interview
Sting. From 1983 to 1984, Orlando recorded a number of tracks with Tennant and Lowe, including "Two Divided by Zero", "
West End Girls", "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", "A Man Could Get Arrested", "That's My Impression", "Pet Shop Boys", "
One More Chance", "
Rent", "It's a Sin", "I Get Excited", and "To Speak Is a Sin". In April 1984, the Orlando-produced "West End Girls" was released, becoming a club hit in Los Angeles and
San Francisco. On 2 November, it was voted "Screamer of the Week" by listeners of
Long Island, New York, radio station
WLIR. It was a minor dance hit in Belgium and France, but was only available in the United Kingdom as a
12" import.
Please (1985–1986) In March 1985, after long negotiations, Pet Shop Boys cut their contractual ties with Orlando, with a settlement giving him significant
royalties for future sales. Hiring
manager Tom Watkins, they signed with the London-based
Parlophone label. In April, Tennant left
Smash Hits magazine—where he had progressed to the position of deputy editor—and in July, a new single, "
Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", was released, reaching number 116 in the UK. The
B-side to this single, "In the Night", later resurfaced, in a longer
remixed version, as the opening track to the duo's first
remix album,
Disco, in 1986. This version was also used as the theme for the UK television series
The Clothes Show. They returned to the studio in August to re-record "West End Girls" with producer
Stephen Hague. Released in October 1985 it rose slowly in the British charts to become number one in January 1986. It subsequently replicated this success in the United States, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and Norway and sold an estimated 1.5 million copies worldwide.
Please started Pet Shop Boys' tradition of choosing one-word album titles, which Neil Tennant has since stated is now a Pet Shop Boys "signature thing", akin to
e. e. cummings' use of exclusively lower case letters. New versions of their second single, "
Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", and the album track "
Suburbia" were also released in 1986, followed by
Disco. In September 1986, Pet Shop Boys performed "Love Comes Quickly" and "West End Girls" at the
1986 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles.
Actually (1987–1988) In 1987, Pet Shop Boys received both a
BRIT Award and
Ivor Novello Award for "West End Girls". On 15 June, they released what became their second number one single, "
It's a Sin". The single caused some controversy: Tennant's school,
St. Cuthbert's Grammar School in
Newcastle upon Tyne, chastised him in the
Evening Chronicle, while pop impresario
Jonathan King accused them of plagiarising the
Cat Stevens song "
Wild World". King recorded a version of "Wild World" in the style of Pet Shop Boys to prove his point. The group later sued King and won damages, which were donated to Jefferiss Research Trust, supporting the study of sexually transmitted diseases. The music video for "It's a Sin" was their first collaboration with director
Derek Jarman. The success of "It's a Sin" was followed up with the release of "
What Have I Done to Deserve This?" on 10 August. Co-written with
Allee Willis and also featuring
Dusty Springfield on vocals, the single reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100 chart. Although the duo had wanted to release this track on their debut album, Springfield had not agreed, and they were reluctant to record it with any other female singer, despite their record company's suggestions. Springfield's manager finally contacted them in 1986, following the release of
Please, and towards the end of that year, she travelled to London to record "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" with them. It was the first track to be recorded for the duo's second album,
Actually. Pet Shop Boys had been told that Springfield was difficult to work with and even that she could no longer sing; This duet was also the start of a series of collaborations with high-profile musicians, going on throughout the band's career.
Actually was released in September 1987, followed by the single "
Rent" in October, which reached number eight in the UK. The last track on the album, "
King's Cross", accidentally anticipated the
King's Cross fire at the
London Underground section of the station in November of that year (part of the lyrics read: "Dead and wounded on either side/You know it's only a matter of time").
The Sun newspaper in the UK subsequently tried to get the track released as a
charity single, but Pet Shop Boys did not agree. At the end of the year, "
Always on My Mind" became both the duo's third number one single in the UK and the
Christmas number one single for 1987, beating "
Fairytale of New York" by
The Pogues and
Kirsty MacColl. Pet Shop Boys had selected the song for an appearance on
Love Me Tender, an
ITV programme commemorating the tenth anniversary of
Elvis Presley's death, and decided to release it. The song was not included on
Actually, prompting EMI to repackage the album in the U.S. with a 12" version of the single; an extended version, "Always on My Mind/In My House", was later included on
Introspective (1988). In November 2004,
The Daily Telegraph newspaper placed Pet Shop Boys' version of "Always on My Mind" at number two in a list of the fifty greatest cover versions of all time. To capitalise on their string of hits, and in lieu of a tour, Pet Shop Boys made a film that incorporated songs from
Please and
Actually. Working with director
Jack Bond, the project grew into a full-scale movie, ''
It Couldn't Happen Here'', starring
Barbara Windsor,
Joss Ackland and
Gareth Hunt. Footage from the film was used in the music video for "Always on My Mind". The film was released in 1988 to mixed reviews.
Heart, released in March 1988 as the last single from
Actually, was Pet Shop Boys' fourth UK number one hit and their last to date. The video for the single, directed by Jack Bond, starred
Ian McKellen as a
vampire. Pet Shop Boys wrote and produced the song "
I'm Not Scared" for
Patsy Kensit's band,
Eighth Wonder. The song, released in February 1988, became her biggest hit single. Pet Shop Boys recorded their own version of the track for their album
Introspective later that year.
Introspective and Behaviour (1988–1992) Neil Tennant has said that the Pet Shop Boys' "
Imperial Phase" ended in September 1988, when their new single, "
Domino Dancing", entered the UK Singles Chart at number nine and only reached number seven. Tennant recalls being disappointed upon hearing the news, and he felt that their peak period was over and that it was going to be a challenge to maintain their level of success in the future. Their third album,
Introspective, was released on 10 October 1988. Unusually, this was a six-track album of previously unheard remixes and new tracks in extended form. It was followed by the
Trevor Horn–produced top-five single "
Left to My Own Devices", and a cover version of the
Sterling Void song "
It's Alright". Pet Shop Boys embarked on their first tour in 1989, performing in Hong Kong, Japan, and Britain. The tour followed the ideas of the extravaganza that could not have been afforded earlier in their careers.
Derek Jarman returned to direct the performance and he provided several films that were projected during the shows. The September 1990 single, "
So Hard" reached number four in the UK and was followed by their fourth studio album,
Behaviour, which was recorded in
Munich with producer
Harold Faltermeyer. The album was not intended to reflect a dramatic change in mood from their earlier albums; however, it is noticeably subdued. It included the fan favourite "
Being Boring", the second single from the album, which only reached number 20 on the UK Singles Chart, their lowest placing at the time. The title is from a quote by
Zelda Fitzgerald: "...she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring", and the song was a personal commentary on the
AIDS epidemic. The music video was directed by filmmaker
Bruce Weber. By this time, the duo had parted ways with manager Tom Watkins, replacing him with Jill Carrington, who had previously been marketing director at
Polydor. In March 1991, a cover of
U2's "
Where the Streets Have No Name" as a
medley with "
Can't Take My Eyes Off You", the 1960s pop song by
Frankie Valli/
the Four Seasons, was released as a double-
A-sided single with a remix of the album track "
How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" by
Brothers in Rhythm. This was followed by the duo's first world tour. The
Performance Tour kicked off in Tokyo on 11 March 1991 and visited the United States, Canada, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The shows were designed by David Alden and David Fielding, who had designed several sets for the
Royal Opera House. Before taking a break in 1992, Pet Shop Boys released an 18-track
compilation called
Discography (1991), which included all of their single releases up until then and two new singles—"
DJ Culture" and "
Was It Worth It?"—omitting only "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" (although it did appear on the video companion
Videography). While "DJ Culture" had some success, "Was It Worth It?" became the duo's first single to miss the UK top 20 since their two Bobby O debut singles. In 1992, Tennant sang lead vocals on the non-album single "
Disappointed", which was featured on the soundtrack to the film
Cool World. Pet Shop Boys set up the
Spaghetti Records label in 1991.
Eric Watson (photographer and video director),
Simon Frith (music critic), David Alden and David Fielding.
Very and Disco 2 (1993–1995) In June 1993, Pet Shop Boys re-invented their image and made a strong return to the UK Singles Chart with "
Can You Forgive Her?". Taking its title from the
Anthony Trollope novel of the same name, the single reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart, while its iconic music video featured the duo in orange body suits and tall
dunce caps, in a world of
computer-generated imagery. The duo's fifth studio album,
Very, followed on 27 September and is the only Pet Shop Boys album to reach number one on the
UK Albums Chart.
Very was also released in a limited edition including an entirely new album,
Relentless, which was composed of six all-new
progressive house tracks. In 1994, Pet Shop Boys offered to remix fellow
Parlophone act
Blur's single "
Girls & Boys". It was a club hit throughout Europe and started a sporadic trend for Pet Shop Boys to remix other artists' music. Also in 1994, Pet Shop Boys released the
Comic Relief single, "Absolutely Fabulous". The idea started when Tennant and Lowe were playing around with
samples from the BBC sitcom
Absolutely Fabulous in the studio. They approached lead actors
Jennifer Saunders and
Joanna Lumley and suggested it as a
charity single. It was released under the artist name 'Absolutely Fabulous'; Tennant and Lowe do not consider it as a Pet Shop Boys single release and it was not included on their next best-of album. The video featured clips from the sitcom, along with newly recorded footage of Tennant and Lowe with the characters of Edina (Saunders) and Patsy (Lumley).
Bilingual and Nightlife (1996–2001) The Pet Shop Boys remix of the
David Bowie song "
Hallo Spaceboy" featured Tennant on backing vocals and was released in the UK on 19 February 1996. Pet Shop Boys then joined Bowie during his performance of the song at the 1996
Brit Awards ceremony, as well as an appearance on the
Top of the Pops television programme.
Tina Turner released her
Wildest Dreams album in April, featuring the song "Confidential", written and co-produced by Pet Shop Boys. The Pet Shop Boys single "
Before" reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart in April. In August, they released a follow-up single, "
Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)", a
Latin American music-inspired track, featuring a drum sample from a track called "Estrada da paixão" by
Brazilian act
Olodum. This preceded the sixth Pet Shop Boys album
Bilingual, which was released in September. Pet Shop Boys were the first band to have a residency at a
West End theatre, playing for two weeks at the
Savoy Theatre in June 1997. Lowe selected the song "
Somewhere" from
West Side Story to be the centrepiece of the performance and a new single. The production featured an interactive film by
Sam Taylor-Wood showing a party scene, which Tennant and Lowe appeared to leave and enter from the stage. The show lost money, The majority of 1998 was spent with a series of live dates and minor releases, including a charity album of
Noël Coward songs, called
Twentieth Century Blues. The album included Pet Shop Boys' version of "Sail Away", along with songs performed by
Elton John,
Texas,
Marianne Faithfull,
The Divine Comedy,
Suede,
Damon Albarn,
Vic Reeves and
Robbie Williams. Tennant also co-produced the Williams track and provided backing vocals for Elton John. Tennant provided backing vocals on Robbie Williams' "
No Regrets" single, along with
Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy.
Nightlife produced the top 10 hit "
You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk" and the top 20 singles "
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More" and "
New York City Boy". The album also featured a duet with
Kylie Minogue, "In Denial", about a father
coming out to his daughter. Minogue later performed the track live, during her 2005
Showgirl tour, singing to a pre-recorded Neil Tennant. This was not the first time that Pet Shop Boys worked with Minogue: In 1994, they wrote a song for her eponymous
Kylie Minogue album, called "Falling", which was based on an unreleased remix of "
Go West" with new lyrics by Tennant; however, Minogue and her record company did not like the style of Pet Shop Boys' demo and asked
Farley & Heller to produce the track. Pet Shop Boys incurred financial losses on the
Nightlife Tour in 1999–2000 after promoter
Harvey Goldsmith's company went into
receivership. During a concert in a partially empty
arena in Sheffield, they briefly considered disbanding; the duo later recalled this period as a low point in their career. On 24 June 2000, Pet Shop Boys made their debut at the
Glastonbury Festival on the Pyramid Stage as the sun was setting, before
Travis headlined.
Cerys Matthews of
Catatonia took the part of Dusty Springfield for the duet on "
What Have I Done to Deserve This?" Their performance before an enthusiastic crowd was considered a triumph. The following week at
Roskilde, Pet Shop Boys and
Oasis refused to perform when the organisers decided to continue with the festival despite the deaths of nine people in a
crowd crush during
Pearl Jam's set. The musical
Closer to Heaven premiered in London in May 2001 to mixed reviews. The run was originally extended to February 2002, but it closed in October 2001 along with a number of other productions after the
11 September 2001 attacks. In 2002, they released the modestly successful album
Release. Most of the tracks were produced by the duo themselves and many featured
Johnny Marr on guitar. The first single, "
Home and Dry", featured a very peculiar music video, directed by
Wolfgang Tillmans, mostly consisting of raw camcorder footage of mice filmed in the
London Underground. The follow-up single "
I Get Along" had a video filmed by
Bruce Weber. Pet Shop Boys embarked on another
world tour, although this time it was a stripped back affair, with no dancers, backing singers, costumes or lavish sets. They used two extra guitarists,
Bic Hayes and
Mark Refoy, percussionist Dawne Adams, and regular
programmer Pete Gleadall, alongside Lowe on keyboards and Tennant on guitar and vocals. In 2003, Pet Shop Boys launched two new labels, Olde English Vinyl and Lucky Kunst, their
Spaghetti Records label becoming defunct. The first release on Olde English Vinyl was
Atomizer's "Hooked on Radiation", Another new manager, David Dorrell, was brought on board to replace Clark. In November 2003, Pet Shop Boys released a second greatest hits album,
PopArt: The Hits, a double compilation with two new singles: "
Miracles" and "
Flamboyant". Not chronologically arranged, the tracks were divided into two discs:
Pop including the more traditional pop songs and
Art containing those works which were considered more experimental. In September 2004, Pet Shop Boys appeared at a free concert in
Trafalgar Square in London, where they performed, with the Dresdner Sinfoniker orchestra, a whole new soundtrack to accompany the seminal 1925
silent film Battleship Potemkin. There were four further live performances of the work with the Dresdner Sinfoniker in Germany in September 2005. The
Battleship Potemkin soundtrack was then released on 5 September 2005. In November 2004, Pet Shop Boys played at the
Prince's Trust concert titled "Produced by Trevor Horn" with other artists who had worked with
Trevor Horn, including
Grace Jones,
ABC,
Seal and
Frankie Goes to Hollywood. In 2005, Pet Shop Boys were selected as the headline act for the
Moscow Live 8 concert, in
Red Square, where a crowd of between 60,000 and 80,000 gathered to watch them perform. Also in 2005, Pet Shop Boys were asked to put together
Back to Mine: Pet Shop Boys, the twentieth release in an ongoing series showcasing artists' favourite music selections, with an emphasis on afterhours
chill-out music. As a condition,
Neil Tennant and
Chris Lowe were given one disc each, whereas all previous releases in the series consisted of only a single disc per group.
Fundamental (2006–2008) Pet Shop Boys began 2006 remixing
Madonna's single "
Sorry", for release in February. The single reached number one in the UK and the Pet Shop Boys remix included new backing vocals performed by Tennant. Madonna subsequently used the Pet Shop Boys remix, including Tennant's vocals, on her 2006
Confessions Tour. In April, Pet Shop Boys released a new single that reached number eight in the UK, "
I'm with Stupid", a commentary on the relationship between
George W. Bush and
Tony Blair. The promo video featured
Matt Lucas and
David Walliams, better known as the team behind
Little Britain. Lucas and Walliams portray Lowe and Tennant, parodying two of the duo's previous videos, "
Go West", and "
Can You Forgive Her?". The ninth Pet Shop Boys studio album,
Fundamental, followed in May, reaching number five in the UK. The album was produced by
Trevor Horn, who Pet Shop Boys had previously worked with on "
Left to My Own Devices", in 1988. The album was also released with a limited edition
remix album called
Fundamentalism, which included a version of "
In Private" as a duet with
Elton John and "
Fugitive", a new track produced by
Richard X. The week that
Fundamental was released, a documentary, titled
Pet Shop Boys: A Life in Pop, was broadcast on
Channel 4, directed by George Scott and produced by Nick de Grunwald. The original broadcast was less than an hour in duration; a 140-minute version was released on DVD in October 2006. Contributors to the programme included
Robbie Williams,
Brandon Flowers,
Tim Rice-Oxley,
Jake Shears and
Bruce Weber. The DVD also contained promo videos that had been made since the release of
PopArt. The second single to be taken from the album was the UK top twenty "
Minimal". The duo filmed the video to the single in Paris with Don Cameron. The single was the first of theirs to be playlisted by London's biggest radio station,
Capital Radio, in a decade. Pet Shop Boys began a worldwide
tour in support of Fundamental in June 2006 in Norway. The show was designed and directed by
Es Devlin, a British theatre designer, and choreographed by Hakeem Onibudo. Between 15 June and 10 September 2006, Pet Shop Boys played a series of concert dates across Europe, mainly at assorted festivals and outdoor venues. These included two dates at the
Tower of London on 28 and 29 June and a single show at
Thetford Forest, as well as performances of
Battleship Potemkin in Germany and Spain. On 1 May 2006,
Battleship Potemkin was also performed at the
Swan Hunter shipyard, in
Newcastle upon Tyne, with Pet Shop Boys accompanied by the
Northern Sinfonia orchestra. On 16 October,
Catalogue was published by
Thames & Hudson, a 336-page hardcover book written by
Philip Hoare and
Chris Heath, detailing their entire visual output, including photography as well as the design of albums, music videos, concert tours, books and
fan club magazines from 1984 to 2004. Neil Tennant comments in the book: "In the beginning we made a decision – and it was in our EMI contract – that that we would have control over how everything worked; that obviously the songs mattered hugely, but the way they were presented was going to matter hugely as well; and that we were never going to give up on that." Pet Shop Boys supported the publication of the book with signings in London, New York City, Los Angeles and Berlin. To coincide with the publication of
Catalogue, a small exhibition of portraits of Pet Shop Boys opened in the Bookshop Gallery of London's
National Portrait Gallery on 30 October 2006 and ran to 4 March 2007. Also on 16 October, the third single from
Fundamental, "
Numb", written by
Diane Warren, was released, following its appearance at the end of the BBC's coverage of England at the
World Cup. "Numb" became only the second Pet Shop Boys single to that point to miss the Top 20. A 90-minute "director's cut" of the concert aired on BBC
6 Music, on 28 August 2006. On 7 December 2006, Pet Shop Boys were nominated for two
2007 Grammy Awards: Best Dance Recording for "I'm with Stupid", and Best Electronic/Dance Album for
Fundamental. During the latter part of 2006 and early 2007, Neil Tennant served as executive producer on Rufus Wainwright's album,
Release the Stars, recorded in Berlin. He sang backing vocals on a number of tracks, including "Do I Disappoint You", and "Tiergarten". Pet Shop Boys continued their world tour, albeit with a slightly different production and set list, on 14 March 2007, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, then played concerts in Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and Australia (as co-headliners of the
V Festival 2007), Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Singapore. Pet Shop Boys "played" at the free festival
Secondfest, in the
online virtual world Second Life, on 30 June. The Fundamental tour ended in
Bucharest, Romania, in November 2007. On 8 October 2007, Pet Shop Boys released
Disco 4, the latest in their series of
remix albums; the fourth in the set differed in that it was largely made up of remixes, completed by Pet Shop Boys, of other artists' work over the past decade. These include
The Killers,
David Bowie,
Yoko Ono,
Madonna,
Atomizer and
Rammstein. Only two tracks by Pet Shop Boys, remixed versions of
Fundamental tracks "
Integral" and "
I'm with Stupid", were included. This single was made for her exhibition in London and it was released by Kompakt records in Germany, on both CD and 7" and 12" vinyl. The most notable remixes were by Gui Boratto, Jurgen Paape and
Mark Reeder.
Yes (2009–2011) Pet Shop Boys received the
Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2009. A statement from Brits Committee chairman
Ged Doherty said: "Since their first Brit Award over 20 years ago, Neil and Chris have produced a fantastic body of work with songs that truly were the soundtrack to a whole generation's lives. The Pet Shop Boys have since become one of the most influential groups of the modern era and are deserving recipients of the award." The duo performed a medley of their greatest hits at the ceremony, with
Lady Gaga singing Dusty Springfield's part on "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" Pet Shop Boys completed their next album in late 2008. Recorded with
Xenomania and released in UK on 23 March 2009,
Yes received generally favorable reviews and hit number four in the UK, their highest album chart position in more than a decade. Pet Shop Boys co-wrote the
Girls Aloud Top 10 track "
The Loving Kind". Originally written for
Yes, the song was deemed unsuitable by Lowe and was given to the popular girl group to record instead for their album
Out of Control. At the start of 2009, Pet Shop Boys appointed Angela Becker as their new manager. On 4 November 2009, Pet Shop Boys celebrated the Brazilian leg of the tour by releasing a compilation titled
Party, including songs that were heavily featured in popular soap operas on TV Globo: "Being boring" (
Meu Bem Meu Mal OST), "Domino dancing" (
O Salvador da Patria OST), "West End Girls" (
Selva de Pedra OST) and "King of Rome" (
Viver a Vida). On 14 December 2009, Pet Shop Boys released an EP of covers, remixes, and new material, titled
Christmas. On 20 December the EP entered the UK chart at number 40. On 15 February 2010, Pet Shop Boys released a live album/DVD double-pack called
Pandemonium. It contains the soundtrack and footage recorded from their 21 December 2009 show at the
O2 Arena in London. Pet Shop Boys released their version of "
Love Life" in April 2010 as a limited edition 7-inch vinyl single available only in independent UK record stores. The song was originally recorded during the
Release sessions in 2001 and was subsequently given to Swedish band
Alcazar. The B-side was "A Powerful Friend", a song originally composed in the early 1980s and subsequently recorded in late 2002 during the recording sessions that would contribute to the
Disco 3 album. In June 2010, Pet Shop Boys headlined the Other Stage on the Saturday evening of the 40th anniversary Glastonbury Festival and were heralded as dazzling with "one of the most spectacular Glastonbury moments ever.". This set included a surprise cover of
Coldplay's "
Viva La Vida", which Tennant thought sounded similar to a Pet Shop Boys song when he first heard it. In November they released their third compilation album
Ultimate preceded by the single "
Together"; a limited edition featured their entire Glastonbury festival performance from that year on an additional DVD. Pet Shop Boys composed a ballet,
The Most Incredible Thing, based on a fairy tale by
Hans Christian Andersen, which opened at
Sadlers Wells in London on 17 March 2011. The story was adapted by
Matthew Dunster and the ballet was choreographed by
Javier de Frutos. It featured former Royal Ballet star
Ivan Putrov, animated films created by
Tal Rosner, and orchestrations by German composer
Sven Helbig, who worked with the band in 2005 as a co-producer for
Battleship Potemkin. Pet Shop Boys and Javier de Frutos were awarded the
Beyond Theatre Award for
The Most Incredible Thing at the
2011 Evening Standard Theatre Awards.
Elysium and Electric (2011–2015) in Finland in 2014 On 28 September 2011, Pet Shop Boys announced that they had written 16 songs in preparation for their next studio album. In the meantime,
Format, an album of the duo's B-sides from 1996 to 2009, was released on 6 February 2012 as a sequel to their earlier B-side collection
Alternative.
Format entered the UK charts at number 26 on 12 February 2012. In January 2012, Pet Shop Boys started recording their new album in
Los Angeles with producer
Andrew Dawson. In June, a teaser video by renowned Los Angeles artist/film-maker
Brian Bress for the album track "Invisible" was released online, at which time
Elysium was revealed to be name of the new album. The first single was "
Winner", preceding the release of
Elysium in September. On 28 July, Pet Shop Boys performed "Winner", "
Always On My Mind" and "
What Have I Done to Deserve This?" before the Olympic tennis games in Henman Hill, Wimbledon. At the
2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony on 12 August, Tennant and Lowe rode around the stadium in cycle-driven chariots, wearing pointy hats as they performed "West End Girls" to a global audience. In March 2013, Pet Shop Boys announced that they were leaving their longtime record label Parlophone. Their twelfth album, entitled
Electric, was released on 12 July 2013 on their own label
x2 through
Kobalt Label Services. The album was the biggest-selling record among the UK's independent record shops during the week of its release, and went straight to the number one position on the Official Record Store Chart.
Electric was the first of three consecutive albums produced by
Stuart Price. The release coincided with the
Electric Tour that included Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Colombia, Asia—with dates in the Philippines, Indonesia, and China for the first time—Lebanon, Israel, Turkey, Europe and North America. On 23 July, Pet Shop Boys appeared at the
BBC Proms to premiere
A Man from the Future, a piece written for orchestra, choir, electronics, and narrator, based on the life of
Alan Turing.
Super, Further Listening, and Agenda (2016–2019) On 21 January 2016, Pet Shop Boys previewed the track "Inner Sanctum" from their thirteenth album,
Super. The lead single from the album, "The Pop Kids", was released on 18 March, reaching number one on the US
Dance Club Songs chart. The album debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart, selling 16,953 copies in its first week, becoming their thirteenth consecutive top 10 studio album. In the United States,
Super debuted at number 58 on the
Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 10,000 copies. It also debuted at number one on
Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart, becoming Pet Shop Boys' first number one album on the chart since
Disco 3 (2003). Pet Shop Boys announced their
Further Listening reissues project, called
Catalogue: 1985–2012 in June 2017. The first batch was released that July with a remaster of
Nightlife,
Release and
Fundamental. Reissues of
Yes and
Elysium were released on 20 October 2017, and the previously released
Further Listening albums
Please,
Actually, and
Introspective were remastered and re-released on 2 March 2018. The fourth and final batch of reissues—
Behaviour,
Very and
Bilingual—was released on 31 August 2018. The live album/DVD/Blu-ray
Inner Sanctum was released in April 2019. It followed February's EP
Agenda. which contains four new songs with a political and pop culture angle. Neil Tennant said the release "contains three satirical songs and one rather sad song. I think it's because of the times we're living through".
Hotspot, Nonetheless, and Dreamworld (2020–present) In 2020, their fourteenth album,
Hotspot, was released on x2/Kobalt. Three singles were released to promote
Hotspot: "
Dreamland" featuring
Years & Years, "Monkey Business", and "I Don't Wanna". The corresponding
Dreamworld tour was planned to start mid-2020, but was postponed twice due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. It finally got underway in May 2022 and included their third appearance at the Glastonbury festival, this time closing the Other Stage on the Sunday night. In September and October 2022, the band co-headlined the Unity Tour with
New Order, playing twelve arenas across Canada and the US. On 31 December 2022, Pet Shop Boys performed at Edinburgh's
Hogmanay celebrations with a special Dreamworld show. In 2023 they continued their Dreamworld tour, headlining the
Primavera Sound festivals in Barcelona, Madrid, Porto, Santiago, São Paulo and Lima. In March 2023, the duo started working on their fifteenth studio album with producer
James Ford. In the interim, the EP
Lost, made up of music recorded during
Super sessions was released. In January 2024, the album title
Nonetheless and its cover art were revealed with an 26 April release date, along with the news that Pet Shop Boys would be returning to Parlophone. The music video for the lead single, "Loneliness", was released on YouTube on 31 January. On 3 April the second single "Dancing Star" was released, inspired by Russian ballet dancer
Rudolf Nureyev. The single featured a remix of a previous B-side "Party in the Blitz" featuring
Princess Julia. The third single, "A New Bohemia" was released on 4 June, followed by a fourth single, "Feel" on 20 August. The fifth single, a double A-side of "New London Boy" and a cover version of "
All The Young Dudes" by
David Bowie, was released on 7 November, followed by an expanded re-release of
Nonetheless on 22 November, including demo versions of all tracks plus four new bonus tracks. The ongoing Dreamworld tour included a five-night residency at the
Royal Opera House in July 2024, followed by a gig at
Funny Girls in
Blackpool and a headline appearance at the final night of
Radio 2 in the Park in
Preston in September. In November, Pet Shop Boys played "All the Young Dudes" in a medley with "
West End Girls", accompanied by the
Manchester Camerata, at the
2024 MTV Europe Music Awards, where the duo were honoured as Pop Pioneers. They also appeared on
Strictly Come Dancing in Lowe's hometown during Blackpool Week, playing a medley of hits for the opening dance number, followed by a performance of "All the Young Dudes" the next night. The Dreamworld tour continued with concerts in the UK and Europe in summer 2025. In 2026, the tour visited Japan and South America. At the
Viña del Mar International Song Festival in Chile, Pet Shop Boys received the Gaviota de Plata and Gaviota de Oro audience awards. In April 2026, Pet Shop Boys played a five-night residency called Obscure at the
Electric Ballroom in
Camden Town, with a varying setlist of their lesser known B-sides, album tracks, and fan favourites. The set also featured the debut of a new song, "I Dream of a Better Tomorrow" from a planned musical
Naked, based on "
The Emperor's New Clothes". ==Style and image==