In Memoriam

Peter Andreas (1963-1994)

A close friend and personal assistant to the Pet Shop Boys who had known them since 1984. For five years he also shared living quarters with Chris and was rumored to be his lover, which has never been either confirmed or denied by the PSB camp. In addition to his supporting role in their personal and professional lives—and making fleeting guest appearances in the "Suburbia" and "Jealousy" music videos (the shot on the right comes from the former)—Peter is known to have inspired, either directly or indirectly, several of the Boys' songs. "A Man Could Get Arrested" was based on events that occurred the night they first met. "I Want a Dog" was triggered by a comment he once made about indeed wanting a dog, but only a chihuahua because he had such a small apartment at the time. The title of "Domino Dancing" was inspired by Peter's habit of doing a little dance whenever he would win at games of dominos with them. (Appropriately enough, he also took the photos that appeared on the single's sleeves.) Chris composed "Postscript" as a testimonial to him while Peter was in the late stages of the AIDS-related illness that would claim his life the following year. And it's more than likely that "Paninaro '95"—in particular the new lyrics added since the original "Paninaro"—was similarly inspired by Peter's passing. As a perhaps final public tribute, Neil and Chris dedicated their Alternative b-sides collection to him.

Derek Jarman (1942-1994)

Director, filmmaker, artist, author, and more, Derek Jarman was a man of many talents and interests. Already famous well before the Pet Shop Boys even existed as a duo—especially in more avant garde circles for such films as Sebastiane (1976) and Jubilee (1978)—he first became involved with them when they asked him to direct their music video for "It's a Sin." (Neil and Chris had recently seen and been thoroughly impressed by his 1986 film Caravaggio.) It was followed soon after by his second video for them, "Rent." Jarman then served as the director for their first full-scale tour, MCMLXXXIX, which was visually enhanced by a series of back-projection videos he created, subsequently documented on the Highlights and Projections video releases. (He even made a brief appearance in the back-projection for "Heart.") While continuing to work on assorted other non-PSB projects, such as his acclaimed films The Last of England (1987) and Edward II (1991), Jarman had become a good friend of the Boys and socialized with them on a fairly regular basis. He spurred them to take part in more than one AIDS-related charity function before he himself succumbed to the disease on February 19, 1994.

Dusty Springfield (1939-1999)

This great British vocalist produced a string of classic hits in the 1960s, including the releases that would ensure her enshrinement in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: the 1968 album Dusty in Memphis and its biggest hit single, "Son of a Preacher Man." When, however, the hits dried up in the 1970s, she went into semi-retirement and became a virtual recluse, which conversely served only to enhance her legend. When the Pet Shop Boys asked her to duet with them on their 1987 single "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" it seemed a move totally out of left field, but it ultimately provided both the Boys and Dusty with one of their all-time biggest hits and ended up revitalizing her career. They co-helmed her 1990 comeback album Reputation, which granted her two further PSB-penned hit singles, "Nothing Has Been Proved" and "In Private." She died from breast cancer on March 2, 1999, knowing that she was about to be inducted into the aforementioned Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but not living to see the actual ceremony. Neil was one of the eulogists at her funeral.

J.J. Belle (1955-2004)

A guitarist known for recording with numerous artists—including George Michael, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Grace Jones, Paula Abdul, Tina Turner, When In Rome, and Jimmy Sommerville—Belle specialized in dance-oriented music and did some of his best-known work with the Pet Shop Boys. His guitar can be heard prominantly on a number of their tracks, including "Heart," "Being Boring," "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)," "Liberation," and "Se A Vida É," among others. He also appears on the album that the Boys produced for Liza Minnelli, Results. And he served as a backup musician (just offstage until the very end) for their famed Performance tour, as documented on VHS and DVD. He lost his prolonged battle with cancer on November 26, 2004.

Lynne Easton (1959-2006)

Though she first made a name for herself in late-seventies punk rock as bassist for the U.K. bands Muvver's Pride and the Spiders, Lynne Easton (who sometimes spelled her first name "Lyn" and "Lynn") gained her greatest notoriety the following decade as one of the foremost makeup artists and hair stylists for the first "MTV generation" of pop stars. George Michael, Debbie Harry, Bananarama, Elton John, Belinda Carlisle, Terence Trent D'Arby, The Style Council, and many others benefitted from her cosmetological skills in their music videos, photo shoots, and onstage performances. In particular, she is credited with helping to define and refine the "look" of Boy George as the lead singer of Culture Club. In addition to handling the makeup and styling for some of the Pet Shop Boys' own publicity photos and videos (including "Can You Forgive Her?"), she was chosen by Neil and Chris to perform those services on their Performance and DiscoVery tours and their 1997 Somewhere Savoy Theatre stint. In the early 2000s, however, she retired from cosmetology and reportedly lived in semi-seclusion during her final years, devoting time to animal-rescue and -welfare, before passing away in February 2006. Inspired by her funeral service, the Pet Shop Boys wrote the song "Requiem in Denim and Leopardskin" as a tribute both to her and to the late-seventies/early-eighties London scene of which she was so much a part.

Dainton Connell (1961-2007)

Nicknamed "The Bear," Connell was the Pet Shop Boys' friend, personal assistant, and at times bodyguard and "minder" for nearly two decades, from 1989 until his death. A frequent if not ubiquitous presence at their personal appearances for much of that period, Dainton has the distinction of appearing in several of their music videos: "So Hard," "Jealousy," "Was It Worth It?" and "A Red Letter Day." His voice can be heard in the "Here we go… He were go…" sample found in the Very track "One and One Make Five." He also recorded with Chris an obscure track in the early 1990s titled "Here Comes the Bear" (aka "It's the Bear"), which saw posthumous limited release in 2008. While on a visit to Moscow in October 2007, he took part in a birthday celebration for Chris. Very shortly afterward, in the early morning hours of October 5, he was killed as a passenger in an automobile accident—an event that understandably shook the Boys terribly, Chris in particular. They subsequently performed at a special benefit concert in his memory.

Eric Watson (1955- 2012)

A photographer and videographer who helped establish, perhaps more than anyone else aside from Chris and Neil themselves, their visual image during the early years of the Pet Shop Boys' career. Having worked with Neil in the early 1980s at Smash Hits magazine—Watson was the magazine's principal photographer when Neil was a writer and assistant editor—he was asked by the Boys to take their earliest publicity photos in 1984. He remained their primary photographer for the next decade. Watson's work graced the sleeves of more PSB singles than that of any other photographer, including such iconic shots as those associated with "West End Girls," "Suburbia," "It's a Sin," "Rent," and "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More," among others. He also directed or co-directed the bulk of their first decade's worth of music videos, including the career-launching "West End Girls," their "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" collaboration with Dusty Springfield, and the notorious "Domino Dancing" (of which Neil reportedly remarked, "The homoeroticism was all Eric's idea"). All of this is not to ignore his significant body of work outside of the "PSB world" as well. Watson fell victim to a massive heart attack on March 18, 2012.

Peter Rauhofer (1965- 2013)

A genuine legend of dance music, Austrian-born Grammy-winning producer, DJ, and remixer Peter Rauhofer earned fame not only with his own dance hits under the names Club 69 and Size Queen but also for his seemingly countless remixes of other artists' work. Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Cher, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Scissor Sisters, Destiny's Child, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Seal, Depeche Mode, Janet Jackson—the list goes on and on—are just some of the many artists who benefitted from his remix and production skills. In 1999 he created for the Pet Shop Boys several remixes of "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More." The following year PSB (primarily Neil) worked directly with Rauhofer on a remake of "Break 4 Love." Released in 2001 as by "The Collaboration," it became a U.S. #1 dance hit. PSB and Rauhofer also worked together on another cover, "Kitsch," but they were dissatisfied with the results and it remains unreleased. Nevertheless, the Boys were preparing to ask him to remix one of the tracks from their upcoming album Electric when news arrived of his diagnosis of brain cancer—which, with shocking speed, took his life soon after, on May 7, 2013.