Marc Almond
Encyclopedia
Marc Almond is an English singer-songwriter and musician, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop
/New Wave
duo Soft Cell
. Including his time with Soft Cell, he has sold over 30 million records worldwide.
(then Lancashire
, now part of Merseyside
), the son of Sandra Mary Dieson and Peter John Sinclair Almond, a Second Lieutenant
in the King's Liverpool Regiment. He was brought up at his grandparents' house in Birkdale
with his younger sister, Julia, and as a child suffered from bronchitis
and asthma
. When he was four, they left their grandparents' house and moved to Starbeck on the edge of Harrogate
, North Yorkshire
. Two years later they returned to Southport, and then moved to Horsforth
(near Leeds
).
At age 11 he attended Aireborough Grammar School
near Leeds. Almond found solace in music, listening to British radio pioneer John Peel
. The first album he purchased was the soundtrack of the stage musical Hair
and the first single "Green Manalishi" by Fleetwood Mac
. He later became a great fan of Marc Bolan
and David Bowie
and got a part time job as a stable boy to fund his musical tastes.
After his parents' divorce in 1972 he moved with his mother back to his home town of Southport. He gained two O-Levels in Art and English and was accepted onto a General Art and Design course at Southport College
, specialising in Performance Art
. He applied to Leeds Polytechnic where he was interviewed by Jeff Nuttall
, also a performance artist, who accepted him on the strength of his performing skills. During his time at Art College he did a series of performance theatre pieces: "Zazou", "Glamour in Squalor", "Twilights and Lowlifes", as well as Andy Warhol
inspired minimovies. The Yorkshire Evening Post labeled one of his performances "depressingly nihilistic". He followed bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees. He left Art College with a 2:1 honours degree. Almond later credited writer and artist Molly Parkin
with discovering him. It was at Leeds Polytechnic that Almond met David Ball, a fellow student; they formed Soft Cell
in 1979.
and "The Twist
" by Chubby Checker
, also his father's collection of jazz including Dave Brubeck
and Eartha Kitt
. As an adolescent, Almond listened to Radio Caroline
and Radio Luxembourg
. He listened at first to Progressive, Blues and Rock Music, Free, Jethro Tull, Van der Graaf Generator, The Who, and The Doors, and bought the first ever issue of Sounds because it contained a free poster of Jimmy Page
. He became a great fan of Marc Bolan
after hearing him on the John Peel
Show, buying the T. Rex single "Ride a White Swan", from then on he "followed everything Marc Bolan did", and it was his obsession with Bolan that prompted Almond to adopt the 'Marc' spelling. He discovered the songs of Jacques Brel
through Bowie as well as Alex Harvey
and Dusty Springfield
. Brel became a major influence.
, whose hits included "Tainted Love
" (UK #1), "Bedsitter" (UK #4), "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
" (UK #3), "Torch" (UK #2), "What!" (UK #3), "Soul Inside" (UK #16), and the club hit "Memorabilia". Soft Cell's first release was an independent record (funded by David Ball's mother) entitled "Mutant Moments" via Red Rhino Records in 1980.
It came to the attention of music entrepreneur Stevo Pearce
, who at the time was compiling a "futurist" chart for the music paper Sounds
which featured young, upcoming and experimental bands of the new wave of electronic sound. He signed the duo to his Some Bizarre label and they enjoyed a string of nine Top 40 hit singles and four Top 20 albums in the UK between 1981-84. They recorded three albums in New York with producer Mike Thorne: Non Stop Erotic Cabaret, Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing and The Art of Falling Apart. He became involved with the New York Underground Art Scene at this time with writer/DJ Anita Sarko, and performed at a number of Art events as well as meeting many New York Art luminaries including Andy Warhol
. Soft Cell disbanded in 1984 just before the release of their fourth album, This Last Night In Sodom
, though the duo reunited in 2001. "Tainted Love", a cover of a Gloria Jones
's Northern Soul classic, was in the Guinness Book of Records for a while as the record that spent the longest time in the Billboard Top 100 chart in the U.S. It also won the best single award of 1981 at the first Brit Awards.
His first solo album was Vermin in Ermine, released in 1984. Produced by Mike Hedges It featured musicians from the Mambas outfit, Annie Hogan
, Martin McCarrick
and Billy McGee. This ensemble, known as The Willing Sinners, worked alongside Almond for the subsequent albums Stories Of Johnny (1985) and Mother Fist and her Five Daughters (1987), also produced by Mike Hedges. McCarrick left The Willing Sinners in 1987 to join Siouxsie and the Banshees, from which point Hogan and McGee became known as La Magia. Almond signed to EMI and released the album The Stars We Are
in 1988. This album featured Almond's version of "Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart
", which was later re-recorded as a duet with the song's original singer Gene Pitney
and released as a single. The track reached No. 1 in the UK. It was also number one in Germany and was a major hit in countries around the world. The album would become his biggest selling solo album in the USA, with his biggest-selling solo single, "Tears Run Rings". His other recordings in the 1980s included an album of Brel songs, called Jacques, and an album of dark French chansons originally performed by Juliette Greco
, Serge Lama
and Léo Ferré
, as well as poems by Rimbaud and Baudelaire set to music.
, which spawned the Top 30 hit "A Lover Spurned". A further single from the album, "Waifs and Strays", was remixed by Dave Ball who was now in the electronic dance band The Grid
. Almond left EMI Records. In 1991, Soft Cell returned to the charts with a new remix of "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" followed by a re-release of "Tainted Love" (with a new video). The singles were issued to promote a new Soft Cell/Marc Almond compilation album, Memorabilia - The Singles
, which collected some of the biggest hits from Almond's career throughout the previous ten years. The album reached the UK Top 10.
Almond signed to WEA and released a new solo album, Tenement Symphony
. Produced partly by Trevor Horn
, the album yielded three Top 40 hits including renditions of the Jacques Brel classic "Jacky" (which made the UK Top 20), and "The Days of Pearly Spencer" which returned Almond to the UK Top 5 in 1992. Later that year, Almond played a lavish one-off show at the Royal Albert Hall
in London, which featured an orchestra and dancers as he performed material from his entire career. The show was recorded and released as the CD and video 12 Years of Tears.
In 1993 Almond toured Russia and Siberia
by invitation of the British consul in Moscow. Accompanied only by Martin Watkins on piano, he played small Soviet halls and theatres, often without amplification, and ended at the "mini Bolshoi" in Moscow. Transmitted live on television Almond made a plea for tolerance of gay people. The tour was fraught with troubles, which Almond detailed in his autobiography, but it marked the beginning of his love affair with the genre of Russian folk torch songs known as Romance. He was given master classes by Alla Bayanova
.
Almond's next album Fantastic Star saw him part with WEA and sign to Mercury Records. Much of Fantastic Star was originally recorded in New York with Mike Thorne, but later after signing to Mercury, was reworked in London. Almond also recorded a session for the album with John Cale, David Johanson, and Chris Spedding; some made the final cut. Other songs were produced by Mike Hedges and Martyn Ware
. Adding to the disjointed recording process was the fact that during recording Almond also spent several weeks attending the Promis Treatment Centre in Canterbury, for treatment for addiction to prescription drugs. However on its release Fantastic Star gave Almond a hit single with Adored and Explored, and also stage favorites such as The Idol and Child Star. Fantastic Star was Almond's last album with a major record label, and the period also marked the ending of his managerial relationship with Stevo.
Almond re-invented himself and signed to Echo records in 1998 with a more downbeat and atmospheric electronica album, Open All Night. This featured R and B, triphop and voodoo/Santería influences, as well as torch songs which he had become known for. The album featured a duet (Threat of Love) with longtime friend Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie of the Creatures, as well as one (Almost Diamonds) with Keli Ali (then of the Sneaker Pimps). Open All Night was a successful album both with critics and fans, and introduced a darker, more mature and bluesy vocal sound. Almond left the label and signed to European label Tres Bis Viii where he stayed for the next four years. Tragedy was the single from the album Open All Night.
and Alla Bayanova
, and with the Rossiya Folk Orchestra. Another album of Russian songs came later in 2010.
2001: Soft Cell reunited briefly and released their first new album in 18 years, Cruelty Without Beauty
and had a top 40 hit with a cover of the Frankie Valli
's "The Night".
2004: Almond was seriously injured in a motorbike accident outside St Paul's Cathedral London. Near death and in a coma for weeks, he also suffered serious head injuries multiple breaks and fractures, collapsed lung and damaged hearing. He began a slow recovery determined to get back on the stage and in the studio.
2006: Almond recorded an album of cover songs, Stardom Road. Specially hand picked to tell a story of his life and career the album featured songs as diverse as I Have Lived by Charles Aznavour
, to Stardom Road by Third World War, Strangers in the Night, and Kitch by Paul Ryan. The album featured his first new song since the crash, Beauty Will Redeem the World. The album was produced by Tris Penna and Marius De Vries. The Fashion House Yves St Laurent picked Almonds Strangers in the Night to represent their show at Londons Fashion Rocks. Almond performed it at the Albert Hall. It was to be one of three albums for the Sanctuary label but the label folded soon after.
2007: Almond celebrated his 50th birthday on stage and performed at a tribute show to Marc Bolan his teenage hero. At the concert he dueted with Bolan's wife, Gloria Jones, on an impromptu version of Tainted Love.
2008/2009: he toured with Jools Holland
throughout the UK as well at guesting at shows by Current 93, Baby Dee and a tribute show to the late folk singer Sandy Denny at the Festival Hall.
2010: In June 2010, he released Varieté
, an album of crafted personal songs, his first studio album of self-penned songs in almost a decade. Almond has stated this will possibly be his last fully self-penned album. He also announced a new concert tour in Autumn 2010 to celebrate his 30 years in music. Almond was awarded a Hero Award by the music magazine Mojo
. He undertook his most successful tour celebrating thirty years of being a recording artist with a show of mostly Hits and A sides entitled "All A's".
2011: Almond released an album Feasting with Panthers. A collaboration with musician and arranger Michael Cashmore. Poems of Count Eric Stenboc put to music as well as decadent and Homo erotic poems by Jean Genet, Jean Cocteau, Paul Verlaine and Rimbaud. Almond took part in a unique music-theatre work Ten Plagues held at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre from 1–28 August 2011. Ten Plagues is a song cycle based on Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year (which dates back to 1665), and was a collaboration between Almond, theatre director and designer Stewart Lain, libretto author Mark Ravenhill and composer Conor Mitchell. The show won the Scotman's Fringe First Award.
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
/New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
duo Soft Cell
Soft Cell
Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They consist of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The duo is most widely known for their 1981 worldwide hit version of "Tainted Love" and platinum debut Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret...
. Including his time with Soft Cell, he has sold over 30 million records worldwide.
Childhood and early life
Peter Mark Sinclair Almond was born in 1957 in SouthportSouthport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
(then Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, now part of Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
), the son of Sandra Mary Dieson and Peter John Sinclair Almond, a Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
in the King's Liverpool Regiment. He was brought up at his grandparents' house in Birkdale
Birkdale
Birkdale is a village and district in the southern part of the conurbation of the town of Southport, within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, though historically in Lancashire, in the north-west of England. The village is located on the Irish Sea coast, approximately a mile away from...
with his younger sister, Julia, and as a child suffered from bronchitis
Bronchitis
Acute bronchitis is an inflammation of the large bronchi in the lungs that is usually caused by viruses or bacteria and may last several days or weeks. Characteristic symptoms include cough, sputum production, and shortness of breath and wheezing related to the obstruction of the inflamed airways...
and asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
. When he was four, they left their grandparents' house and moved to Starbeck on the edge of Harrogate
Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
, North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
. Two years later they returned to Southport, and then moved to Horsforth
Horsforth
Horsforth is a town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England, lying to the north west of Leeds. It has a population of 18,928....
(near Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
).
At age 11 he attended Aireborough Grammar School
Aireborough Grammar School
Aireborough Grammar School was an English state Grammar school situated on the Yeadon / Guiseley border in Aireborough, West Yorkshire. The school was founded in 1910 and closed in 1991.-History:...
near Leeds. Almond found solace in music, listening to British radio pioneer John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
. The first album he purchased was the soundtrack of the stage musical Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
and the first single "Green Manalishi" by Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
. He later became a great fan of Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and poet. He is best known as the founder, frontman, lead singer & guitarist for T. Rex, but also a successful solo artist...
and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
and got a part time job as a stable boy to fund his musical tastes.
After his parents' divorce in 1972 he moved with his mother back to his home town of Southport. He gained two O-Levels in Art and English and was accepted onto a General Art and Design course at Southport College
Southport College
Southport College is a further education college located in Southport, Merseyside, England....
, specialising in Performance Art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
. He applied to Leeds Polytechnic where he was interviewed by Jeff Nuttall
Jeff Nuttall
Jeff Nuttall was an English poet, publisher, actor, painter, sculptor, jazz trumpeter, anarchist sympathiser and social commentator who was a key part of the British 1960s counter-culture. He was the brother of literary critic A. D. Nuttall.-Life and work:Jeff Nuttall was born in Clitheroe,...
, also a performance artist, who accepted him on the strength of his performing skills. During his time at Art College he did a series of performance theatre pieces: "Zazou", "Glamour in Squalor", "Twilights and Lowlifes", as well as Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
inspired minimovies. The Yorkshire Evening Post labeled one of his performances "depressingly nihilistic". He followed bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees. He left Art College with a 2:1 honours degree. Almond later credited writer and artist Molly Parkin
Molly Parkin
Molly Parkin , is a Welsh painter, novelist and journalist, who became most famous for exploits in the 1960s.Parkin was the second of two daughters, born and raised in Pontycymer in the Garw Valley, Wales...
with discovering him. It was at Leeds Polytechnic that Almond met David Ball, a fellow student; they formed Soft Cell
Soft Cell
Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They consist of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The duo is most widely known for their 1981 worldwide hit version of "Tainted Love" and platinum debut Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret...
in 1979.
Early musical influences
As a child, Almond listened to his parent's record collection, which included his mother's "Let's Dance" by Chris MontezChris Montez
Chris Montez , is an American singer.-Early life:Montez grew up in Hawthorne, California, influenced by the Latino-flavored music of his community and the success of Ritchie Valens....
and "The Twist
The Twist (song)
"The Twist" is a twelve bar blues song that gave birth to the Twistdance craze. The song was written and originally released in 1959 by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters as a B-side but his version was only a moderate 1960 hit, peaking at 28 on the Billboard Hot 100...
" by Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker is an American singer-songwriter. He is widely known for popularizing the twist dance style, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard's R&B hit "The Twist"...
, also his father's collection of jazz including Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck
David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...
and Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
. As an adolescent, Almond listened to Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline is an English radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly...
and Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (English)
Radio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....
. He listened at first to Progressive, Blues and Rock Music, Free, Jethro Tull, Van der Graaf Generator, The Who, and The Doors, and bought the first ever issue of Sounds because it contained a free poster of Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
. He became a great fan of Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and poet. He is best known as the founder, frontman, lead singer & guitarist for T. Rex, but also a successful solo artist...
after hearing him on the John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
Show, buying the T. Rex single "Ride a White Swan", from then on he "followed everything Marc Bolan did", and it was his obsession with Bolan that prompted Almond to adopt the 'Marc' spelling. He discovered the songs of Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following in France initially, and later throughout the world. He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson...
through Bowie as well as Alex Harvey
Alex Harvey
Alex Harvey was a Scottish rock musician. With The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, he built a reputation as an exciting live performer during the 1970s glam rock era.-Biography:...
and Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
. Brel became a major influence.
1980s
Almond initially shot to fame in the early 1980s as one half of the synth duo Soft CellSoft Cell
Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They consist of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The duo is most widely known for their 1981 worldwide hit version of "Tainted Love" and platinum debut Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret...
, whose hits included "Tainted Love
Tainted Love
"Tainted Love" is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of The Four Preps, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1965. It attained worldwide fame after being covered by Soft Cell in 1981, reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart, and has since been covered by numerous groups and...
" (UK #1), "Bedsitter" (UK #4), "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
"Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" is a song from the album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret by English synthpop duo Soft Cell that was released as a single in 1982 and reached number three on the UK Singles Chart...
" (UK #3), "Torch" (UK #2), "What!" (UK #3), "Soul Inside" (UK #16), and the club hit "Memorabilia". Soft Cell's first release was an independent record (funded by David Ball's mother) entitled "Mutant Moments" via Red Rhino Records in 1980.
It came to the attention of music entrepreneur Stevo Pearce
Stevo Pearce
Stephen John Pearce, commonly known as Stevo, is the owner of British record label, Some Bizzare Records.-Biography:Pearce was born in 1962 and came from Haverhill. He left school at sixteen without any qualifications and entered a work training placement with ‘Phonogram Records’...
, who at the time was compiling a "futurist" chart for the music paper Sounds
Sounds (magazine)
Sounds was a long-term British music paper, published weekly from 10 October 1970 – 6 April 1991. It was produced by Spotlight Publications , which was set up by Jack Hutton and Peter Wilkinson, who left "Melody Maker" to start their own company...
which featured young, upcoming and experimental bands of the new wave of electronic sound. He signed the duo to his Some Bizarre label and they enjoyed a string of nine Top 40 hit singles and four Top 20 albums in the UK between 1981-84. They recorded three albums in New York with producer Mike Thorne: Non Stop Erotic Cabaret, Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing and The Art of Falling Apart. He became involved with the New York Underground Art Scene at this time with writer/DJ Anita Sarko, and performed at a number of Art events as well as meeting many New York Art luminaries including Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
. Soft Cell disbanded in 1984 just before the release of their fourth album, This Last Night In Sodom
This Last Night In Sodom
This Last Night in Sodom is the name of a 1984 album released by seminal electro-synth pop duo Soft Cell for Phonogram records. It was released about a month after its two members Marc Almond and David Ball announced their breakup in a letter to various music magazines, including Melody Maker and...
, though the duo reunited in 2001. "Tainted Love", a cover of a Gloria Jones
Gloria Jones
Gloria Richetta Jones is an American singer and songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She recorded the 1964 northern soul song, "Tainted Love", later a hit for the British synth-pop duo, Soft Cell. She was the girlfriend of glam rock artist Marc Bolan of the band T...
's Northern Soul classic, was in the Guinness Book of Records for a while as the record that spent the longest time in the Billboard Top 100 chart in the U.S. It also won the best single award of 1981 at the first Brit Awards.
His first solo album was Vermin in Ermine, released in 1984. Produced by Mike Hedges It featured musicians from the Mambas outfit, Annie Hogan
Anni Hogan
Anni Hogan is a British musician, record producer, composer and Club DJ, born in 1961. Originally known for her association with British music artist Marc Almond, Hogan now collaborates with a diverse variety of artists including Rachel McFarlane and Cagedbaby....
, Martin McCarrick
Martin McCarrick
Martin McCarrick is an English cellist, keyboardist and guitarist.He is best known for his work Siouxsie and the Banshees from 1987 until 1995. He recorded with them three studio albums : Peepshow, Superstition and The Rapture...
and Billy McGee. This ensemble, known as The Willing Sinners, worked alongside Almond for the subsequent albums Stories Of Johnny (1985) and Mother Fist and her Five Daughters (1987), also produced by Mike Hedges. McCarrick left The Willing Sinners in 1987 to join Siouxsie and the Banshees, from which point Hogan and McGee became known as La Magia. Almond signed to EMI and released the album The Stars We Are
The Stars We Are
The Stars We Are is a studio album by the British singer/songwriter Marc Almond, who had previously been part of the synthpop/new wave duo, Soft Cell....
in 1988. This album featured Almond's version of "Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart
Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
"Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" is a popular song written by Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook.Originally recorded by David and Jonathan, and then Gene Pitney in 1967, the song reached #5 on the UK singles chart but failed to chart in the USA...
", which was later re-recorded as a duet with the song's original singer Gene Pitney
Gene Pitney
Eugene Francis Alan Pitney, known as Gene Pitney , was an American singer-songwriter, musician and sound engineer. Through the mid-1960s, he enjoyed success as a recording artist on both sides of the Atlantic and was among the group of early 1960s American acts who continued to enjoy hits after the...
and released as a single. The track reached No. 1 in the UK. It was also number one in Germany and was a major hit in countries around the world. The album would become his biggest selling solo album in the USA, with his biggest-selling solo single, "Tears Run Rings". His other recordings in the 1980s included an album of Brel songs, called Jacques, and an album of dark French chansons originally performed by Juliette Greco
Juliette Gréco
Juliette Gréco, — also Michelle – is a French actress and popular chanson singer.-Early life and family:Juliette Gréco was born in Montpellier to a Corsican father and a mother who became active in the Résistance, in the Hérault département of southern France. She was raised by her maternal...
, Serge Lama
Serge Lama
Serge Lama is a French singer. He was born in Bordeaux.His most famous song is Je suis malade. In 1971 he represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Un jardin sur la terre, which was placed tenth.-Discography:...
and Léo Ferré
Léo Ferré
Léo Ferré was a Franco-Monegasque poet, composer, singer and musician.Born in Monaco, Ferré mixed love and melancholy with moral anarchy, lyricism with slang, rhyming verse with prose monologues...
, as well as poems by Rimbaud and Baudelaire set to music.
1990s
Almond's first release in the 1990s was the album EnchantedEnchanted (Marc Almond album)
Enchanted is a 1990 studio album by recording artist Marc Almond, previously a member of synthpop/new wave duo, Soft Cell. The album includes the singles "A Lover Spurned", "The Desperate Hours" and "Waifs and Strays" and was produced by Bob Kraushaar, Gary Maughan and Stephen Hague...
, which spawned the Top 30 hit "A Lover Spurned". A further single from the album, "Waifs and Strays", was remixed by Dave Ball who was now in the electronic dance band The Grid
The Grid
The Grid are an English electronic dance group, consisting of Richard Norris and David Ball , with guest contributions from other musicians...
. Almond left EMI Records. In 1991, Soft Cell returned to the charts with a new remix of "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" followed by a re-release of "Tainted Love" (with a new video). The singles were issued to promote a new Soft Cell/Marc Almond compilation album, Memorabilia - The Singles
Memorabilia - The Singles
Memorabilia - The Singles is a compilation album by Soft Cell with Marc Almond, featuring hits from both periods of Almond's career to that point...
, which collected some of the biggest hits from Almond's career throughout the previous ten years. The album reached the UK Top 10.
Almond signed to WEA and released a new solo album, Tenement Symphony
Tenement Symphony
Tenement Symphony is an album by Marc Almond, released in 1991. It reached #39 in the UK Albums Chart and includes the UK top 40 single "My Hand Over My Heart", top 20 "Jacky",and the top 5 hit "The Days of Pearly Spencer".-Track listing:...
. Produced partly by Trevor Horn
Trevor Horn
Trevor Charles Horn CBE is an English pop music record producer, songwriter, musician and singer. He was born in Houghton-le-Spring in north-east England....
, the album yielded three Top 40 hits including renditions of the Jacques Brel classic "Jacky" (which made the UK Top 20), and "The Days of Pearly Spencer" which returned Almond to the UK Top 5 in 1992. Later that year, Almond played a lavish one-off show at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in London, which featured an orchestra and dancers as he performed material from his entire career. The show was recorded and released as the CD and video 12 Years of Tears.
In 1993 Almond toured Russia and Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
by invitation of the British consul in Moscow. Accompanied only by Martin Watkins on piano, he played small Soviet halls and theatres, often without amplification, and ended at the "mini Bolshoi" in Moscow. Transmitted live on television Almond made a plea for tolerance of gay people. The tour was fraught with troubles, which Almond detailed in his autobiography, but it marked the beginning of his love affair with the genre of Russian folk torch songs known as Romance. He was given master classes by Alla Bayanova
Alla Bayanova
Alla Nikolayevna Bayanova was a Russian singer sometimes compared with Édith Piaf for her simple yet dramatic style of performance.-Biography:...
.
Almond's next album Fantastic Star saw him part with WEA and sign to Mercury Records. Much of Fantastic Star was originally recorded in New York with Mike Thorne, but later after signing to Mercury, was reworked in London. Almond also recorded a session for the album with John Cale, David Johanson, and Chris Spedding; some made the final cut. Other songs were produced by Mike Hedges and Martyn Ware
Martyn Ware
Martyn "Teddy Bear" Ware is a British musician and music producer. He is the chairman of a local football team: PPA. As a founder member of both The Human League and Heaven 17, he was partly responsible for hit records such as "Being Boiled" and "Temptation"...
. Adding to the disjointed recording process was the fact that during recording Almond also spent several weeks attending the Promis Treatment Centre in Canterbury, for treatment for addiction to prescription drugs. However on its release Fantastic Star gave Almond a hit single with Adored and Explored, and also stage favorites such as The Idol and Child Star. Fantastic Star was Almond's last album with a major record label, and the period also marked the ending of his managerial relationship with Stevo.
Almond re-invented himself and signed to Echo records in 1998 with a more downbeat and atmospheric electronica album, Open All Night. This featured R and B, triphop and voodoo/Santería influences, as well as torch songs which he had become known for. The album featured a duet (Threat of Love) with longtime friend Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie of the Creatures, as well as one (Almost Diamonds) with Keli Ali (then of the Sneaker Pimps). Open All Night was a successful album both with critics and fans, and introduced a darker, more mature and bluesy vocal sound. Almond left the label and signed to European label Tres Bis Viii where he stayed for the next four years. Tragedy was the single from the album Open All Night.
2000s
Almond relocated in 2000 to Moscow where he rented an apartment. With the encouragement and connections of executive producer Misha Kucherenko, he embarked on the three year recording project of Russian romance and folk songs, called "Heart on Snow". Featuring many Russian Stars old and new it was the first time that such a project had been undertaken by a Western Artist, many of the loved Soviet era songs sung in English for the first time.The album was produced by musician/arranger Andrei Samsonov. Almond performed many times at the famous now demolished Rossiya Concert Hall with Lyudmila ZykinaLyudmila Zykina
Lyudmila Georgievna Zykina was a national folk singer of Russia.She was born in Moscow and joined the Pyatnitsky Choir in 1947. Her surname is derived from the Russian word for "loud" . Beginning in 1960 she performed solo...
and Alla Bayanova
Alla Bayanova
Alla Nikolayevna Bayanova was a Russian singer sometimes compared with Édith Piaf for her simple yet dramatic style of performance.-Biography:...
, and with the Rossiya Folk Orchestra. Another album of Russian songs came later in 2010.
2001: Soft Cell reunited briefly and released their first new album in 18 years, Cruelty Without Beauty
Cruelty Without Beauty
Cruelty Without Beauty is the fourth studio album by Soft Cell. The album was released on October 8, 2002.-Track listing:#"Darker Times"#"Monoculture"#"Le Grand Guignol"#"The Night"#"Last Chance"#"Together Alone"#"Desperate"#"Whatever It Takes"...
and had a top 40 hit with a cover of the Frankie Valli
Frankie Valli
Frankie Valli is an American musician, most famous as frontman of The Four Seasons. He is well-known for his unusually powerful falsetto singing voice...
's "The Night".
2004: Almond was seriously injured in a motorbike accident outside St Paul's Cathedral London. Near death and in a coma for weeks, he also suffered serious head injuries multiple breaks and fractures, collapsed lung and damaged hearing. He began a slow recovery determined to get back on the stage and in the studio.
2006: Almond recorded an album of cover songs, Stardom Road. Specially hand picked to tell a story of his life and career the album featured songs as diverse as I Have Lived by Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
, to Stardom Road by Third World War, Strangers in the Night, and Kitch by Paul Ryan. The album featured his first new song since the crash, Beauty Will Redeem the World. The album was produced by Tris Penna and Marius De Vries. The Fashion House Yves St Laurent picked Almonds Strangers in the Night to represent their show at Londons Fashion Rocks. Almond performed it at the Albert Hall. It was to be one of three albums for the Sanctuary label but the label folded soon after.
2007: Almond celebrated his 50th birthday on stage and performed at a tribute show to Marc Bolan his teenage hero. At the concert he dueted with Bolan's wife, Gloria Jones, on an impromptu version of Tainted Love.
2008/2009: he toured with Jools Holland
Jools Holland
Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...
throughout the UK as well at guesting at shows by Current 93, Baby Dee and a tribute show to the late folk singer Sandy Denny at the Festival Hall.
2010: In June 2010, he released Varieté
Varieté (album)
Varieté is a studio album by Marc Almond, the English singer, songwriter and recording artist. The album was released in June 2010 on Cherry Red Records...
, an album of crafted personal songs, his first studio album of self-penned songs in almost a decade. Almond has stated this will possibly be his last fully self-penned album. He also announced a new concert tour in Autumn 2010 to celebrate his 30 years in music. Almond was awarded a Hero Award by the music magazine Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
. He undertook his most successful tour celebrating thirty years of being a recording artist with a show of mostly Hits and A sides entitled "All A's".
2011: Almond released an album Feasting with Panthers. A collaboration with musician and arranger Michael Cashmore. Poems of Count Eric Stenboc put to music as well as decadent and Homo erotic poems by Jean Genet, Jean Cocteau, Paul Verlaine and Rimbaud. Almond took part in a unique music-theatre work Ten Plagues held at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre from 1–28 August 2011. Ten Plagues is a song cycle based on Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year (which dates back to 1665), and was a collaboration between Almond, theatre director and designer Stewart Lain, libretto author Mark Ravenhill and composer Conor Mitchell. The show won the Scotman's Fringe First Award.