Straddling the line between the underground and the mainstream, Marc Almond marries the pop omnipresence of his 80s hit with Soft Cell ‘Tainted Love’ with daringly dramatic, gender-bending dives into Brel, cabaret and Russian romance.
Pairing art college in Leeds with eye-opening escapes to London’s Soho, a young Marc Almond told stories of the adventures of his youth with early singles 'Twilights + Lowlifes' and 'Glamour in Squalor'. They were an early indication of a career sprinkled with decadent titles, originals and covers.
As one half of synth-pop duo Soft Cell, along with electronics maverick David Ball, Almond released synth-pop classic, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, a debut LP featuring the definitive British pop anthem of 1981, ‘Tainted Love’ — a revisited northern soul gem by Gloria Jones — alongside ‘Bedsitter’, a rhythmic peek into the raw realities of London clubland. Two years later, the short-lived Soft Cell offshoot Marc and The Mambas unleashed their new wave, flamenco sophomore album, Torment and Toreros. In 1984 came his art pop solo debut, Vermin in Ermine, a Top-40 record packed with shimmering songwriting, and backing vocals The Willing Sinners.
While Almond artistically spread his wings with a string of baroque inspired covers, and collaborations with French singers and poets, in 2004 a nearly fatal motorcycle crash left the singer in a coma. It would be a long and winding road to recovery, having to trace his way back on stage in slow, unsteady steps through a series of guest and solo live shows. His appearances, including Antony Hegarty’s stellar Meltdown Festival, brought him back to public consciousness, reconnecting with long-time fans while being rediscovered by new ones. Already a seasoned recording artist, he resurfaced with a new sense of focus, blending homoerotic poetry by Rimbaud and Jean Genet (Feasting with Panthers with Michael Cashmore) and piano-laden musings that doubled as operatic metaphors for AIDS and other viruses (Ten Plagues – A Song Cycle). Some of his most remarkable career peaks followed, including a prestigious OBE in 2018, a sold-out show with the reunited Soft Cell in London’s O2 arena, as well as a UK Top-10 hit with fellow synth-pop mainstays Pet Shop Boys in their collaboration with Soft Cell ‘Purple Zone’, over four decades into the pop game. In between the highs, he kept the original material coming alongside a stream of nostalgia-soaked, yet newly seductive covers. Just leave it to Almond to turn plagues into play and twilights into triumph.