Marc Almond

All Music Guide:

After disbanding Soft Cell, vocalist Marc Almond pursued a solo career that followed the same vaguely sleazy, electronic dance-pop his former group had made popular. Almond's strength was never his personality -- his voice tends to waver around the notes instead of hitting them. It was the atmosphere he created with the synths and drum machines. Underneath all of the electronics and disco rhythms, Almond harked back to the days of cabaret singers, updating that sound for the dance clubs of the '80s.

Before he properly started a solo career, Almond formed Marc & the Mambas, a loose congregation that featured Matt Johnson of The The and Annie Hogan. Untitled (1982), the group's first album, featured covers of Lou Reed, Syd Barrett, and Jacques Brel; throughout his career, Almond would cover the songs of Brel, which he had learned from the records of Scott Walker. Like Walker, Almond used Brel's heavily orchestrated compositions and social ruminations as a starting point, both musically and lyrically -- Almond added a self-conscious element of camp with his Euro-disco and occasionally sleazy lyrics. Torment & Toreros (1983), Marc & the Mambas' second album, explored this path in more detail than Untitled, only to an orchestral background. After its release, the group broke up.

Almond formed the backing group the Willing Sinners in 1984, releasing Vermin in Ermine in 1984. Almond began to hit his stride with this album, which fulfilled most of his campy cabaret fantasies. Stories of Johnny, released the following year, was more cohesive, spawning a British hit with the title song. Even though he maintained a cult following in England and various parts of Europe, his records were not being released in the U.S.

In 1987, Almond released Mother Fist and Her Five Daughters, his first proper solo album and his bleakest work to date; a compilation, Singles: 1984-1987, appeared the same year. Stars We Are, released the following year, was a brighter, more welcoming album that revived his commercial career. In addition to a duet with Nico on "Your Kisses Burn," Almond performed a duet with Gene Pitney on Pitney's own "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart," which became a number one single. Stars We Are also became his first album released in the U.S. since Soft Cell.

Almond followed the success of Stars We Are in 1990 with the pet project Jacques, a collection of Brel songs. That same year, he released Enchanted, which was more successful than Jacques, yet didn't reach the heights of Stars We Are. In 1991, he released The Tenement Symphony, and in 1993, a live album entitled Twelve Years of Tears, followed by a pair of albums on EMI. Almond then switched over to New York independent Thirsty Ear, which reissued some of his material, and then again to Instinct with his 1999 release Open All Night. Through the early 2000s, Almond stayed busy releasing archived live performances on both CD and DVD as well as issuing the studio efforts Stranger Things (2001) and Heart on Snow (2003) for yet another label, Psychobaby. Almond continued to write during this period, publishing a travel book called In Search of the Pleasure Palace: Disreputable Travels in 2004.

Things took a turn for the worse soon after the book came out; Almond was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in October of that year and spent the majority of the following year recovering from the incident. Almond resumed recording in 2006 and released an album of cover songs, Stardom Road, the following summer. His 2009 effort Orpheus in Exile featured the songs of Vadim Kozin, a Russian songwriter and performer active in the 1930s and ‘40s. A year later the single ”Nijinsky Heart” preceded the release of Varieté, Almond’s first studio album of his own material in over ten years.

Wikipedia:

Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond (English pronunciation: /ˈɑːmənd/; born 9 July 1957, Southport) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell. He has sold over 30 million records worldwide.

Childhood and early life

Almond was born in 1957 in Southport (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.

Early musical influences

As a child, Almond listened to his parent's record collection, which included his mother's "Let's Dance" by Chris Montez 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.

Career

1980s

Almond initially shot to fame in the early 1980s as one half of the synth duo Soft Cell, 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 number one in Britain and in many countries over the world and 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. Soft Cell brought an otherwise obscure Northern Soul classic to mass public attention and their version of the song has been covered and sampled many times over by various artists including Marilyn Manson.

In 1982 Almond formed Marc and the Mambas as an off-shoot project from Soft Cell. Marc and the Mambas was a new wave group that included Matt Johnson from The The, Steve James Sherlock and Annie Hogan, with whom Almond worked later in his solo career.

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.

1990s

Almond's first release in the 1990s was the album Enchanted, 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 Siouxsie Sioux 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 Zykina 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.

2011: On the 29 December 2011 It is announced that Marc will be performing a special 55th Birthday celebration concert at the Shepherds Bush Empire on Monday July 9. The title of the show will be 'My Favourite Songs (Of Mine)', with an emphasis on Marc's own favourite self-penned songs.

Personal life

Almond divides his time between London, Moscow and Barcelona. He is openly gay, although dislikes being pigeon-holed as "a 'gay' artist", claiming that such a label "enables people to marginalize your work and reduce its importance, implying that it won't be of any interest to anyone who isn't gay".