ALONGSIDE SOFT CELL SUDDENLY BECOMING A WORKING BAND AGAIN, MARC ALMOND’S PERSONAL LIFE HAS WITNESSED MAJOR CHANGES RECENTLY, TOO. AFTER 40 YEARS IN LONDON, MARC HAS MOVED TO THE PORTUGUESE COUNTRYSIDE. IT’S REVIVED HIS LOVE OF MUSIC – LEADING TO A NEW COVERS ALBUM FROM A SINGER WHO INSISTS THAT HE’S NOT THAT BIG A DEAL AS A SONGWRITER. CLASSIC POP ASKS MARC HOW THE MAN WHO WROTE SAY HELLO WAVE GOODBYE CAN BE SO MODEST ABOUT HIS TALENTS...
JOHN EARLS
lthough Marc Almond and Dave Ball grew up in Southport and Blackpool respectively before meeting at Leeds Polytechnic in 1977, Soft Cell are arguably a London band: both men moved to the capital as soon as they could and remained there for decades afterwards.
While their debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret isn’t exactly a London concept record, it captures the sound of pre-gentrification Soho better than anyone else. Seamy songs like Youth, Sex Dwarf and Seedy Films drip with the danger and illicit sex of the city in the 1980s.
For the remainder of Soft Cell’s first incarnation, and his even murkier 80s alter-ego in Marc And The Mambas, Almond lived opposite infamous Soho strip club Raymond Revuebar. For Soft Cell, success only meant finding nicer homes in London, rather than suburban retreats or country mansions. Indeed, their second split, after Cruelty Without Beauty in the early Noughties, was precipitated by a row after bumping into each other in the streets of central London.
WAVE GOODBYE
Classic Pop meets Almond to discuss his adventurous new covers album I’m Not Anyone at Soho Hotel. It’s a five-star hangout that’s exactly as luxurious as anyone would imagine successful 80s pop stars would conduct all their interviews, but it’s also just two minutes’ walk from the site of Raymond Revuebar. For gentrification in action, have a look at the prices of Soho Hotel’s cocktail menu.
So far, so London. But Marc Almond lives nowhere near here anymore. Shortly after recovering from Covid, which he contracted at the start of lockdown, the seemingly lifetime Londoner moved to Portugal.
“When I came out of Covid, I felt so drained and exhausted,” begins Marc of his European adventure. “I felt aged, and I just felt ill. Of course, so many people felt that way who have been through Covid, but it maybe didn’t hit me until later. I realised that I was mentally and physically exh
