Marc Almond reflects on Soft Cell and bandmate Dave Ball
Soft Cell burned bright and fast. The pioneering Leeds duo lasted just six years but produced some of the finest music of the Seventies and Eighties.
The name will forever be tied up with two things: Soho’s sleazy Seventies underbelly and, of course, Tainted Love.
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Hide AdLead singer and pop auteur Marc Almond, however, would argue the band’s legacy extends far further.
Often we forget the galvanising effect Soft Cell had on electronic pop, or how they spawned the careers of Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails and A-ha.
Delving into back catalogue
Last year Almond and musical partner Dave Ball had a chance to address this legacy - and correct a few misconceptions - in front of an audience of 20,000.
Soft Cell’s one-off reunion at London’s 02 saw them dip into their surprisingly deep back catalogue - with a few hits thrown in.
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Hide AdLove of music not tainted by years of success as Marc Almond heads back to Leeds with Jools Holland“People thought we were just a band that wrote about sleazy things, about red light things, Soho and all that kind of thing,” says Almond at the premiere of the documentary about that show.
“Our debut, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, we set it in that setting. But follow-ups, The Art Of Falling Apart and This Last Night In Sodom, and Cruelty Without Beauty - they are all very eclectic subjects. A lot of the time we wrote on the darker side of love songs. Songs about everyday things, about consumerism, quite political themes sometimes and social commentary.
“Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, that was our reflection of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. It was the other side of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.”
He adds with a hint of defiance: “We got labelled with that moniker... we got stuck with that. But it was only a tiny bit of what we were about.”
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Hide AdThe pioneering synth-pop duo’s September show at London’s O2 stretched for a mammoth three hours and delved deep into the duo’s rich musical history.
Almond, 62, and Ball, 60, met at what was Leeds Polytechnic around 1977, bonding over a shared love of Motown, film soundtracks and northern England’s burgeoning industrial dance music scene.
Their platinum-selling debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret explored the seedy - often lonely - world of London’s Soho, bedsits and all-night raves.
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Hide AdAnd, of course, it contained the single Tainted Love, a cover of the Gloria Jones soul stomper, which topped the charts worldwide and shot Soft Cell to international fame. But it was a fame neither Almond nor Ball were ready for.
“It took its toll on us very quickly,” admits Almond. “We lived a 10-year band life in three years. We became very belligerent. It was always us against the record company.”
Struggle with fame
He adds: “We liked the fact we could make pop records and they would be played on the radio and they were hits. That gave us a chance to be quite subversive - a bit against the grain.
“But all the time there was that battle. More Tainted Loves. More this, that and the other.
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Hide AdMarc looks back on musical career“It wore us down. We went to New York to record our first two albums, which was an amazing thing but it was probably the beginning of the end of us as a band.
“It destroyed us. Really it was the worst thing you could have given us at the time.”
Separate ways
Amongst the drugs and the late nights, the pair fell apart. And although Soft Cell never ended for good, they went their separate ways.
Almond went on to work with Jools Holland, Coil and Berlin-based composer Michael Cashmore. Ball embedded himself in the intricacies of electronic music production.
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Hide AdIn 2002 the pair reunited to produce the well-received Cruelty Without Beauty.
But their truce lasted just two years, and ended in tragedy when Almond was knocked from his motorbike outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London. He suffered two huge blood clots and lay in a coma for weeks.
When he finally emerged, he had damaged his hearing and developed post-traumatic stress disorder. “It all turned very sour on that second time,” Almond recalls.
He blames “outside influences” that “came in and surrounded” them but a chance meeting in the street put the nail in the coffin for any Soft Cell reunion.
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Hide Ad“It did end with animosity,” he says. “I ended up being very offhand in the street when I met him. I just said: ‘Look, I don’t want to do this again. I don’t want to speak to you again.’
“I always regretted it and felt very bad about that. I had just had my motorbike accident at the time. I was in a very, very bad place. A very, very dark place. I was very reclusive.”
Making amends
His opportunity to make amends came some 13 years later - prompted by the release of a 40th anniversary box set. Almond wanted to mark the milestone and, encouraged by his record label bosses at Universal, decided to make contact.
The pair hashed it out over a coffee and discovered there was still a spark. “I met up with Dave and it was like seeing an old friend again,” he says as a grin creeps across his face.
“It was like the past 17 years hadn’t happened.”
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Hide AdLike that, the animosity dissipated and the pair started plotting a one-off show at one of the capital’s largest venues. That performance marked the band’s final live outing and proved two things, says Almond.
First, that the music of Soft Cell will continue to connect. And second, that he and Ball will forever be connected.
“He is part of my history and I am part of his history - we are connected always,” he says. “I never would have had the success I have had without Dave Ball.”
Soft Cell’s Say Hello Wave Goodbye, which follows Almond and Ball as they play their final sold-out show, is out on CD and DVD now.