Gig review: Marc Almond at The Grand Theatre and Opera House, Leeds
At this tour kick-off in the city that birthed his biggest successes, the Soft Cell frontman mostly eschews his own hits in a fascinating, if occasionally puzzling, covers show.
“Well, it’s good to be back at this beautiful theatre after so many years,” Marc Almond says as he sweeps his gaze behind darkened shades across all four tiers of The Grand Theatre and Opera House.
Perched against a high-back black barstool, he confesses he will be taking a seat for his health. “I’m at the age where I’ve got knee problems,” he adds. “But then I’m sure you all do now too.”
Almond’s career has traced a fascinating path, from a young boy in Southport to an art student in Leeds, a man obsessed by the sounds of Marc Bolan and Dusty Springfield, Alex Harvey and Jacques Brel in equal measure.
For a brief moment in time, he and Dave Ball were the ultimate purveyors in British pop chic, as Soft Cell; synthpop tastemakers of foreboding sleaze lodged in the upper brackets of the charts, before their dissolution led their frontman to a varied career throughout the intervening decades.
At this tour kick-off in the city that birthed his biggest successes however, the sexagenarian has another wrinkle for audiences to grapple with; a covers show that mostly eschews his own back catalogue.
It is a fascinating, if occasionally puzzling, performance that nevertheless manages to keep a commanding grasp on his crowd throughout, who receive each take with increasingly warm applause.
He opens with the psychedelic swirl of Blue Cheer’s I’m the Light and the easy listening strum behind Bob Lind’s Elusive Butterfly, before veering into even deeper and varied territory.
Some are deliciously camp – a stripped, rhythmic take on Eartha Kitt’s The Heel comes complete with cackling – while others find the singer at his most nakedly vulnerable; a quartet of Charles Aznavour songs leave a pair of heavy-set middle-aged men choking back sobs in the stalls.
Throughout, flashes of Syd Barrett, Billie Holiday, Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley are all given the works, while Sebastian functions as a neat tribute to late friend Steve Harley.
A final romp through the covers Almond has claimed as his own – Days of Pearly Spencer, Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart and, yes, Tainted Love, cast back to its northern soul roots – draw much hand-waving and cheering to his delight.
“We’re still here, 45 years later!” Almond cries with a flourish during a climactic I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten. He seems to still relish it too.