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11 September 2012

Marc Almond @ Philharmonic Hall Liverpool on September 22

Marc Almond

Marc Almond @ Philharmonic Hall Liverpool on September 22

Plus support Baby Dee Tickets £24.50, £30.50 - for details see www.liverpoolphil.com

With Soft Cell, in partnership with Dave Ball,  Marc Almond achieved a string of international hits - biggest of all, their version of northern soul classic Tainted Love, while Memorabilia is cited as the first techno record ever.

10 million-plus worldwide record sales later, Soft Cell are a British icon, influencing generations of musicians - from Pulp, The Pet Shop Boys and Suede, to Goldfrapp and Antony and The Johnsons. This concert coincides with the release of Almond’s new greatest hits double album. On stage Almond comes alive, his songs too: whether they are synth-pop, 60s-inspired kitsch-arama, bare-naked acoustic ballads or orchestrated splendour, the experience is unique.

Soft Cell parted amicably in 1984 to pursue solo projects. Marc had already branched out with Marc and the Mambas, a loose collective of musicians, and recorded the innovative influential double album Torment and Toreros which Marc has called 'a nervous breakdown put to music'. Mambas shambolic and florid musical shows put Marc in a unique musical place that had one foot in mainstream and the other in the underground. Marc has always been one of very few artists able to comfortably move from one to the other. Torment and Toreros was influenced by Spanish Flamenco, Marc has always used World Music influences in his music from Turkish torch songs to Brazilian Macumba and Russian folk. The Mambas use of a full string section inspired a young Antony Hegarty later of Antony and the Johnsons. Antony has always openly cited Marc as the person that without whom it would not have been possible for him.

The mambas started Marc on his path as a chansonierre troubadour, a singer of the songs of others that he would make his own, Jacques Brel, Scott Walker, Lou Reed, Juliette Greco, Nico, Syd Barrett - all early influences of Marc. Marc has said that his style comes from Jacques Brel and Marc Bolan glam with a bit of Aznavour and Johnny Ray thrown in, add some 60's Joe Meek and Orchestral Pop and some 60's Northern soul, a pinch of Music Hall and you have something approaching Marc. It is this mix of styles that have made him hard to pigeonhole, but also totally unique. He has been called over the years The Judy Garland of the Garbage Heap, The Acid House Aznavour, Jim Reeves of the Bedsit Generation, Marc Bolan and Juliette Greco's love child and Britain's own Piaf.

Marc has enjoyed Many diverse collaborations during his career, Nick Cave, Siouxsie, Nico, Jools Holland, Bronski Beat, Rosenstolz, John Cale, David Johannson, Kelli Ali, Current 93, Coil, PsycicT.V, Antony and the Johnsons, Baby Dee, Little Annie, Matt Johnson, Jim Thirwell, Ferry Corsten, 60's icons Gene Pitney and P.J Proby who he produced an album for in 1998 entitled Legend. He has written many songs but prefers to sing songs by other writers and artists, saying it frees him from his own baggage allowing him to express the things he wants to, in sometimes a better way than he can write himself.

2011 saw the release of a new collaboration album with Berlin based musician Michael Cashmore entitled Feasting With Panthers.

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