Sunday Diva / Three From The Hip: Marc Almond

Sunday Diva / Three From The Hip:

Marc Almond

In my big gay church there is a wing dedicated to The Divas Who Represent. They're not all flashy or cocks of the walk - in fact, some never officially came out of the closet during their lifetime - but they are all extraordinarily gifted, sharing their songs, music, and insights, allowing the world at large to learn, in the most subtle of ways, what it's like 'being green'. Thanks to their gifts and their bravery, they help make the world a little more gay every time their voices are heard. And that's been their true super power all along... their voice; they were heard. They mattered. And, whether they liked it or not, they represented!

Now... if ever there was a person to bear the title artist it's...

Marc Almond!

 With the artistic attention span of gnat, he's covered more musical ground than anyone - including one of his inspirations, David Bowie.

A performance artist at heart - for those were his roots as a school boy - Almond synthesized a trio of inspirations: Bowie, Marc Bolan, and the music of Jacques Brel, and, with the help of fellow Leeds Polytechnic student David Ball, created Soft Cell in 1977. Their version of Tainted Love, particularly paired with the Motown classic Where Did Our Love Go, became a song heard 'round the world. Their unearthly combination of alien synths and androgyny captivated and kept our attention through a string of UK Top 40 hits.

As a solo artist, he demonstrated time and again his masterful breadth and understanding of a wide variety of music, from a career defining duet with Gene Pitney, to a tribute album to Jacques Brel, to stage spectaculars and performance pieces,  to a collection of Russian 'romance' songs - his desire to explore and expand his artistry has been nothing short of breathtaking.

Oh, it's not been all curtain calls, roses and accolades.

He's human. Developed a few bad habits along the way. Prone to excess, he had to take 'the cure' for a bit - Fantastic Star, indeed!  And then there was that motorcycle accident in 2004 - we nearly lost him then.

But he survived and thrived. Rose like a sequined phoenix - as if we had any doubt, and became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2018. 

That he's still going strong is a testament to his hunger, his need, his desire to - in the words of Judy Garland - "sing 'em all, and stay all night."

The gospel according to him?

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from his lips. 

The topic? Hiding Behind Eye Liner

"I didn’t come out until 1987."

"But in the early eighties you were signed to a record label and told you had to invent girlfriends, and if you didn’t radio would never play your records again, that you’d be ostracized by the press. In short, your career would be over."

"I didn’t want to say I wasn’t gay, but I didn’t say I was gay either. And on top of that, I didn’t want to be defined as a Gay Artist. I didn’t want to be labelled and go into a ghetto. I just wanted to be a pop singer."

"George Michael didn’t come out until he was outed by the LA police. Boy George said he preferred a cup of tea to sex and at one point Elton married a woman. But you know, I don’t blame them because everyone was terrified."

"Then when Jimmy Sommerville came along he put himself on the line, a guy in an ordinary T-shirt and jeans, but sang about openly gay themes. He was incredibly brave, while the rest of us were hiding behind the eye-liner. I’m still hiding behind it."

"We were together. There was more of a shared experience. The community was more unified and it was us against the world. We had this camaraderie, this anti-establishment force, this secretive, clandestine world which was exciting."

"And even though homosexuality was legal, it was in name only. We were still made to feel like outlaws and as such we’d meet in secret places. And this all added to the feeling we had something to overcome, to strive for, barriers to break down."

"But now I feel people are very divided. I hate the way the LGBT thing has emerged. It separates. I hate the fact sections have appeared, for example the transgender community, the lesbians, all divided. I don’t think there is such a thing as a gay community anymore."

Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart - 

Marc Almond & Gene Pitney

The Days Of Pearly Spencer - Marc Almond

A Kind Of Love - Marc Almond

And one last parting shot...

"These days I tend to use one project I do as a kind of offshoot to the next."

"As soon as one project is finished I like to go straight on to something else."

"That's the way I work and one day I won't have the energy to do it, so I think it's always good to make the most of your life and living as much as possible."

"That's what I like to do, I like to make songs."

"For me it always comes down to what is a good song and I'm very old fashioned in the way that I like to make songs that have something classic about them whether you can play them with an orchestra or an electro synthesizer or an acoustic guitar."

"I think the older I get the more creative I get, I don't have the distractions that I had when I was younger."

"I think in the past I think I probably was a little too diverse, probably went from one spectrum to the complete opposite and confusing people."

"I mean whatever I do it's important that I put my stamp on it and keep it in my world, whether I'm doing a dance track or something like the Russian album for example."