It’s London’s iconic Barbican Centre ‘s 40th Anniversary this year and as part of their celebrations, they are having an Homage to London through song. One of the performers that night will be Marc Almond, who as part of Soft Cell also became an overnight sensation some 40 years ago.
Their song Tainted Love has been long been credited with kickstarting pop music’s Second British Invasion of the US and spent a then-record breaking 43 weeks on America’s Billboard Hot 100, and it became an even bigger hit in Britain, where it was the No. 1 single of the year.
The openly gay post-punk provocateur told Yahoo Entertainment “people wanted to either kill me, marry me, or f*** me — of either gender, you know?” It was very shocking the first time I did that Top of the Pops appearance. I was very, very naïve about it all. I didn’t even know which camera to look in. I remember I had all these bracelets, spiky studded wristbands, black eye makeup, and I wanted to have my hair like some ‘60s look. I remember somebody saying, ‘Don’t go on dressed like that, you mustn’t go on dressed like that, because people will think you’re gay. All the public will be alienated from you. You mustn’t do that!’ I said, ‘I’m just going to go on how I want to be.’ I fought against that, and it had this torrent [of backlash] the next day. But then I went on again wearing false eyelashes one time. I just loved to create that mischief with it.
Now he’s taking off time from his current UK Tour to join musicians of the old school and new on one stage, including Brett Anderson, Zara McFarlane, Nadine Shah, Graham Gouldman, Ruby Turner, Emmy the Great, Kathryn Williams, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Matt Deighton, Sarah Cracknell and Debsey Wykes of Saint Etienne,Louise Marshall and her choir, Boo Hewerdine and Komal.
SONGS IN THE KEY OF LONDON Curated by Chris Difford & Nihal Arthanayake Sat 5 Mar 2022, 20:00, Barbican Hall
