MARC ALMOND

Born in Southport in 1957, Marc Almond is an internationally acclaimed music artist. He has sold over 30 million records worldwide and is an icon and influence to a generation of musicians.

Marc did a General Art and Design course at Southport Art College before going on to get a 2:1 degree at Leeds Polytechnic Fine Art Department studying Performance Art and Film.

Marc met David Ball at Leeds Art College and formed the internationally successful ‘electro duo’ Soft Cell in 1979. They went on to record four albums and their single Tainted Love broke all records as the track that remained the longest in the US Billboard Top 100 and received a Brit award for best single of that year.

Soft Cell parted amicably in 1984 to pursue solo projects.

Marc recorded the innovative and influential double album Torment and Toreros with Marc and the Mambas which put Marc in a unique musical place that had one foot in mainstream and the other in the underground.

A diverse and hugely successful solo career followed with over a dozen musical albums and a second number one single, Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart in 1989 with 60’s Legend Gene Pitney.

Marc has been awarded the Ivor Novello Inspiration Award and the Icon Award by Attitude Magazine a Mojo Magazine Inspiration Award and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Leeds Music College.. He is also dubbed in the Russian press, ‘adopted son of Russia’ after the release of Heart on Snow his album of Russian ‘Romance ‘Songs and Russian Folk and Orpheus In Exile, the songs of the late Russian Gypsy Romance singer, dissident and now gay icon Vadim Kozin, in 2009. The album sold in excess of 45,000 copies and received rapturous reviews.

As well as a huge body of recordings, Marc has also had two best selling autobiographies, Tainted Life and In Search of The Pleasure Palace, as well as three books of verse; The Angel of Death in the Adonis Lounge, A Beautiful Twisted Night and The End of New York.

Almond is no stranger to the theatrical stage. His credits include Ten Plagues, winner of The Scotman’s Fringe First Award and Almond was highly praised for his role of Seneca in Paris Théâtre du Châtelet’s experimental rock adaptation of Poppea.

Marc’s latest solo album, The Velvet Trail, was released in March 2015 and was closely followed by a sell out European live tour. In November 2015 Marc together with Poet Jeremy Reed and Composer Othon made an album of Pop Operetta, Against Nature, based on the book A Rebours by J K Husymans and funded through Kickstarter.

Marc performed with Leeds College of Music Contemporary Orchestra and Pop Choir at The Royal Festival Hall in July 2016.

November 2016 saw the release of the much lauded ‘Trials of Eyeliner’, Marc’s eagerly anticipated box set anthology released through Universal Music.

Following ‘Trials’, Marc released a Greatest Hits collection ‘Hits And Pieces’ once again through Universal in March 2017. With so many career highlights featured within the 2-disc set, it was no surprise to see the album push Marc firmly back into the UK Top 10 and this was further supplemented with a number of high profile TV and radio appearances. Shortly after the album’s release came a sold-out UK tour culminating in a triumphant show at London’s Roundhouse.

Marc unveiled a brand-new album ‘Shadows And Reflections’ in September 2017, his first for the BMG label after signing a new 3 year 2 album deal. A labour of love, it will be a heavily orchestrated collection of baroque pop nuggets from the 1960s for which Marc is revered for. ‘Shadows And Reflections’ will be followed by a 20 date orchestral UK Tour. A new album of original songs will follow in 2019.