Marc Almond (born Peter Mark Sinclair Almond on 9 July 1957 in Southport, Lancashire) is an English singer, songwriter and recording artist, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell.
Childhood and early life
Marc Almond was born on 9 July 1957 in Southport on the Lancashire coast between Liverpool and Blackpool, the son of Sandra Mary Almond (formerly Dieson) and Peter John Sinclair Almond, Second Lieutenant in the King's Liverpool Regiment. He was brought up at his grandparent's house in Birkdale with his younger sister Julia, and as a child suffered from bronchitis and asthma. When he was 4, they left their grandparent's house and moved to Starbeck on the edge of Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Two years later they returned to Southport, and then moved to Horsforth (near Leeds). Due to a car crash at the age of 14, Almond is nearly completely deaf in his left ear. He just managed to scrape into King George V Grammar School in Southport. By this time his father was suffering from alcoholism, and Almond found solace in music, listening to British radio pioneer John Peel. The first album he purchased was the soundtrack of the stage musical Hair and the first single Green Manalishi by Fleetwood Mac. He became a great fan of Marc Bolan, Brian Eno and David Bowie and got a part-time job as a stable boy to fund his musical tastes.
He managed to gain two O-Levels in Art and English and was accepted onto a General Art and Design course at Southport College, specialising in Performance Art. He applied to Leeds Polytechnic where he was interviewed by Jeff Nuttall, also a performance artist, who accepted him on the strength of his mime skills. It was whilst at Leeds Polytechnic that that Marc met David Ball a fellow student, forming Soft Cell in 1979.
Discography
Albums
With Dave Ball as Soft Cell
* 1981 Non-stop Erotic Cabaret #5 UK
* 1982 Non-stop Ecstatic Dancing #6 UK
* 1983 The Art of Falling Apart #5 UK
* 1984 This Last Night In Sodom #12 UK
* 1986 The Singles
* 1991 Memorabilia: The Singles
* 1994 Down in the Subway (compilation)
* 1996 Say Hello to Soft Cell (compilation)
* 1999 The Twelve Inch Singles
* 2002 The Very Best of Soft Cell #37 UK
* 2002 Cruelty Without Beauty #116 UK
* 2003 Live
* 2003 Soft Cell at the BBC (BBC)
* 2005 The Bedsit Tapes Early/Rare Demos 1978-1982
* 2006 Demo Non Stop - More Rare Demos
* 2008 Heat: The Remixes - (Remix Album)
As Marc & the Mambas/Raoul and the Ruined
* 1982 Untitled #42 UK
* 1983 Torment and Toreros #28 UK
* 1984 Bite Black and Blues Live (Fan club only release)
As The Willing Sinners/La Magia
* 1984 Vermin in Ermine #36 UK
* 1985 Stories of Johnny #22 UK
* 1987 Mother Fist & Her Five Daughters #41 UK
* 1988 The Stars We Are
With Michael Cashmore
* 2008 Gabriel and The Lunatic Lover
Solo
* 1986 Violent Silence (mini album)
* 1986 A Woman's Story (mini album)
* 1987 Singles 1984 - 1987 (compilation of singles from The Willing Sinners era)
* 1989 Jacques
* 1990 Enchanted
* 1991 Tenement Symphony
* 1992 A Virgin's Tale - Volume I (1985-1987 B-sides & remixes from The Willing Sinners era)
* 1992 A Virgin's Tale - Volume II (1986-1987 B-sides from the Mother Fist album era)
* 1993 Twelve Years of Tears (Live at the Royal Albert Hall)
* 1993 Absinthe: The French album
* 1995 Treasure Box (rarities compilation)
* 1996 Fantastic Star
* 1998 Marc Almond & La Magia Live in Concert
* 1999 Open All Night
* 2000 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (Fan club only release)
* 2001 Stranger Things
* 2001 Live at the Union Chapel (Fan club only release)
* 2002 Little Rough Rhinestones Volume 1 (Fan club only release)
* 2003 The Willing Sinner Live in Berlin
* 2003 Marc Almond in Session Volume 1 (BBC)
* 2003 Heart on Snow
* 2003 Marc Almond in Session Volume 2 (BBC)
* 2006 Little Rough Rhinestones Volume 2 (Fan club only release)
* 2007 Stardom Road (covers album, released 4 June 2007)
Other contributions
* Vocals on "Guiltless" & "Stolen Kisses" by Psychic TV from album Force the Hand of Chance
* Vocals on "Burning Boats" by Anni Hogan from the EP Kickabye
* Vocals on "Titan Arch" by Coil, from album Love's Secret Domain
* Vocals on "Skin" by The Burmoe Brothers with Guy Chambers
* Vocals for "The Dark Age of Love" by Coil, from Songs of the Week
* Vocals for cover version of "Who By Fire" by Coil, from Horse Rotorvator
* Vocals for "Idumea" by Current 93, from Black Ships Ate the Sky
* Vocals for "The Epitaph of God" (with voices from Turnmills Ernesto Tomasini), "Tonight" and "Tango Song" (by Alistair Crowley co-arranged by Almond), from album by OTHON - Digital Angel
Books
* 1988 The Angel of Death in the Adonis Lounge (poems)
* 1999 Beautiful Twisted Night (poems, lyrics and prose)
* 1999 Tainted Life (autobiography, reprinted in paperback in 2000)
* 2001 The End of New York (poems and prose, including spoken word CD)
* 2004 In Search of the Pleasure Palace - Disreputable Travels (autobiography)
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