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Soft Cell Review...
Thanks to Bryn for this review below from the Soft Cell gigs in the States this week. Sounds like a wild couple of nights, Bryn!

After what seemed like an eternity of a wait, Soft Cell finally made it to California Monday night! They played at House of Blues, capacity 1,000, maybe a bit more. It was like a mini-Ocean, with a floor area and wrap-around balcony. The gig wasn't sold out but the place was definitely packed! We all gave them very warm, loud and enthusiastic Southern California welcome.

Marc was amazing, he looked and sounded in top form. Dave looked really well too, I think he might have lost some weight or something. Think of one of the best gigs last year...Brighton....Brixton...it was just as good.

The crowd was really into the new songs and of course the 80's bit went down well. But what surprised me the most was that the crowd went crazy for and sang along to the songs from Sodom. We even had a mosh pit going during Best Way to Kill.

Marc forgot the words to the beginning of The Night and Together Alone but nobody cared, everyone kept screaming "We love you Marc." People were throwing flowers, flower bouquets and wrapped presents on stage including a red dog collar. Marc later tossed some of the flowers into the crowd one-by-one. He spent a lot of time reaching out to the fans and letting them hug and kiss him. Everybody wanted to touch him. Fans would grab the microphone cord and try to pull Marc to them. These are people who either have never seen Soft Cell, or haven't seen them since their first and only U.S. tour in 1983. Marc loved the attention.

We had stage crashers. About ten people jumped up on stage to dance with and sometimes dry-hump Marc. One woman used Marc as a pole and pole danced on him. He loved it.

With each song they did, the crowd got more and more crazy. During the break between the first set and the first encore the crowd was out of control. Screaming, pounding, stomping. I couldn't count how many times Marc said thank you and told us that we were a wonderful crowd. I don't know how things were in the DC and NYC shows but he said "I knew we would
get a warm welcome on the west coast." California loves Soft Cell! Yeah!

Wednesday night's gig:

I didn't think it would be possible, but last night in LA was even better than Monday night! The theatre was twice the size (at least 2,000 people) and the place was packed! People were very loud, very crazy, dancing and thrashing about wildly during the faster numbers and singing every word...loudly. Just like Monday night, people were passing up wrapped presents and bouquets of flowers. I'm not sure I've ever seen Marc so happy - he said that it was one of their best gigs ever and they played a 2 hour set! One of the best moments was during Baby Doll when loads of people in the front were holding up dollar bills and Marc let them stuff them into his trousers. If any of those pictures come out I'll be sure to send them.

Set list:
MEMORABILIA
MONOCULTURE
LE GRAND GUIGNOL
DIVIDED SOUL
LAST CHANCE
YOUTH
LOVING U, HATING ME
MR SELF DESTRUCT
BEST WAY TO KILL
SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE
TOGETHER ALONE
BABY DOLL
ART OF FALLING APART
SOUL INSIDE
THE NIGHT
TORCH
BEDSITTER
TAINTED LOVE

ENCORE:
SAY HELLO

ENCORE 2:
MARTIN
SEX DWARF