Marc Almond at Shepherd's Bush Empire...

Last Monday was Marc Almond's 55th birthday and Dave had bought me a ticket to go and see him in concert at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London's glitzy West London.

Along with Dave we were joined by Darren, Paul and Simon - oh and 2000 other devotees.

It was a tremendous gig. Marc was in good voice and obviously very happy to be there. The crowd loved it too - well, except Darren who hated it as did Simon (who left halfway through). One for the fans maybe? But that's who was there! Lots of self-penned work, a Northern Soul section and pleasingly few 'hits'.

There were some great great reviews, notably The Arts Desk and The Guardian.

As Marc himself said on Twitter:-

@MarcAlmond: To those that enjoyed and appreciated the show thank you, you get it and understand.thank you for your cards and gifts.
@MarcAlmond: To the disgruntled in the usual moaning areas, time to go away and follow someone else. You'll never be happy, I CAN'T BE WHAT YOU WANT,
@MarcAlmond: All I all in my top 3 Me shows. Atmosphere,crowd, musicianship,songs,vocals,brass and BV's,sound,glitter canon,emotion,4 me gig perfection.

And here's the setlist:-

The Stars We Are
These My Dreams Are Yours
Redeem me
I Who Never
Under Your Wing
There Is a Bed
The River
Waifs and Strays
The Sea Still Sings
Trials of Eyeliner
Sandboy
Tale of a Tart (Hell)
Vanity, Poverty, Revenge
Your Aura
Nijinsky Heart
You Have
Always
This Beautiful Day
Night Owl
Love's Gone Bad
This Love Starved Heart of Mine
After Laughter (Comes Tears)
Run Like the Devil
The Night
Tainted Love
What
I'll Be Gone

Encore:
'Happy birthday Marc'
Jacky
Hot love

Marc Almond @ De La Warr Pavilion...

Last Saturday Paul and I went down to stay with the lovely Charlie in St Leonard's. He put on a lovely meal before we headed off, along with Charlie's friend Brendan, to see Marc Almond at the glitzy De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-On-Sea.
La Almond put on a great show covering his thirty years in the biz. We sang and danced the night away to favourites such as Tainted Love, Tears Run Rings, Jacky, The Days Of Pearly Spencer, Bedsitter, Say Hello Wave Goodbye, Black Heart, What Makes A Man A Man, My Hand Over My Heart, Memorabilia, A Lover Spurned, Something's Gotta Hold Of My Heart, Adored And Explored, The Idol, Child Star and I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten.
Even more ecstatic was our reaction more rarely performed gems such as Stories Of Johnny, What, Where The Heart Is, Waifs And Strays, Melancholy Rose, A Woman's Story, Entertain Me and You Have.
A show for fans old and new. It was a brilliant, brilliant night.

Marc Almond tells Pop Idol losers to f**k off...
Marc Almond thinks the public should not have to put up with the Pop Idol losers releasing records. He believes Will Young should be the only pop star to emerge from the series. The Soft Cell star says the other finalists can get lost.

He said: "It's very easy to be famous nowadays, but it's also a lot easier to disposed of. "Why do we have to put up with the Pop Idol losers and runners-up releasing records? It's all very Saturday night karaoke. There's room for Will Young because he won the competition, but the rest can f**k off.

Soft Cell have a new album scheduled for release in September. Almond thinks the duo's new material will appeal to established fans and the upcoming generation of music lovers.

"I'm nearly 45, so I'm going through a kind of midlife crisis. That will be reflected in the album. But I think we've managed to keep our mystique. At the first set of Soft Cell reunion gigs there were older people mixed in with a lot of teenagers who've just discovered us."

Almond says he hasn't heard Marilyn Manson's cover version of Tainted Love, which is currently in the UK Top Ten. "I like Marilyn Manson and people have asked me about it, but I haven't heard it yet," he said.

"I'm much more interested in completely different versions of songs like David Gray's cover of Say Hello, Wave Goodbye. Of course, we wrote that song so we get royalties from that one - maybe there's a mercenary element to my attitude somewhere."

A Greatest Hits album has just been released, which includes two new Soft Cell compositions.