The god(dess) of sleaze, torch song aficionado and all-round camp icon Marc Almond is 50 today!
An inspiration for me ever since the days of Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go? and the Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret album back in 1981, I first saw Marc on stage at the grotty "New Ocean Club" in Tremorfa, Cardiff in 1984 when I was still a student. His performance even then was awe-inspiring, but cut short when he got a strop on as a girl in the audience wrenched a bangle off his wrist. He threw the mike down, stormed off and we were left blinking in the grim surroundings staring at an empty stage.
Since then I've seen him at various Gay Pride festivals - most notably at Finsbury Park in 2000, accompanied by various Follies showgirls and a naked man!:
...and most recently at the Bertold Brecht tribute concert at Patti Smith's Meltdown on the South Bank in 2005. That occasion was particularly poignant, as it was one of his earliest stage appearances after a horrendous motorbike crash left him fighting for his life.
Marc apparently still has a degree of memory loss due to the severity of his injuries, yet he still continues to amaze and astonish, not least with his latest CD Stardom Road. He admits that he chose to do a collection of covers rather than an original album partly because he has difficulty writing new material - but it is magnificent nonetheless, in particular his version of Dusty Springfield's I Close My Eyes and Count To Ten with Sarah Cracknell of St Etienne.
I raise a glass of absinthe to a true genius of the music world, and long may he continue to astound and amaze us!
>Marc Almond website
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