CELEBRITY BIRTHDAY TODAY... MARC ALMOND

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAY TODAY... MARC ALMOND

 

English singer-songwriter Marc Almond was born 67 years ago as Peter Mark Almond in Southport, Lancashire and is married. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the synth-pop duo ‘Soft Cell’.

As a kid, he attended an infant then a grammar school.  In later years, he went to college and then university, specialising in performance art.  He found comfort in music and was a big fan of David Bowie and Marc Bolan, amongst others.  Marc even worked as a stable boy to enable him purchase his favourite singers’ albums.  During his years at university, he performed in several theatrical plays and there he also met David Ball, with whom he later formed the duo ‘Soft Cell’ in 1977.

The duo released their debut album in 1981, and until their split in 1984, they had 3 more studio albums.  These featured several successful tracks, including the number one international hit ‘Tainted Love’, which is a cover of the 1964 song by Gloria Jones.  Other hits include ‘Bedsitter’, ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’, ‘Torch’ and ‘What’.  The duo did reunite for a short time twice, in 2001 and 2018.

Almond embarked on a solo career right after ‘Soft Cell’ disbanded and released his first solo album.  For the rest of the 80s, he had 4 more albums and the number one UK & German hit single ‘Something’s Gotten Hold of my Heart’, sung in duet with its originator, Gene Pitney, in 1989.

In 1993, Marc toured Russia and in 2000 returned to work on a 3-year project of recording Russian folk and romance songs, eventually featuring in his 12th album called ‘Heart on Snow’. 

In 2004, Almond was involved in a motorcycle accident which left him seriously injured, and spent a whole month in a coma fighting for his life.  After a long, slow recovery, he returned to his music career.

Until his latest album in 2020, Marc released 22 more albums.  He also performed in numerous events, tours as well as stage productions.

To date, Almond won a Brit, an Ivor Novello and a Mojo Award.  In 2017, he was honoured with a Doctorate in Philosophy and 2018, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to culture and arts.

 

*Image: no infringement intended.  Source: whatsonglasgow.co.uk

 

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