![]() You didn't have to hide away, embarrassed about being different,” Almond muses. Rex’s Marc Bolan had done for Almond’s generation: introduced a different archetype of how a man could look or behave. (Steve Rapport/Getty Images)īut many fans – queer and straight, on both sides of the Atlantic – picked up on Soft Cell’s not-so-subtle subtext, and Soft Cell’s flamboyant Top Of The Pops appearances and edgy music videos did for Gen X what androgynes like David Bowie and T. You couldn't do that at all.”ĭave Ball (left) and Marc Almond of Soft Cell film the Soul Inside music video in September 1983. ![]() A few years later people started to be a bit more open, but in 1981 it was very hard to do. You want a career, so you can't say you're gay. You have to have girlfriends, because you can't let your career run about!’ ![]() One of my press people even said to me, ‘We've got to get you girlfriends. "In 1981 and '82 in Britain, you just couldn't talk about it. Very guy-orientated, straight guys – you hardly met anybody gay in the music industry at all, or if they were, they weren't talking about it. But I think at that time, the music industry and the music papers were very lad-orientated. “It's easy to cry ‘homophobia’ all the time – which it's not always. “I think it was a lot of homophobia, to be honest. Now Almond and Ball can release a nine-disc, career-spanning anthology like Keychains & Snowstorms and sell out London’s O2 Arena, and their upcoming new album, their first since 2002’s Cruelty Without Beauty, is eagerly anticipated.īut in the early ‘80s, the press treated them dismissively or downright disdainfully, especially in Britain. I didn't even know which camera to look in. “It was very shocking the first time I did that Top Of The Pops appearance. “Yeah, people wanted to either kill me, marry me, or f*** me – of either gender, you know?” the openly gay post-punk provocateur laughingly tells Yahoo Entertainment. ![]() Read more: Soft Cell’s Marc Almond reflects on 40 years on the fringe Soft Cell were an overnight sensation in the UK after they performed Tainted Love on the BBC’s massive music programme Top Of The Pops – and while that TV footage seems tame now, in 1981, lead torch singer Marc Almond’s gender-bending appearance caused quite a scandal across the pond. Tainted Love – a cover of an obscure 1965 B-side by Northern Soul diva Gloria Jones that Soft Cell’s Marc Almond and David Ball de- and re-constructed as their own – spent a then-record-breaking 43 weeks on America’s Billboard Hot 100, and it became an even bigger hit in Britain, where it was the No 1 single of the year. (Fin Costello/Redferns)įorty years ago, UK synthpop duo Soft Cell released 1981’s song of the summer – and the song that, along with the Human League’s Don’t You Want Me, has been long been credited with kickstarting pop music’s Second British Invasion. Marc Almond (R) and Dave Ball of Soft Cell scored a huge hit with Tainted Love. ![]()
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