SOFT CELL gig review - part two

The backdrop: It was either an enlarged version of Gina G’s chainmail dress or, as Ian put it, “toilet seats” strung together. I have no idea.

The duo: Marc has stuck with the bleach blond look that will be familiar to viewers of his New Music Television show. No doubt he considered a return to the black hair, black bangles, rubber top look, but it would have looked like a Marc Almond Stars In Their Eyes, so I’m glad he didn’t. He has a black t-shirt on with diamante skull and crossbones and the legend ‘Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die’, also in diamante. I think it’s the ‘biker camp’ look.
For the encores he changes into a wispy see-thru black shirt which he eventually unbuttons. Marc has the flattest stomach and tautest torso of any forty-two year old I’ve ever seen. (Further proof that drugs are good for you.)
Dave Ball looks much as he always did. Broad-shouldered and wearing a leather suit-type jacket.


The set list: It’s perhaps surprising to realise that Soft Cell only ever released ten singles. Tonight they performed the first five and ignored the last five. Most surprising omission was #3 hit What. (I think!) So no Where The Heart Is, Numbers (or Barriers, but who remembers that?), Soul Inside or Down In The Subway either.

Opening with Memorabilia and then straight into a song which I presume is new, probably called Monoculture. Uptempo, and an interesting lyric; high hopes for the forthcoming album now. They did at least one other new song, which Marc described as “a kind of prequel to the two characters in Say Hello, Wave Goodbye”. It has a similar feel to it, without being derivative, and it’s slower than Monoculture.

Also included were Heat, Torch, The Art Of Falling Apart and just one song from This Last Night In Sodom (not one of the two singles, but I can’t remember what it was, and didn’t recognise it because I haven’t played that album for years and I’ve lost the tape!)

Last song of the main set is Tainted Love in its full ‘original 12” version’ glory; gradually merging into Where Did Our Love Go? They’re really treating us now – it’s fantastic to hear the whole thing.
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