REVIEW AND SLIDESHOW: Marc Almond at Buxton Opera House

The audience was clearly in a party mood and ready to dance but it took a cover of David McWilliams’ Days of Pearly Spencer to get them to their feet. From then on it was hit after hit and you began to realise what a talented songwriter Marc Almond is.

This tour is to promote the Hits and Pieces album so consequently we got a tour of Marc’s back catalogue from the early Soft Cell days of Bedsitter, Torch and of course Tainted Love, through his various colaborations and covers such as Jacques Brel’s Jacky and the wonderful Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart with the late Gene Pitney. Bringing things up to date was a great version of the latest single A Kind Of Love which is getting lots of airplay at the moment.

These days Marc is a regular on the 80s Rewind type tours and has become the type of cheerleading frontman required, so it’s hard to recall the sleazy synth driven pop of Non Stop Erotic Caberet that first brought Marc to the fore.

It was on the encore, the inevitable Say Hello, Wave Goodbye that we got a brief reminder of what an intense singer Marc Almond can be, before the audience joined in and it became another singalong hit.

All said, it was an excellent crowd-pleasing concert but you can’t help feeling that Marc Almond has a lot more to offer.