MARC ALMOND + ALEX LIPINSKI – DE LA WARR PAVILION, BEXHILL-ON-SEA 24.10.22
It was announced several months ago that Soft Cell’s Stockport born frontman Peter Mark Sinclair “Marc” Almond, OBE aka Marc Almond was to perform a concert here in Brighton at the Dome Concert Hall on Thursday 15th April 2002. Unfortunately the tour had to be rescheduled and strangely our local concert wasn’t part of the new October 2022 tour schedule! We at Brighton & Hove News weren’t going to let him and his chums get away that lightly, and so we ventured eastwards to the nearest date to Brighton, which turns out to be at the iconic De La Warr Pavilion in sunny Bexhill-on-Sea. This was to be my second visit here in three days, having reviewed The Undertones and Hugh Cornwell here on Saturday (Read the review HERE).
It’s certainly all go at the moment for Marc Almond as today he has announced that he will be sharing the bill with the The Human League at Dreamland in Margate on Friday 21st July 2023 – tickets on sale HERE from 10am on Friday 28th October.
During the Corona crisis and lockdown Marc Almond (who is 65 years young) performed a series of live online studio concerts which received a fantastic response and worldwide viewing, but he is happy to be back where he really belongs – in a real concert environment seeing his fans face to face.
Marc was able to perform a one off concert in February 2020 at the Festival Hall with co-writer Producer Chris Braide and was joined by guest Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. This was recorded for a future Live album release.
This evening’s performance is date seven of the select nine venue tour, which has already seen Marc entertain fans in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Buxton, York and Glasgow. After tonight, the tour bus will be heading north to Cambridge and the final stop will be Birmingham.
Prior to this evening, I hadn’t had the pleasure of a solo Marc Almond concert before, although I did see Soft Cell playing live in Brighton exactly 21 years ago tonight, when Marc and David Ball thrilled loyal fans at the Event II (which back in the day had been the Top Rank Suite). I also again saw them live on 15th November 2021 at Hammersmith Apollo – Review HERE.
The latter was special for me as my partner Jordan Mooney (RIP) had purchased us tickets to that show as part of a special birthday present for me. Jordan and I were also intending to attend the cancelled Brighton Dome show, but cancer had other ideas! So as a celebration, I am here tonight at the De La Warr with Jordan’s sister Sally, who will enjoy it on Jordan’s behalf!
There was this evening a trio of Soft Cell numbers that I had also heard exactly 21 years ago in Brighton. Find out what they were shortly, as we have the matter of tonight’s support artist, left handed guitarist-vocalist Alex Lipinski who hails from Western-super-Mare and entertained the crowds for just over half an hour from 7:30pm to 8:03pm.
Alex also gets about a bit too as we reviewed him on 10th October, when he was supporting The Lemonheads at Chalk in Brighton. Our reviewer that night was Richie Nice and he stated:
“It’s an early start, so I need to get a shift on to catch tonight’s support acts. I’m sorry to say I miss the beginning of the set for singer-songwriter Alex Lipinski, whose stage time is 6:15pm, slightly challenging for anyone coming here from work. The large room is filling slowly as I arrive, though there are still plenty of open spaces. I rather like what I do hear. He has a sweet tone, and his songs are poignant and wistfully reflective. He accompanies himself on guitar, switching between a left-handed Telecaster and an acoustic. The final number, ‘Closing Time’ is particularly impressive, with his voice really soaring. Alex is promoting his recent album, ‘For Everything Under The Sun’, which I’d be interested to check out”.
This evening in the De La Warr Pavilion, Alex performed a half dozen selected numbers to a half full venue, which was quite a lot of folks for a support artist, but I wish punters would take a risk on the support acts, as they will often miss out.
As with his recent support for The Lemonheads, Alex began on electric guitar with ‘Coyote’ which was penned during his North American trip when coming face-to-face with a pack of Coyotes. Clearly he survived as he is here with us this evening. His vocals during this number reminded me of the Gallagher brothers. This opening number was followed by ‘Going Nowhere Fast’, after which he switched to acoustic guitar and mouth organ for ‘When Will I Be Home’. He was back on the electric guitar for ‘Lonesome Train’, but the mouth organ stayed. Penultimate number was ‘Closing Time’ which is the new single from his latest album. He concluded with ‘This Girl’ from his previous platter. The crowd were most appreciative of his performance and that wasn’t the last of him that we would see this evening.
Alex Lipinski setlist:
‘Coyote’
‘Going Nowhere Fast’
‘When Will I Be Home’
‘Lonesome Train’
‘Closing Time’
‘This Girl’
After the 22 minute interval, the house lights went down and Marc Almond and his nine-piece band took to the stage at 8:25pm to great applause. This evening they were performing material from his last top 20 album, the critically acclaimed ‘Chaos And A Dancing Star’ which dropped in 2020 just before the Pandemic and lockdown. In addition to this there were many favourites from his extensive catalogue and his biggest hits. There were in total no less than 24 tunes on offer.
The instruments on stage tonight were electric and acoustic guitars, drums, percussion and vibraphone, piano, mellotron and two keyboards, double-bass and bass guitar, cello, violin and tambourine.
They opened with ‘I’m The Light’ which is a Blue Cheer cover from back in 1971 from the album ‘Oh! Pleasant Hope’. The sound in the venue was crisp and clear and the acoustics were good, no doubt a result of the venue’s ceiling. Marc however was sounding rather raspy. He informed us that he was suffering from a sinus infection, but the longer the concert went on, the better his voice became!
The first cut from the ‘Chaos And A Dancing Star’ album was up next, in the form of ‘Black Sunrise’. Later on we would get one another tune from it, that being ‘Hollywood Forever’. Selection three was the title track of Marc’s 1988 ‘The Stars We Are’ LP, which was followed by ‘Bitter Sweet’ from the same album. Song five was ‘Under Your Wing’ and song six was ‘Moonbathe Skin’, both of which are from the 2001 ‘Stranger Things’ album and both co-written with Marc by Neal X (of Sigue Sigue Sputnik fame) who is in the lineup this evening.
The ten musicians were joined on stage by support artist Alex Lipinski (on backing vocals and acoustic guitar) for a first outing on the tour for a rendition of ‘Kiki Of Montparnasse’, who was a famous French model and cabaret singer who lived 1901-1953. The song was penned by Leo O’Kelly for Tír na nÓg who are an Irish folk band formed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1969 by Leo and Sonny Condell. Tír na nÓg (“Land of Youth”) is one of the names for the Celtic Otherworld. After this song Alex vacated the stage and Marc and his chums continued with ‘A Golden Light’ which will be released this Friday (28th October) on the six tune ‘The Things We Lost’ extended EP/mini album of “lost and forgotten material”. The Sky Blue 10″ Vinyl Edition is limited to a mere 2000 copies – Grab your copy HERE.
After the aforementioned ‘Hollywood Forever’ came the first of the Soft Cell offerings, this one being a reworking of ‘Light Sleepers’ from this May’s critically acclaimed ‘Happiness Not Included’ album. ‘Trashy’ was next. It’s a 1969 single by Rodney Marvin McKuen who was an American poet, singer-songwriter, and actor and was one of the best-selling poets in the United States during the late 1960s. This saw Neal X continually finger snapping to the beat and Phil Bloomberg of The Polecats fame on double-bass
The only Marc And Mambas recorded track this evening was ‘In My Room’ from their 1983 album ‘Torment And Toreros’. This number featured the trio of just Marc and The McCarricks duo of Kimberlee McCarrick on violin and Martin McCarrick (of This Mortal Coil fame) on Cello. This number is a reworking of the Walker Brothers song arranged for cello and violin by Martin McCarrick. This achieved the biggest applause thus far! Marc’s autobiographical tune ‘Sandboy’ from his 2010 ‘Varieté’ album was up next. ‘Little Dreamer’, a Jobriath cover followed. The original can be found on his ‘As The River Flows’ album from 2014.
Now here’s an interesting choice fact fans…..Next up was ‘Even A Fool Learns To Love’ which amazingly is based on ‘My Way’ which was popularised around the world in 1969 by Frank Sinatra and latterly by Sid Vicious in Julien Temple’s mockumentary ‘The Great Rock ‘N’ Roll Swindle’. The original music was a French song titled ‘Comme d’habitude’ (‘As Usual’) which was composed by Jacques Revaux with lyrics by Gilles Thibaut and Claude François. The English lyrics to ‘My Way’ were written by Paul Anka and are unrelated to the original French song. However it turns out that the words of ‘Even A Fool Learns To Love’ which was sung by Marc this evening (accompanied solely by Martin Watkins on piano and latterly with Hugh Wilkinson on vibraphone) were penned by none other than David Bowie! There’s a fascinating read on this HERE. The De La Warr audience absolutely loved this one, and I have to salute Marc for not actually singing any of the ‘My Way’ lyrics in error!
From David Bowie we ventured across to the Pet Shop Boys next, as the decet first performed their take on ‘Rent’ from the duo’s 1987 ‘Actually’ album, which was followed by their uplifting recent 2022 successful collaboration single ‘Purple Zone’, which notably contains a Soft Cell rendition of the X-Ray Spex classic ‘The Day The World Turned Day-Glo’. Keeping on the Soft Cell side, the band offloaded their acoustic take of the classic 1981 hit single ‘Bedsitter’, which is found on the excellent debut album ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’.
One of my choice cuts from the night was ‘You Have’ which is located on Marc’s ‘Vermin In Ermine’ début solo studio album from 1984. Astonishingly, this had passed me by, but I very much liked it as did the crowd, who were now getting more and more enthusiastic. Things were taken to an even higher plateau with the arrival of two cuts produced by Trevor Horn from Marc’s 1991 ‘Tenement Symphony’ album, in the form of David McWilliams’ ‘The Days Of Pearly Spencer’ and Jacques Brel’s ‘Jacky’, the latter being my favourite tune from the whole performance. After ‘Jacky’ concluded, all of the audience got up from their seats and gave the musicians a long standing ovation. Blimey, has this become ‘The Last Night Of The Proms’ or what?
They were then due to go off stage for an encore, but as Marc conveyed, the audience knew it wasn’t the end of the set and so did the band, so there wasn’t any point of going through the rigmarole of going off and coming back on again. Here here! Thus the “encore” began with the crowd still standing and the band’s rendition of the David Bowie classic ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’ which included Alex Lipinski on guitar and backing vocals.
The set concluded with two numbers I had seen performed live by Soft Cell exactly 21 years ago tonight in Brighton at the Event II, those being ‘Tainted Love’ and ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’. The third Soft Cell song I had witnessed 21 years ago was ‘Bedsitter’, which was played earlier on in the set. If you were wondering what the whole set was 21 years ago, then it is listed at the foot of this review.
I thought it was a nice touch when Marc pushed out backing singers Bryan Chambers, Louise Marshall and Simon King one by one to near the front of the stage in order for each to sing a few lines of ‘Tainted Love’ and so be in the limelight and for the crowd to recognise their efforts. Throughout the set Marc also had introduced all of the other musicians at certain times and he was clearly having a ball this evening as were the punters, who gave out deafening cheers and whoops at the conclusion of the performance at 10:16pm.
It had been a most memorable experience this evening, in every sense of the word, and both myself and Jordan’s sister, Sally, thoroughly enjoyed watching Marc and his band playing live inside such a wonderful building.
Marc Almond’s band:
Marc Almond – lead vocals, tambourine
Neal X – electric and acoustics guitars, backing vocals, finger clicks
Hugh Wilkinson – drums, percussion, vibraphone
Martin Watkins – piano, mellotron, keyboards
Phil ‘Polecat’ Bloomberg – double-bass, bass guitar
Martin McCarrick – cello
Kimberlee McCarrick – violin
Bryan Chambers – backing vocals
Simon King – backing vocals
Louise Marshall – backing vocals
Alex Lipinski – backing vocals, guitar (as guest)
Marc Almond setlist:
‘I’m The Light’ (Blue Cheer cover from their 1971 ‘Oh! Pleasant Hope’ album)
‘Black Sunrise’ (from Marc’s 2020 ‘Chaos And A Dancing Star’ album)
‘The Stars We Are’ (from Marc’s 1988 ‘The Stars We Are’ album)
‘Bitter Sweet’ (from Marc’s 1988 ‘The Stars We Are’ album)
‘Under Your Wing’ (from Marc’s 2001 ‘Stranger Things’ album)
‘Moonbathe Skin’ (from Marc’s 2001 ‘Stranger Things’ album)
‘Kiki Of Montparnasse’ (Tír na nÓg cover)
‘A Golden Light’ (from Marc’s imminent 2022 ‘The Things We Lost’ extended EP)
‘Hollywood Forever’ (from Marc’s 2020 ‘Chaos And A Dancing Star’ album)
‘Light Sleepers’ (Soft Cell song from 2022 ‘Happiness Not Included’ album)
‘Trashy’ (Rod McKuen cover from his 1969 ‘Trashy’ single)
‘In My Room’ (Walker Brothers song recorded in 1983 by Marc And Mambas on ‘Torment And Toreros’ album)
‘Sandboy’ (from Marc’s 2010 ‘Varieté’ album)
‘Little Dreamer’ (Jobriath cover from his 2014 ‘As The River Flows’ album)
‘Even A Fool Learns To Love’ (David Bowie unreleased 1968 cover)
‘Rent’ (Pet Shop Boys cover from their 1987 ‘Actually’ album)
‘Purple Zone’ (from Soft Cell & Pet Shop Boys 2022 ‘Purple Zone’ single)
‘Bedsitter’ (Soft Cell song from 1981 ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ album)
‘You Have’ (from Marc’s 1984 ‘Vermin In Ermine’ album)
‘The Days Of Pearly Spencer’ (David McWilliams cover found on Marc’s 1991 ‘Tenement Symphony’ album)
‘Jacky’ (Jacques Brel cover found on Marc’s 1991 ‘Tenement Symphony’ album)
(encore)
‘John, I’m Only Dancing’ (David Bowie cover of his 1972 ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’ single)
‘Tainted Love’ (Gloria Jones cover found on Soft Cell’s 1981 ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ album)
‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’ (Soft Cell song from 1981 ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ album)
Soft Cell setlist for their performance in Brighton at the Event II on 24th October 2001 is listed below. I recall the concert rather well as I was right at the front standing in front of the left hand speakers with my mate that had especially travelled down from Nottingham to witness the gig. The most enjoyable song that night was ‘Somebody, Somewhere, Sometime’, 21 years on and I still remember that! It was a terrific performance!
Soft Cell setlist Event II, Brighton 24.10.01:
‘Memorabilia’
‘Monoculture’
‘Heat’
‘Divided Soul’
‘Last Chance’
‘Youth’
‘God Shaped Hole’
‘The Best Way To Kill’
‘The Art Of Falling Apart’
‘Somebody, Somewhere, Sometime’
‘Torch’
‘Bedsitter’
‘Tainted Love’ / ‘Where Did Our Love Go’
‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’
(encore)
‘Martin’
‘Sex Dwarf’
Loved reading, but fyi Alex lipinski is from Weston-super-Mare, not Western as you wrote it. Thanks, a fellow Westonian.