IT wasn't quite the camp in Christmas panto we might have expected from the former lead singer of Soft Cell, and anyone who came looking for drag queens and bondage boys was sadly disappointed off stage, Marc Almond may be one of pop's most pre-eminent gays, but onstage he plays it straight, and when he came to Dublin last Friday to play a festive gig there were no splashes of colour, no flashes of flamboyance, just a solid symphony in black.
Since abandoning the early 80s synth pop style of Tainted Love the slight looking singer has been exploring the darker worlds occupied by the likes of Brel and Scott Walker, searching for dignity in the dank underworld of the mind. He nearly found it in Stars We Are, acknowledged as his best solo album, but at the Red Box last Friday night his quest was hindered by bad onstage sound, which at one point nearly sent the frustrated singer into retreat.
Almond's three penny epic style songwriting manages to make high drama out of every crisis, and Marc didn't need flames and fanfares to convey the smouldering emotions within, allowing the songs to convey their own cinematic images and letting the three piece backing band provide the guitar, drums and synth soundtrack. There had been no time to sound check, since Almond and the band had arrived in Dublin only two hours earlier, hence the constant feedback which nearly sent the gig into a tailspin.
Ever the trouper, however, Almond rallied his emotions and delivered his set with that same sense of fatalism which runs through songs like Beautiful Creatures and Bittersweet. Predictably, the cover of Brel's Jackie proved a favourite, while Soft Cell classics like Bedsitland and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye gave a vibrant, synth soaked valediction.
