Soft Cell announced and performed their final reunion show in 2018, but given the success of that concert the duo of singer Marc Almond and instrumentalist Dave Ball have continued on in the ensuing years.
They finally arrived in Australia to belatedly commemorate the 40th anniversary of their debut album live.Not knowing quite what to expect on arrival – given the financial constraints of international touring (a full band or just Marc, Dave and a couple of Revox tape players) – it was interesting to note that The Gov's main stage (11 April) had been extended forward to facilitate a full band set up.
Marc walked onstage and announced: "It took us a long time to get here. . . 46 years," and his extensive solo career is distilled into an opening 45-minute set that begins with a trio of songs best described as heartfelt cabaret.
Marc engages the audience from the start and with the fourth song, the glam-rock stomp of 'The Idol', the audience is captivated for the remainder of this set. His performance takes on a fun pantomime – like the quality of his interactions with his backing singers Bryan Chambers and Kelly Barnes as he pleads to the audience, "don't listen to them".
As the set enters a second half, Marc takes a seat to complete his selection of originals with the psychodrama of 'Stories Of Johnny' and 'Black Heart' before commencing a suite of covers with 'Elusive Butterfly' (which was informed by an easy listening version by Val Doonican).
'Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart' is dedicated to his co-vocalist on that song, "the late great Gene Pitney". With the audience singing along as a whole, this song being perhaps the biggest hit of Marc's solo career, in a reversal of roles, Marc takes his phone and films the audience.
Leading into 'The Days Of Pearly Spencer', the band are introduced as guitarist Neal X (formerly of Sigue Sigue Sputnik – remember them?), Martin Watkins on keys, Phil Bloomberg on bass, and Tim Weller on drums. Marc slinks across the stage doing what he tells us is interpretive dance before the rousing 'Jacky' brings this first set to satisfying close.
In the break, the entire stage set up is dismantled and rearranged for the pared down instrumentation of the headliners. Arriving onstage, the duo of Soft Cell convey a degree of anonymity, in sunglasses and dressed in black joined by returning backing vocalists Bryan and Kelly with Duncan Kilburn adding colour to the songs on soprano and tenor saxophone.
In a performance of their 1981 debut album 'Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret', it gets darker, literally and metaphorically, and Marc's previous role-play of others in the covers that ended the first set becomes somewhat more autobiographical as he details the sordid underbelly of the late '70s breaching the '80s encompassing the concepts of mundanity ('Frustration'), sleaze ('Seedy Films', 'Secret Life') and a bridging of the two ('Bedsitter').
The near spoken word 'Frustration' sets the tone for what is to follow, as the narrative of the album unfolds bringing to mind the idea that it could almost be retrospectively considered a concept album.
Next up is the song that Soft Cell are more widely, generally known for, 'Tainted Love' and the audience chant along to this integral marker of their youth. In the context of the album, this song seems out of place, bigger than the album as a whole.
The performance of 'Seedy Films' incorporates Marc's comedic in-song banter with Kelly and Bryan. There is respite in the moody 'Youth' before the not PC transgressive lyrics of 'Sex Dwarf', during which Marc leads the crowd to scream on the count of four accompanied by projections of callbox sex worker cards.
'Entertain Me' is a rumination on doubt and the busy 'Chips On My Shoulder' follow before the springy melody of 'Bedsitter', sounding reminiscent of Duane Eddy's 'Peter Gunn' and the '70s carry-over melody of 'Secret Life' round out the album.
For the melancholy uplifting 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye' Marc takes off his glasses and graciously gives over some of the singing to the audience. Marc exclaims: "We can't leave it there can we?" and it's not exactly an encore since no one leaves the stage as they continue with the piercing synth stabs of 'Torch'.
'Purple Zone' sounds more like their collaborators Pet Shop Boys and this modern outing is the only exception to material performed from their early '80s incarnation.
"Let's go right back for this one," is Marc's introduction to their debut single, the abstract repetition of 'Memorabilia' evoking hip hop and dance, Marc's proto rap-babble excerpting Madonna ('Celebrate', 'Get Into The Groove', 'Like A Virgin'), Kylie Minogue ('Can't Get You Out Of My Head') and Gloria Estefan ('Turn The Beat Around'). Afterwards he comments: "Anything can happen in that song."
"Once is not enough," Marc tells us leading into more than a reprise of 'Tainted Love' and during the extended medley with 'Where Did Our Love Go?', the backing singers Bryan and Holly alternately take lead momentarily.
Marc tells us he is working on a new album with Dave, but stops short of announcing that it is not actually Dave onstage with him (having already announced this previously on social media) and it is possible that much of the audience remain unaware of this fact.
A fellow gig goer later mentions to me he did not believe it was Dave and comments on the asterix following the band's name projected behind them during the set, which I initially dismissed as a 'Paul is dead' conspiracy theory given the asterix referred to their last album title ('*Happiness Not Included') but some later minor online detective work clarified the matter. I don't think that the greater audience were even aware of Dave's absence, and for those who were it would not have diminished the experience.
Even though there has been a long wait for Soft Cell to tour here and given that previous shows have been presented as final shows, and maybe (or not) it would make good reading to write that this is 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye', but maybe it is not that after all.
Dave Ball may not have been in tow this time, but Marc's not letting up, along with backing vocalists Bryan and Holly, spending nearly two and a half hours performing across the two sets. This was certainly one of the longest waits to see an overseas band in this country and they did not disappoint.
