LOVE OF MUSIC NOT TAINTED BY YEARS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
JOOLS HOLLAND and Marc Almond are almost crying with laughter as they take a trip down memory lane.
They are reminiscing about the time Holland nearly lost his job after showing Almond in the nude on daytime music TV programme
in the 1980s. “Marc came on and there was an incident where I barged into his dressing room with a camera, which was truly spontaneous, it wasn’t planned like it is these days,” Holland recalls.
“And of course poor Marc was completely unclothed, which caused outrage, there were all sorts of letters of complaints coming in and I was nearly sacked, all because of Marc.
“Somehow it was all my fault he didn’t have his clothes on!”
“It was, after all, a teatime show, it wasn’t post-watershed,” notes Almond, who grew up in Yorkshire and famously formed Soft Cell at Leeds Polytechnic with fellow student David Ball.
The pair crack up again, becoming inaudible via the already muffled phone line, the recollection of one of their early escapades clearly still a source of much entertainment; still keeping them young.
Heaven forbid at such a stunt happening to Holland now on his BBC Two stalwarts
his annual and
: it must be a kind of a relief to look back at a time of brazen carelessness and juvenile hilarity.
Composer, former Squeeze rocker and TV presenter extraordinaire, Holland and Soft Cell frontman and award-winning solo artist Almond – both now in their early 60s and with decades in the music industry under their belts – are happy discussing their wilder days in the hedonistic 1980s.
This was an era of real rock and roll antics, before social media took over and before artists hoping to make more than a few quid had to adhere to stricter rules and schedules and contracts.
But they are also content to embrace this time in their lives, with its more serious focus on the music and which has resulted in their first collaborative album after years of performing together.
“We started to become friends once Marc came on tour with us, because you see much more of one another and go through the trials and tribulations, the giddy highs and the lows,” explains Holland of their working relationship, which began at the turn of the century.
“When we first met, I was certainly aware of Soft Cell and thought they were great back in the early 80s.
“We were probably in New York at the same time, when Squeeze was there, and Soft Cell were there at one point. But we were probably so busy getting off our nut we weren’t really aware of it!”
He adds: “It’s a young man’s game, being wild, but if you’ve been fortunate enough to have a history of that sort of thing, and love having boyish fun, it’ll come out once in a while, although it’s much less often.
“We’re more often having some tea and cake than we are anything else.”
Almond agrees that “once in a while it comes out”. “But now, especially when you’re touring and working so much as Jools and I am, there comes a time when you have to be much more disciplined about yourself, otherwise you’re just not going to make it, you’re not going to last,” he reasons.
Of his earlier days in synthpop duo Soft Cell with David Ball, Almond admits: “I’m amazed I actually got through it – everything was always shambolic, and when things are shambolic it’s always terribly stressful and exhausting.
“You’d be exhausted by being shambolic. And by being unprofessional.”
He says that his relationship with Holland is different; thanks in large part to the experience that comes with age.
“We’ve been working in music for about 40-odd years now. It’s actually a great thing to say because we both survived in music and we both realised that you can’t do that anymore, you have to have a different way of approaching things.”
Survive they both did, Almond through his Soft Cell days and then his remarkable solo career, which has resulted in more than 20 studio albums and more than 30 million records sold. Born in Lancashire, his family briefly lived in Starbeck, North Yorkshire when he was young before they returned to Southport and then eventually moved to Horsforth in West Yorkshire. Almond went on to attend Aireborough Grammar School before attending Leeds Polytechnic alongside Ball set him along the path to fame and fortune.
Soft Cell’s first release in 1980 was funded by Ball’s mother but they shot to fame with the release of
in 1981; a cover of a Gloria Jones Northern Soul classic that remains one of the best-selling singles in the UK of all time.
The band staged an emotional final concert, their first in 15 years, at the O2 Arena in London in September. In testament to their enduring popularity, the gig in front of 20,000 fans was also broadcast live to cinemas across the UK and Ireland.
Holland’s career has been equally triumphant, with his seemingly endless conveyor belt of records and collaborations and tours and, of course, his long-running music TV shows.
While the touring hasn’t stopped – their latest run of shows together will visit the First Direct Arena in Leeds on December 14 – the pair have now combined their talents on new album
which they admit was a long time coming after their many years on the road together.
The album is a mix of covers, including a big band version of Soft