It’s great you are returning to Belfast and, in particular, performing Ten Plagues. What convinced you to perform the multi-award winning song cycle again after nearly 10 years?
Conor Mitchell (the composer) asked me and I jumped at the chance. I was approached a couple of times over the years, particularly during the pandemic, to do it as an online performance, but it’s not really the escapist entertainment that people were craving then.
I’ve now done two productions with two different directors, both involving multimedia film screens and a set, and they were extremely powerful, so initially there was a reluctance to perform it without the whole production.
But then I thought it would be great to do this simply as a bare vocal and piano duet piece - composer and singer. I feel Conor’s music and Mark Ravenhill’s wonderful words are enough to tell the story of this character living through the Great Plague of London in 1666 without the trimmings; just the two of us on an empty stage will be very poignant, even visceral.
Although an historical piece, when you first performed the piece it seemed to speak very much about the AIDS epidemic. Do you think in our current post-Covid world, Ten Plagues is more relevant than ever?
Of course. It’s strange to think I have lived through two pandemics, and sad to think of how many people didn’t survive. AIDS deeply affected me as a gay man living through that period, whereas Covid was much more a collective experience, for me more surreal and less moralistic.
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Ten Plagues is quite a challenging piece to perform – not just in terms of topic and emotion, but also musically. How do you approach it?
With lots of preparation, though I was surprised how much I actually remember. It isn’t an easy piece to perform, and Conor’s music is unforgiving but quite brilliant. It remains a challenge for me as a performer as much as it does for the audience, but I believe the payoff is worth it.
Was performing Ten Plagues at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival back in 2011 a significant milestone in your varied career and did it give you confidence to tackle new dramatic stage roles such as Poppea?
It was my first real role on stage and threw me in at the deep end. I had incredibly creative and experienced people around me, which made it easier. And it received a Fringe First Award, so I suppose in hindsight it gave me confidence. Performing a run of Poppea in Paris (I played Seneca and Carl Barrett played Nero) was a different kind of challenge - in many ways, the whole production was vast and chaotic.
Your solo career has included tours to Russia and an album of Russian folk songs. I’m sure it’s been heart-breaking for you watching the on-going Russian-Ukraine war?
I had some incredible experiences in Russia and made some wonderful friends. But what is happening in Ukraine is beyond words - it fills me with sadness and despair.
It now seems that I won’t go back to Russia again. Even without Putin, I wouldn’t feel safe or even feel it was the same place.
Ukrainian people know what they are fighting for, defending their country against invaders, but it is easy to forget that thousands of Russian soldiers have also been forced and thrown into this mess and lost their lives without ever really understanding why and what it all means and never giving the truth.
Ukrainians and Russians were brothers and sisters before this. It’s a huge, horrible mess that will take decades to recover from, if ever.
On reflection, though I am still immensely proud of the albums I made and recorded in Russia, Heart on Snow and Orpheus in Exile. Many of the people who I worked with, particularly on Heart on Snow are sadly no longer with us, and others now find themselves in exile. They had lived through Soviet times and just wanted to be part of the creative world.
You and Dave Ball delighted fans with a new Soft Cell album,Happiness Not Included, last year which blended nostalgia with modern creativity. Will we be seeing and hearing more of you and Dave in the future?
That I cannot say for sure. I’ve got other plans at present. Now we’ve ignited the Soft Cell flame again and quite successfully, it seems a shame to totally extinguish it again though.
How would you sum up your career in two lines?
Extremely lucky to have been so lucky. It’s mostly just good luck, and timing is everything.
What advice would you give your 20-year-old self?
Nothing other than, it’ll all be OK.
What has been your favourite decade musically?
That’s easy, the Seventies.
Does it annoy you that despite your diverse musical output over the last 40 years, you are associated with the one song, Tainted Love, most of all?
No, it doesn’t bother me at all. It opened so many doors and gave us incredible opportunities, for which I am eternally grateful. Tainted Love will always remind me of that year 1981 in New York, on the cusp of the AIDS pandemic, the deep breath before the plunge. So many amazing and sad memories all mixed together.
Even the title’s irony doesn’t escape me. We often talk about the stars aligning, the moments when they all click together, as it did with Tainted Love. The Polaroids of me with Divine and Warhol in New York, the end of Studio 54, dancing on the 8mm film in front of The World Trade Centre, and watching the sunset from the Windows on the World at the top…
An Evening with the Belfast Ensemble and Marc Almond at Belfast’s Grand Opera House on October 17 at 7.30pm will feature the critically acclaimed Abomination: A DUP Opera, followed by the multi-award winning song cycle Ten Plagues performed by Marc Almond. For tickets and full festival programme visit Belfastinternationalartsfestival.com.