Soft Cell's Dave Ball has unplugged and left the stage. The quiet man in a noisy electronic duo (well I guess you can be quiet when you have such a flamoyant imp in font of you!). Forget the big hits, 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye', 'Bedsitter', 'Torch' and what was it?.... 'Tainted Love'. As good as they were, in '83 and '84 I by far preferred the band's output when they were seemingly inextricably in the grip of a hedonistic excess of booze and drugs. The paranoia that came with a rock 'n' roll going off the rails life style translated perfectly into their art. So dark and grubby are their 'Art of Falling Apart' and 'This Last Night in Sodom' albums that showering is recommended after listening!
I never got to see them until they came back and played the 'Ocean' in Hackney (2001 if I remember correctly) and quite a few times since. Full gigs covered the entire back catalogue including all the good stuff from those two albums... 'Baby Doll', 'Martin', 'L'esqualita' etc. whereas more recent '80's nostalgia shows have delivered the chart friendly face of Soft Cell.
Thanks for the brilliant music Dave, a big part of my teenage soundtrack.
No comments:
Post a Comment