say hello don't wave goodbye

We like to think of us as having a wide range of music and performers that we like.

We’re just as at home  listening to Debussey as we are with Dr Dre. All through our married lives and before, music has played a huge part in a lot of things we do. As we’ve got older we‘ve started making up for performers or groups we missed “first time around”. Some like The Smiths have probably gone forever – though we did go watching Morrissey a few years ago before it seemed he fell out with Manchester?

Last year we attended one of the best gigs we’d ever been to – Jeff Lynn’s ELO at the Arena and next year we’ve booked to see Billy Joel at Old Trafford. A couple of weeks ago we went to see Marc Almond at the Bridgewater Hall as he toured on the back of his latest album Shadows and Reflections.

Anyone of our age will always associate Marc Almond with Soft Cell but if you don’t know him in any other connection you really are missing out on a musical genius and an absolutely top class live performer. After a bit of a hesitant first few songs – it turned out he was late arriving – the second half of the concert was a masterclass in live musical performance as he commanded the place with a range of songs form the sublime to the absolute crowd pleasers such as Torch and a Northern Soul inspired sequence containing  Tainted Love.

There was though a major  downside. As the concert was a bit late starting we had to leave early to get our train home and missed our absolute favourite Say Hello Wave Goodbye.
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We were big fans going in to the concert – we came out of it as absolute converts. And if you think Marc Almond is just about Soft Cell and a few other hits and done nothing in between just have a look at his Discography you may be in for a surprise – and a treat too!