Marc Almond's "Stardom Road"

Marc Almond at Union Chapel, London, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Mrac Almond's new album "Stardom Road" came out last Monday and I managed to pick up a copy at Get Records in Amsterdam's Utrechtsestraat yesterday afternoon. Much better to go to a record/CD shop and buy a copy than to order it through the internet, much like winning a bet at the bookies and being handed over, say, ten 20 pound notes than winning the same on an internet bank account. And to think that so many people nowadays can't even be bothered about a CD and just buy the download version.. incredible!

I have allowed myself to listen to the first four tracks of what promises to be an excellent CD, fullof Marc's covers of other people's songs, songs which tell stories about his own life. Marc was very very badly injured in a motorbike crash in October 2004 and, amongst other things, finds it difficult to concentrate and write his own songs, and he has alreadty had great success at interpreting other people's songs, that this CD seemed to make great sense.

Here is what Marc has had to say about the four songs to which I have listened so far:
I Have Lived
This Charles Aznavour song ... speaks without remorse or excuse for embracing the joie de vivre, seeking neither redemption nor forgiveness on the day of reckoning.

I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten
As a kid I used to watch the great ballad singers of the Sixties, female singers with too much make-up and torch-singing crooners, inevitably recalling lost loves and missed chances.

Bedsitter Images
When I left home to live in a city, I moved into a small squalid bedsit, but I recall, looking back, that it seemed to be like a palace at the time...

The London Boys
Originally a sixties Bowie song, it was a song which lured me into London, and in so doing, life imitated art...

Although I have lived a very different life to Marc Almond and am a very different person, I have often felt during the past 26 years since I first heard Tainted Love that his songs said something about my life, in many ways enhancing various experiences which I have had. I wrote some of this down a few years ago, but I am sure I'll not be able to find all that. Still, great to have the opportunity ot listen to Marc recounting and interpreting the songs which have meant so much to him on his way through life.

You can hear clips of all the songs on Marc's own website by clicking on the following link: Stardom Road

Tags: Marc Almond, Stardom Road, new CD, Tainted Love, Bedsitter Images