Soft Cell: Live in Milan DVD

Soft Cell: Live in Milan was released as a DVD back in 2002. It was one of the concerts that Soft Cell toured in the early 2000's as a reunion tour. Not really to stay as a band but let others know that they are still around. This was for supporting their new album at the time Cruelty Without Beauty and their compilation The Very Best of Soft Cell. You can also find similar live productions of this concert but in the UK form, in Soft Cell Live and Soft Cell Save Hello, Wave Goodbye Live which are basically the same double CDs collections with the same tracks and more songs than the Live in Milan DVD. This was filmed during a sold out stop at the Rolling Stones in Milan, Italy.  They were under new management, even though Stevo was executive producer Arto and Perko limited. And Cooking Vinyl records was their new record label too. Their style changed you can tell obviously. The choices of the songs were a brilliant mixture of all five albums in one list. Their best songs and classics fans know and love. I liked the way they toured after nearly 20 years. This and the Non Stop Exotic Video Show are the only DVDs I know of that Soft Cell and company made published. The other concerts back in the 80's can be found on YouTube, well some and most are in audio. This is recommended if you don't own this. I gotten another one because the previous one I owned, doesn't work anymore, I used to play it a lot when I younger, and this is really cheap. I gotten this at Wherehouse, it's another good store, if you don't want anything just mainstream. Amoeba is still better, but Amoeba didn't have it shockingly.  There is bonus material and that is Marc Almond and Dave Ball being interviewed and discussing about the past how things happened and it's pretty exclusive. This is also PS2 compatible. I think if i'm not mistaken, they were one of the bands that was suppose to tour with the Pet Shop Boys, something called Wotapalava that the management of the Boys   planned but never happened. I wished it did though. I guess things really do happen for a reason. 

My art review on Marc Almond's The End of New York.

artwork by Scott Ewalt

artwork by Hanni Balzer

I recently checked out Marc Almond’s End of New York. It is a series of poems, lyrics, and prose from the 80’s and 90’s of his view of New York that was published in March of 2001, I was updated by a fan, thanks again. I noticed that there’s a couple of major, distinctions between the readings from the CD and the book itself: There’s a reading of “The Puerto Rican Go Go Boy” in the CD that’s not in the book, and a lot of the wordings were either omitted or inserted by Marc himself, but there’s a photo with the same title, it’s an art piece by Scott Ewalt, but there is “The Lonely Go Go Dancer”, but it wasn’t read. I personally was confused that he only read about 75% of his work and then left the rest unread. However it is a nice piece of art and liked his perspective of New York. I also like how there was two Soft Cell songs that were used: One was read which was “Baby Doll” it had another feel to it compared to how it was released in 1983, but it was equally erotic and the other was "L’Esqualita" which wasn’t read but it did have a small fact Marc pointed out, “L’Esqualita is the name of the Puerto Rican drag club in New York. I first visited the club in 1982 and it became one of my favorite places. When the drag artists performed members of the audience would walk up to them and push dollars down the front of their dresses.” End of New York, p.49. There’s also photos that are in black and white that Marc took of people but wasn’t credited, don’t understand why unless he was trying to be mysterious. I really love the rawness Marc provides for these pieces and organic, really telling it like it is. I do love the artwork by Scott Ewalt, the usage of colors and people from abnormal heads and shapes to the complicated structures of buildings. This item is out of print, and was proud to finally get it, it was one of the items by Marc Almond I wanted. I felt sorry for him when he was trying to get his fans into it, but they all wanted to know about the latest album and when was it coming out. If I was there, I would have asked what made him feel secure enough to have his some of his art pieces released into a book and why did he left out some of his work. I knew from reading previous facts that New York was actually his idealistic place to live, but after 9/11, it was irrelevant and then too the accident few years later that would change him altogether and found a new fascination that is Edinburgh, and shockingly enough Russia.(found this out on his twitter) it's interesting because Neil Tennant is into the Russian culture, he would definitely have someone to talk to about that now wouldn't he? Anyway, Also another piece of art remains not credited, which is the portrait of Marc as a devil. I also wonder how his attitude was when his voice was recorded; what was going on when he read them, did he feel different or felt the same after a period of years. Maybe the word “ellipsis” probably meant something symbolic such as to be continued or something like that. I also noticed how there’s a similarity on the theme, there’s a photo of Marc as a devil but then too, the cover of the photo have Marc’s head being almost dominant and then behind him says the Angel of Death. This is something for either young adults or adults that into the sleaze, drug, sex, violent, glamorous type of world that was and probably still is New York. My thoughts might change over a period of time about this, but as of now, it’s something I would get if you’re into art and would to know more about an artist. Also I forgot to point out the musical Cats the way Marc discuss about it seems very intriguing, I always wanted to see it and now getting the idea of it, makes me want to see it more, but I don’t think they will show it anytime soon. There’s was a bit of humor about it because Marc says there were the only cats he wasn’t allergic to, even though some of them were intoxicating. There is a remix album that shares the same title of The End of New York but there were fifty limited editions that were given away and some of the songs aren’t from the series too which was interesting. I’m glad I just have the series of his art plus the audio CD. If my facts are off is because they don't have much for me to look at.

sources were from the book and
http://www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3628:marc-almond-qthe-end-of-new-york-book-a-cdq&catid=17:books&Itemid=134