Almond, Mark

The musician's father is Peter John Sinclair Almond, a junior lieutenant in the Liverpool Royal Regiment, and his mother is Sandra Maria Almond. In childhood, he was brought up in the house of his grandfather along with his younger sister Julia. In childhood, he suffered from bronchitis and asthma . As a child, Mark loved to listen to various records of his parents. His favorites were Let's Dance by Chris Montes and Twist by Chubby Checker from his mother’s collection, as well as Dave Brubeck and Ersa Kitt from his father’s jazz collection. Soon, Mark was lucky to get to the concerts of Lou Reed and Cockney Rebel in Liverpool, and his most memorable memory was a David Bowie concert, during which Almond climbed over the fence to the stage and touched his idol. When the boy was still in school, his father finally got drunk. Then the future singer found solace in music - he listened to various radio programs by British presenter John Peel. Mark became a fan of the work of such world stars as Mark Bolan , David Bowie, Brian Eno , Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop . Young Almond got a temporary job only in order to be able to acquire new records of his favorite artists. Also, pleasant events began to take place in the life of the future singer - for excellent marks in art and English, he was transferred to the technical college of Southport, where after a while he became interested in painting, design and filmmaking. There, Mark began his career as a singer. In 1977, at one of the fashionable discos in Leeds, Mark met keyboardist Dave Ball, and soon they began to collect something like poetry parties at which Almond read, or rather, melodyclaimed his poems to Ball’s experimental electronic music. In 1979, calling themselves Soft Cell, they first signed up for an old two-track tape recorder. Young musicians also performed in the hall of the Lida Polytechnic Institute. Their newly minted group was a mixture of drama and electronic beats, and their hits won the British charts: the song "Tainted Love" in the United Kingdom took first place. Almond's first solo album was released in 1984.

Mark moved to Moscow in 2000, where he rented an apartment. With the support of executive producer Misha Kucherenko, he began a three-year project to record Russian romance and folk songs, called Heart on Snow. The album was produced by famous musician and sound producer Andrei Samsonov . Almond repeatedly performed with Lyudmila Zykina , Alla Bayanova and with folk ensembles of Russia.

Mark Almond stunningly performed on the London stage in May 2007 as part of a historic three-day concert at Wilton's Music Hall. Then he went on a mini-tour, celebrating his 50th birthday on the London stage in front of 2 thousand fans and friends. And on July 29, 2007, the singer first gave a live performance in his hometown as a guest of the Rhythm and Blues Orchestra concert by Jules Holland - he performed the compositions “Say Hello Wave Goodbye” and “Tainted Love”. In a new album, consisting of cover versions and released in June 2007, stars such as Sarah Crankel and Anthony from Antony and the Johnsons appeared, and "Me (Beauty Will Redeem the World)" was the first written by Mark after the accident 2004 year. Mark Almond is not only a talented musician, but also a writer. From his pen came the two best, according to critics, autobiographies - “Tainted Life” and “Search of The Pleasure Palace”, as well as three collections of personal poems - “Angel of Death in the Adonis Lounge?”, “A Beautiful Twisted Night "and" End of New York ". Almond has a unique place in show business, as he is one of those who can easily switch from one musical style to another. He, like no other, manages to combine Spanish flamenco, Brazilian motifs, Turkish tunes and Russian folklore in his work.

• Untitled (1982, as Marc and the Mambas )
• Torment and Toreros (1983, as Marc and the Mambas)
• Vermin in Ermine (1984)
• Stories of Johnny (1985)
• Mother Fist and Her Five Daughters (1987)
• The Stars We Are (1988)
• Jacques (1989)
• Enchanted (1990)
• Tenement Symphony (1991)
• Absinthe: The French Album (1993)
• Fantastic Star (1996)
• Open All Night (1999)
• Stranger Things (2001)
• Heart on Snow (2003)
• Stardom Road (2007)
• Orpheus in Exile - Songs of Vadim Kozin (2009)
• Varieté (2010)
• Feasting with Panthers (2011)
• The Tyburn Tree (Dark London) (John Harle & Marc Almond) (2014)
• The Dancing Marquis (2014)
• The Velvet Trail (2015)
• Against Nature (2015)
• Silver City Ride (2016)
• Shadows and Reflections (2017)

• Almond is an open gay.

• Official site of Mark Almond
• Duet with Lyudmila Zykina
• "Almond, Mark Almond." Article by Andrei Bukharin
• Interview with Mark Almond on the release of the album with the songs of Vadim Kozin