Peter Mark Sinclair Almond, born on 9 July 1957 in Southport, Lancashire, England, launched Marc And The Mambas as an alias for the more esoteric and exploratory side of his output. Tired of the constraints tied to his pop-star identity in Soft Cell, he used the project to pursue bolder and less conventional notions free of outside interference. Assisted by Annie Hogan, he finished Untitled, which showcased lively reinterpretations of songs originally associated with Lou Reed and Jacques Brel. By 1983 he had immersed himself even further in the Marc And The Mambas venture, even as Soft Cell maintained its commercial momentum. That immersion reached its peak with the double album Torment And Toreros, widely regarded as Almond’s most intense and autobiographical statement, brimming with theatrical excess and offering an unfiltered view of his more shadowed impulses. A dismissive notice in one music publication left him so disheartened and furious that he declared his retirement from music. The statement signified, in practice, the end of Marc And The Mambas and a temporary return to Soft Cell. When that band folded at the close of 1983, Almond moved forward as a solo artist, though his initial post-Soft Cell release, Vermin In Ermine, appeared under the name Marc And The Willing Sinners and included several players who had taken part in the Mambas sessions.
