In 1993 I was lucky enough to get a job in “The Taming of The Shrew’ at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds with Jude Kelly. As I was fresh out of drama school I was in the ‘play as cast’ position and basically did all the bit parts in the show from being a ‘passing merchant’, to a ‘Milliner’ as well as a ‘Cabin Boy’ as this version was set on a ship! I also got to do my drag act but the less said about that the better!
I lived with a lady called June who was a social worker in the Hyde Park area of Leeds in the ‘bedsit’ land of this song! At the time I was there, some ten years after the rise of Leeds’ band ‘Soft Cell’ a number of people still remembered Marc Almond especially at the theatre and some of them told me that this song was about that particular part of Leeds.
I was introduced to ‘Soft Cell’ by a girl called Lucy, who was a very good friend of my friend Melanie back in 1982. Lucy was a total devotee and such a fan that she insisted playing their records whenever she was in charge of the turntable.
At the time I met her for the first time (when we were appearing in a play Mel was recording for her ‘O’ Level drama – See ‘See You – Depeche Mode – Song 10 Dec 2010) the song ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’, which is my favourite song of all time, was actually in the charts and so having fallen in love with that song I bought the album ‘Non Stop Erotic Cabaret’ and discovered this song retrospectively. I played that album for the first time as I decorated my bedroom!
This song reminds me of Leeds, of Lucy, of Mel and Mark and the 1980s and the bedsit lands of the student.
Now listen to the song….
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