Concert #8 - Soft Cell

Soft Cell, London, 2001
Marc Almond, San Francisco Pride, 2003

My most extravagant concert experience in terms of travel/cost was flying to London to see the Soft Cell reunion shows. I was a big fan of Soft Cell, and bigger fan of Marc Almond's solo work. I never saw Soft Cell before they disbanded in 1984. Their reunion show (actually two shows) after 17 years apart was held in London at a new venue called the Ocean. Airfares were unusually low as it was shortly after 9/11 -- so I decided to do a 4-day weekend trip to London to see them. The show was amazing, and the crowd was very much into them. After the show, in the rainy, cold weather outside, the venue had a fireworks display to celebrate its grand opening and a huge display that said "Thank You".

Fast Forward one year -- a coworker of mine was an active member of SF Pride. I inquired about how they select performers and suggested Marc Almond may be a good choice (not just because I wanted to see him perform but that he has done Pride events in London). He connected me to the SF Pride entertainment director who asked if I have an "in" with Marc Almond's management. I didn't but I sent an email to Marc's manager, inquiring if Marc would be interested. His manager replied "Yes if terms are right" so I connected him with the SF Pride Entertainment Director and as luck has it -- a deal was reached. Given my involvement, the Entertainment Director asked if I wanted to be the SF Pride Handler for Marc during his stay. My job would be picking him up in a limo at SFO, checking him into his hotel, making sure he attended a couple Pride-sponsored events, coordinating his trip to Civic Center on day of performance, and then making sure he made it back to SFO for his flight. Needless to say, I was non-stop ecstatic dancing about all of this.

His manager arranged for Marc to perform at Club Universe the night before, so I went and got up close to the stage. During his performance, he recognized me in the audience and inbetween lyrics, pointed at me, and said "Greg!".

Meeting Marc and his manager, accompanying around town in a limo and actually chatting one-on-one with him was a dream come true. He signed memorabilia I had including his Autobiography, and wrote kind words thanking me. And he was kind, friendly and sincere -- someone I will always remember!

PS -- I repeated my "Handler" activities for SF Pride for Jennifer Holliday and Graham Norton, who I even got to ride in his car in the Pride parade.