Soft Cell grew out of a shared love of club culture, bringing underground viewpoints together in a pop context.
Marc Almond and Dave Ball have developed into one of British music's most potent pop partnerships, a sordid, deviant voice that pushed the synth pop template to breaking point.
Set to play their final show this year, Soft Cell have returned with new song 'Northern Lights', taken from new collection 'The Singles – Keychains & Snowstorms'.
The band's first new song in 15 years, the shuffling rhythm is directly inspired by the Northern Soul all-nighters that first captured their imagination.
"I grew up in Southport and Dave’s from Blackpool," Marc explains. "When we met and started making music together he would play me lots of those big Northern Soul singles for inspiration."
"We ended up working on a cover version of the Gloria Jones / Ruth Swann ‘Tainted Love’ which became massive for us of course, and later on we had hits with our own versions of Judy Street’s ‘What’ and Franki Valli’s ‘The Night’."
The new single returns to this, placing those Northern stompers in an electronic context. The visuals are a treat, too – shot at Manchester's Twisted Wheel club, it takes Soft Cell right to the heart of the strange phenomenon known as Northern Soul.
Marc continues: "For the new track ‘Northern Lights’ we wanted to pay tribute to the North and its soul scene which is still going strong today. We shot the video in the legendary Twisted Wheel in Manchester with an audience made up of Northern Soul veterans from the ‘60s and ‘70s. The club still has its original logo! Some of the dancers in the video had been going regularly to soul clubs and dancing for almost 50 years. They were really quite inspiring!"
Tune in now.
Soft Cell dropped past Later… with Jools Holland last night (September 25th) – check out their performance of 'Northern Lights' below.
'The Singles – Keychains & Snowstorms' will be released on September 28th. Soft Cell will play London's O2 Arena on September 30th – it's sold out, but the performance will be live streamed in Vue cinemas across the country.
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