Music Reissues Weekly: Marc and the Mambas - Three Black Nights Of Little Black Bites

A month after Soft Cell’s "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" single peaked at number three in the UK charts, Marc Almond issued a single credited to Marc and the Mambas. March 1982’s "Sleaze (Take it, Shake it)" / "Fun City" was produced by his Soft Cell partner Dave Ball, who also contributed drums and synth.

Over 1982 and 1983, Marc and the Mambas seemed to be on Almond’s mind as much as Soft Cell. There were albums and live shows. Radio sessions and TV appearances too. Running Marc and the Mambas in parallel with Soft Cell seemed –and seems – pretty burdensome.

Yet it was seemingly what Almond had to do. In 2012, he wrote that Marc and the Mambas came about as he was “feeling confined by Soft Cell and record company restrictions, and the feeling I was being relegated and doomed to a fleeting pop stardom.” But in the short term – after "Sleaze (Take it, Shake it)" (pictured below left) – it was time for Soft Cell’s next single and next hit, May 1982’s “Torch.”

Untitled, a debut Mambas double album – one record at 33rpm and the other at 45rpm – duly came out in September 1982. There were a live outings that December, where the sets included versions of Syd Barrett’s “Terrapin,” Jacques Brel’s “The Bulls,” Lou Reed’s “Caroline Says” and Throbbing Gristle’s “Discipline” (the first and second had been on Untitled, the last appeared as flexi-disc coming with Flexipop! magazine). There were also live versions of original songs which didn’t crop up on Untitled and weren’t in Soft Cell's repertoire, “Black Heart” and “Your Aura” amongst them. In June 1983, “Black Heart” became the A-side of the next Marc and Mambas (no “the” this time) single. Shortly before this, Marc and the Mambas played a run of three shows at London’s Duke Of York's Theatre over 27 to 29 April 1983. Marc Almond was operating at high gear.

Three Black Nights Of Little Black Bites – taking its name from how they were billed – was recorded at these shows. Initially, it appeared in 2001 as a double-CD bootleg. Then, in 2012, an official release (the quote above comes from Almond’s essay included with this) teamed the audio with a DVD of material taped at the shows on VHS video by former Throbbing Gristle member Peter Christopherson (who had recently ceased playing with Psychic TV – he remained their designer). It is the soundtrack of this video which provides the audio for the various Three Black Nights… releases.

Now, for the first time, Three Black Nights Of Little Black Bites appears on vinyl. This well packaged double album includes a reproduction of the programme for the shows and has a new cover image painted by Val Denham, who was responsible for the much of the striking Mambas’ visuals over 1982 and 1983. The audio is fine, noticeably brighter a little more dynamic than the 2012 CD: but still boxy though.

As well as Almond, the band heard is (leader) Annie Hogan (organ, piano, vocals), Lee Jenkinson (guitar, vocals), Steve Sherlock (flute, saxophone) and Peter Ashworth (percussion – moonlighting from his usual job as a photographer). The string section is Gini Hewes, Bill McGee, Martin McCarrick, Audrey Riley and Anne Stephenson. This was not a minimal undertaking.

The double album evinces an attractive raggedness, and Almond takes his voice beyond its limits – emotion is palpable. But the ensemble is clearly drilled, rehearsed. The singer sounds as if he is having fun, especially on the heavily dramatic “The Bulls” and an unexpectedly bouncy “Black Heart.” The torchy songs – “Gloomy Sunday,” “In my Room” – are intense, intimate and heartfelt. Almond is at one with the songs. It is all very smoky, Gallic and Spanish. Beatnick-esque, even. Although, say, a rearranged "Torch" could have fit in, this is not Soft Cell. It is hard to think of another currently hot pop star stepping onto so fully formed an alternate musical path while the hit singles with what they were best-known for were racking up.

The essay Almond wrote for the 2012 CD/DVD release – reused here – is illuminating, and part-way explains his restiveness. He says that second Mambas' album Torment and Toreros was effectively the soundtrack to a nervous breakdown, the work of “an artist becoming depressed, psychotic and hooked on drugs…one minute opium and heroin, and the next cheap sulphate speed…Mogadons, anti-depressants and sleeping pills.” If this indeed was – and there is no reason to doubt it – Almond's situation around this time, it is not evident on Three Black Nights…

After what’s captured on this double album, while Soft Cell soldiered on, August 1983 saw the release of Marc and Mambas’ next and last album, Torment and Toreros (another double). Almond also played some US shows with Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch and Jim Thirwell as part of The Immaculate Consumptive in late October/early November 1983. Then, more Mambas Duke Of York's live shows in December 1983 (one of these was professionally recorded and became the mail-order-only fan club album Bite Black + Blues [pictured above right] – where are the tapes for this? Can it be reissued?). A month later, in January 1984, Soft Cell bowed out with farewell shows at London's Hammersmith Palais.

Despite its ample contextual framing, Three Black Nights Of Little Black Bites stands on its own feet. A great listen, and an essential addition to Marc Almond’s discography.

• Next week: I Can’t Let Go - the first-ever compilation of Brooklyn singer Evie Sands' Sixties recordings
• More reissue reviews on theartsdesk
• Kieron Tyler’s website

@kierontyler.bsky.social