Marc Almond arrived on stage last night at Symphony Hall looking like an aged Mercedes McCambridge; bobbed hair, face powdered, frail but febrile. There’s a chair nearby, should he need it, which he will. But no matter, in a matter of minutes he’s charmed the audience with his explanation of his choice of songs, almost all covers, how they express his feelings and are meant to evoke his life. So the set is mainly the kind of songs a queen d’un certain age, and more than a little culture would choose. He starts by saying how much he loves Imitation of Life and valiantly attempts Mahalia Jackson’s version of ‘Trouble in the World’. Then it’s on to Cher (‘A Woman’s Story’); Eartha Kitt (‘The Heel’), Billy Holliday (‘Gloomy Sunday’). Some teen favourites: Bobby Darin’s ‘Dream Lover’; Elvis Presley, ‘One Night of Sin’; ‘We all love David Cassidy, don’t we? His version of ‘How Can I Be Sure?’ is the one we all like best’; a selection of Charles Aznavour songs (‘What Makes a Man’); Jacques Brel (‘Ne me quitte pas’); Leonard Cohen (‘Dance Me to the End of Love’); Bowie (‘The London Boys’), Marc Bolan (‘Children of the Revolution’). Dana Gillespie – a link with Bowie — appears on stage to duet with Almond on a lovely version of ‘Stardom Road’. Almond seems to get younger and more energetic as the set progresses. He alienates part of the audience (‘This is a song about bisexuality though I always say bi now, gay later); tells off the band for not being on pitch or on the beat and makes them restart songs twice; and I can’t hand-in-heart say any of his covers are better than the originals; and still… He wins the audience over with his honesty and his charm, the expressivity of his gestures and the power of his voice, even though that doesn’t always seem fully in control. He has the audience in the palm of his hand way before the first strains of ‘Tainted Love’ makes the whole audience go loco. It’s the first time I’ve seen him onstage and hope it won’t be the last. He’s expressed a whole generation’s queer ‘structure of feeling’ and made the audience feel in tune with it.

José Arroyo