TURNING 60 and continuing to make music, Marc Almond who is performing in Poole next week, talks to The Guide about the changing landscape of his London life and his own mortality.

Some re-emerging pop stars don’t always appear as you expect but Almond bucks that particular trend. His skinny, wiry frame supports a face full of stories and a wide smile. Tattoos creep above the collar of his t-shirt.

One, a swallow in flight, makes its way past his Adam’s apple which bounces as he speaks in small, sharp bursts, ready to laugh or crack a joke at any opportunity. His sentences often take unexpected corners or diversions but he offers genuine conversation in an increasing soundbite industry.

Almond never intended to be a musician. Growing up in Southport, Lancashire, he wanted to be an actor. His stutter, which still raises its head, put a stop to that but he found the impediment would disappear when he introduced music and rhythm.

“I started doing local gigs but I never considered this would be something I would do as a career,” he says. “It seemed too unreachable. I thought I was lucky to be in a band but turning that into a professional musician felt a million miles away.”

But succeed he did. Soft Cell were formed in 1978 after Almond met David Ball at Leeds Polytechnic and the synthpop duo caught the attention of a couple of record labels. Tainted Love and several top ten singles followed. Next year will mark four decades since their launch and Almond hints at the occasion being marked.

Talking of anniversaries, the man himself turned 60 earlier this year. He welcomed his sixth decade by signing a two-album deal with BMG Records earlier this year.

A recent hits and compilation album is to be followed with the first of those BMG albums, Shadows And Reflections. The label asked him to cover a number of Sixties baroque pop and torch songs and he has also managed to squeeze in two original tracks.

The record explores London’s changing landscape through the eyes of a rich man surrounded by luxurious items but no company. The title track, originally by The Action, sparks the thematic approach while the final song, No One To Say Goodnight To, was the initial inspiration for the concept.

“London has gone too far and it needs to be balanced out, it’s over-corporate and over-concerned with money. All these blocks have no one in them because people want to sit on them to hide their money and it will all crash and they will be filled by normal people who can take these so-called luxury developments,” he says, before joking those normal people will then become “miserable and lonely” in their so-called luxury apartments.

He makes many references to his mortality during the interview. But perhaps it’s not an unusual obsession given the number of near-death experiences he has endured. From a major operation to remove his spleen and gall bladder, to a serious motorbike accident which left him in a coma, he thinks his nine lives are almost over.

“I think about death all the time,” he chuckles. Straightening his tone he continues. “I’m just depressive, I can’t stop thinking about it, I’m obsessed with it. I feel like I’m on a countdown and I’ve got to pay the piper for my past at some point.”

Sober and clean since the late-nineties, Almond is now ploughing all his energy and creativity into work. He is determined to do as much as possible before death catches his eye. But whenever that is, he’s eager for people to know life has been exactly what he wanted.

“I just wanted to go on this amazing ride, meet amazing people, do amazing things, go to amazing places, have incredible experiences,” he says.

“I’ve had great successes, I’ve had massive failures and I just look back and think this has been an amazing ride.”

n Marc Almond plays at the Lighthouse, Poole on Thursday, October 26 at 7.30pm. To book tickets, visit lighthousepoole.co.uk