“This is me getting my honorary doctorate from Edge Hill University.
It was earlier this year and it’s been part of an amazing year that I really wasn’t expecting.
It’s my sixtieth year, a milestone, and I intended to be under the radar with it but it’s just turned into this really memorable year.
First I had the greatest hits collection, which went top 10, then I signed a new record deal, did the new album, Shadows And Reflections, and then this.
And it was such an amazing thrill because I’m from the area – Liverpool and Southport – and they wanted to honour me.
I said, ‘I’m only going to do it if I can wear the gown,’ and they were happy about that so I got the whole regalia. It looks like a painting.
Then the chancellor of Edge Hill, professor Tanya Byron, gave me this fantastic citation about my career and the things I’d done and then I was told, ‘You are now a doctor of philosophy.’
So I can call myself Dr Almond and put it on my bankcards, if I like. A doctor!
I can already do the kiss of life but I’m working on the resuscitation. I’m extremely proud of it and it was a brilliantly lovely day.
My mum came with me. She got all dressed up and was a bit of a star for the afternoon.
I’m always really nervous when I have to do speeches, but I tried to give some inspiration and said that it’s not about the money and the fame, it’s about being happy.
That’s what success is. If you’re a musician, you’re more likely to be in the third row of the orchestra, in the pit where no one sees you, but it’s all an adventure.
You have to create your own happiness and not worry about the financial reward. I actually went to Leeds Polytechnic to do fine art and that’s where I met Dave Ball and we formed Soft Cell. This was at the end of 1978 so nearly 40 years, which is also a milestone.
I never expected to be here. I shouldn’t be here. It’s amazing. If I’d known I was going to live so long I would have taken better care of myself.
And it’s amazing that someone of my age gets to sign a two-album deal, one for an album of covers and another for an album of original songs.
I’d actually started an album of original songs, then when the record company BMG said they wanted an album of covers I decided on an orchestral album.
Last year I did a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, A Celebration of 20th Century Torch Songs. I picked out some songs from the 1960s.
It’s my favourite decade because that was the decade I was a kid and my parents used to play the radio and we’d watch Ready Steady Go on TV, so I always go back to those songs.
I remember being about 10 and going down to Southport beach with my parents and grandparents and we’d have the radio on.
I got my first transistor that year, a little black radio so I could listen to Radio Caroline and Radio Luxemburg.
I liked all the big singers like Dusty and Billy Fury and I wanted this album to be like that, like a soundtrack to a 60s Italian film.
So that’s the first of my two albums and I’ll finish recording the other one next year when I go to Los Angeles to work with Chris Braide, who’s my co-writer and has done things for Lana Del Rey, Beyoncé and Rihanna.
It’s funny because I still hear Tainted Love everywhere. I get into a taxi and it’s on the radio or I go past a bar.
But it’s a treat having a song like that. I think every artist who has that massive record goes through that love-hate thing for a while and then you realise it’s one of the greatest things that’s happened to you and you embrace it.”
Marc’s album Shadows And Reflections is out now.
For tour details, go to marcalmond.co.uk.