40 YEARS AGO: Soft Cell – “Torch”
“May 8, 1982
SOFT CELL have their new single “Torch” and “Insecure Me” released by Some Bizzare. It’s another smash hit for the band going all the way up to #2 on the UK charts. Currently, Soft Cell are filming a lascivious video for “Sex Dwarf’ in a converted church in the posh neighborhood near the St.John’s Woods station. On the set you’ll find fire-eaters, dwarves, charmed snakes, strong men, bikini clad models and Marc Almond wielding a chainsaw. In the coming weeks, the tabloid News Of The World hears of the video and runs a story headlined “Porno Dwarf.” The production was described as a pseudo-porn version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The video, which was supposedly only screened once (and it reportedly caused a riot), is described in the NME thusly; “Set among rows of beef carcasses, blood spattered vocalist Marc Almond is seen massaging his groin while miming to the lyrics of ‘Sex Dwarf’. Dave Ball meanwhile brandishes a chainsaw in front of a naked girl strapped to a Formica top table. Later a crate is split open, out of which pops the dwarf in bondage gear and a rapist mask, who drops meat among the writhing bodies. Almond strips down to a leather jock strap and throws himself onto the heap.”
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