For a singer who solely launched one album, Marilyn has made an indelible mark on popular culture. In 2016 he returned a brand new single, Love Or Cash, produced together with his fellow 80s troublemaker Boy George. That yr, he talked about his comeback to Basic Pop…
Marilyn is trying effectively. It’s vital to state that instantly as a result of, within the 13 years since he was final seen in public – as a contestant on Channel 4’s actuality hairdressing present The Salon – it’s been no secret that Marilyn had reverted again to heroin.
When Boy George was arrested in 1986 for heroin possession, so too was his former housemate – effectively, squatmate. The fees in opposition to Marilyn had been later dropped, however he endured a near-constant battle with heroin till lastly getting himself clear two years in the past.
Now that he’s “having fun with being alive”, Marilyn shouldn’t be solely trying nice, however sounding nice, too. He was usually unfairly dismissed within the Eighties as a Boy George copycat, however Marilyn is somebody who is aware of his approach round a groove, as one hearken to the booming, modern reggae pulse of comeback single Love Or Cash will attest.
Sat on an armchair in his publicist’s workplace, Marilyn is extra stable than you’d anticipate. His blond hair is neat and neck size; he’s carrying a black T-shirt festooned with necklaces, and appears nearly just like the lead singer of a glam metallic band.
He’s fast to snort, and when he does so it’s a delighted cackle, the sound of somebody who’s waited 30 years to share his gossip and doesn’t give a rattling who’s listening in. As Marilyn says of himself: “I f***ing stand for one thing, and I don’t suppose there’s numerous that happening proper now.”
However he wanted to be clear earlier than he may remind the world of his expertise. “I wouldn’t be sat right here speaking to you if I wasn’t clear,” he insists. “Once I wasn’t clear, the very last thing I’d wish to do is sit and chat to individuals, or speak about something.
“I’d shut the curtains, I wouldn’t care if it was day or evening. I didn’t care or wish to know what was happening outdoors. My life can be in my room.”
So what modified? His response is matter-of-fact. “I used to be bored of hospital visits and near-death experiences.” A small snort. “They get boring after some time, particularly when you’ll be able to’t take the final step and simply die. I’d suppose ‘Oh, what’s the purpose?’”
Since his final spell in hospital in 2014, Marilyn is lastly able to work on music once more in earnest, writing and producing with Boy George and their buddy John Themis, with a full album to observe Love Or Cash.
“I don’t know if I’m excited to be again making music,” he ponders. “However I’m undoubtedly excited to be clear-headed and wholesome. And it’s thrilling to recognise that individuals love me, as a result of now I lastly have the power to like them again.”
Understanding that individuals care about his return has been the largest revelation since he gave up medicine, he says. “I by no means put numerous music out,” he permits.
“However individuals bear in mind who I’m. On the time, that labored in opposition to me. I used to be so much for individuals to soak up, and I used to be accused of being fashion over substance. However now, music is all fashion and no substance.” One other snort. “So, lastly, I’m forward of the sport!”
Marilyn was definitely onerous to neglect when he appeared with Calling Your Identify in 1983. A extra excessive, much less cuddly determine than somebody with Boy George’s mainstream attraction, Hertfordshire-raised Peter Robinson had taken the Marilyn nickname he was mockingly given by college bullies and used it to emphasize his androgynous magnificence.
He might have solely been 20, however Marilyn had already labored in LA as a PA to cleaning soap star Terry Lester, in addition to showing in Derek Jarman’s brief movie Damaged English and Eurythmics’ Who’s That Lady? video.
“I’d completed numerous life already,” he smiles. “I felt actually outdated when Calling Your Identify got here out. I believed I knew all the pieces. However that success was so much for a 20-year-old to deal with. There was no time to course of something, it was simply subsequent, subsequent, subsequent, strain, strain, strain.”
It didn’t assist that Marilyn was battling in opposition to being marketed as a clone by Phonogram. “They needed me to be the subsequent Boy George, and that was by no means going to work for me,” he sighs.
“George was my greatest buddy, don’t neglect. So I used to be having to say ‘You need me to have a profession as being like my greatest buddy? Do the identical type of music as Tradition Membership?’
“Tradition Membership had been nice, however it’s not my type of music; I needed one thing with extra rhythm. The one motive to repeat one thing was cash, and that’s bullshit. It was like being a puppet.”
Having met within the New Romantic epicentre of Blitz, Marilyn and George started sharing a flat off London’s industrial Euston Highway – the identical road the place his publicist’s workplace is at this time. “We was once aggressive and fairly bitchy. We had been everywhere in the store, actually.”
What was the squat like? “No electrical energy, and we solely had an outdoor rest room, which didn’t have a roof on. Folks would lob stuff at us from their upstairs into the bathroom if one among us used it – cups of espresso, washing up. I don’t bear in mind us ever consuming as a lot as a bag of crisps there, come to consider it.
“We’d await the milkman to ship at 5am, then steal all of the milk off the doorsteps. We’d dwell off 50 pints of milk a day. And we lived in that squat for 4 or 5 years.”
No surprise Marilyn regarded so hungry for fulfillment when he carried out Calling Your Identify on Prime Of The Pops. He appeared a born star, however these report firm battles made it onerous to concentrate on the precise music.
By the point his sole album Regardless of Straight Traces appeared in 1985, most followers had moved on.
Not less than Marilyn received to have a blast making the only Child U Left Me with Was (Not Was) in Detroit. “Their singers had been so proficient,” he enthuses. “Listening to individuals like Candy Pea Atkinson, I’d be within the studio going ‘Oh my God, wow!’
“Don Was was humorous, too, and nice at getting one of the best out of individuals. Too many individuals round me had been telling me how I ought to sound, however Don needed to determine learn how to get the track sounding how I needed.”
How does Marilyn really feel about Regardless of Straight Traces at this time? “Once I was recording it, I used to be by no means completely satisfied. I at all times thought it may very well be higher. If my songs got here on, I used to be at all times ‘Oh, noooo’, as I may solely hear the imperfections.
“However now, whether or not it’s with age or distance and time, I believe ‘Woah, I did a great job!’ And figuring out that individuals need me again, that’s wonderful.”
However earlier than Marilyn got here to that acceptance, he did attempt – briefly – to slot in. He even tried a gentle job, however that resulted in farce. “Attempting to slot in was an train in frustration,” he says. “You get lots of people trying down on you, and so they’re taking enjoyment of not providing you with entry to normality.
“I requested for a job in Tesco, saying ‘I’d prefer to stack the cabinets, please’, and the response was (haughty voice): ‘You? Work right here? Oh, no.’ And I mentioned ‘OK, f*** you. You stack ‘em! I’ll do what I wish to do, then.’” He can snort about it now, however the picture of somebody who sang on Band Support being rejected by Tesco is horrible.
Across the time of The Salon, Marilyn had a musical comeback in 2003 with the only Maintain On Tight, however he admits it was a half-arsed job.
“Folks would at all times ask me once I’m doing extra music, however I wasn’t in the appropriate headspace. I’d shrug it off, go ‘Nerrr, possibly…’ However I finally thought ‘Oh, there should be one thing I can provide.’
“So I received a buddy to do three songs and press a couple of copies. It was a really small run, principally to close individuals up. ‘You need new music? Right here, have that.’ It wasn’t precisely ‘Right here’s my new work, world!’”
That’s taken till Love Or Cash, which sees Marilyn and George working collectively extra harmoniously than ever. “We’re nonetheless psychological, however in a way more conscious approach,” Marilyn cackles.
“We are able to nonetheless return to our outdated methods, however we’ve grown up sufficient to say ‘No, I don’t wish to try this’ if the opposite one is being annoying. It’s simply expertise, actually. We by no means consciously determined ‘Let’s not try this anymore,’ however we do say ‘Er, that’s outdated behaviour, are you able to cease?’”
The subsequent single is completed, and there are six different Marilyn and George songs in varied levels of completion. The pair’s essential bone of competition now could be over listening to music. “I consistently hearken to music,” Marilyn explains.
“Once I go to George’s home to put in writing, I attempt to put music on. He’ll be ‘Flip that off!’ and I’ll inform him ‘I can’t imagine you don’t hearken to music.’ George says ‘I simply don’t hearken to music once I’m engaged on it.’ ‘Nicely, I do…’”
If the opposite songs are of the identical high quality as Love Or Cash, Marilyn’s second album can be well worth the 32-year wait. However is the world prepared for him finally?
“It feels prefer it should be, as a result of I’m right here doing it,” he responds. “However, yeah, I really feel liked and recognised for what I stand for. There’s numerous speak about ‘Be who you’re, be totally different, suppose outdoors the field, don’t be managed’, but there’s numerous manipulation happening.
“I’m not a part of any tribe. The world is my tribe. I’m not a part of anybody group, I’m simply me on the planet. And that’s what I stand for: individuality, free-thinking. The world must be reminded that you just don’t must be a robotic and do what everybody else is doing. There’s a spot for that, however I’m on the reverse finish of the spectrum.”
Marilyn has earned the appropriate to be so forthright. What number of different musicians had been so on the market, even in such a haven for misfits because the early Eighties?
What number of have endured such a very long time out of the general public eye, solely to return in such prepared humour? And what number of extra have had garbage thrown at them whereas sharing an outdoor rest room with Boy George?
Marilyn has the air of somebody who’s about to offer the world what for once more. Tesco’s loss is music’s achieve.
