As Q have kindly made us guest editors for the week I get to go back in time and revisit a Q cover star from down the years. Well, as Editor, I’m going back in time to put someone who should have been on the cover ... on the cover.
That man is Mark Hollis from Talk Talk. As I’m not a journalist – praise the great grandfather spirit and grandmother earth for this blessing – I can only talk about the effect this band had on me when I first heard them. I was in Stockholm, Sweden, in the summer of 1986. Me and my unruly band of mates used to travel all over Europe and the UK back then selling concert and festival T-shirts and posters… some still do! You might say we were bootleggers / pirates, well you might but I prefer more dandyish titles like swashbuckler!
For me it was never really a job or long-term career thing, it was just a way to see bands and travel and make a little money to do that. I can’t remember the festival name but my good friend Harry had Talk Talk’s new album, their third, The Colour Of Spring, with him on cassette. I hassled him into lending it to me for the day as we split up to work the festival. I popped it into my Walkman. It was a beautiful hot blue sky day and I didn’t get much work done as the sounds in my ears were completely blowing me away. I just walked around the radius of this festival, people-watching in a blissful daze to this new music I’d discovered.
I was familiar with the band’s name. I’d obviously heard their hits Talk Talk, Today and It’s My Life but this was different… this was a band taking risks and pushing the form. From the bold eerie opener Happiness Is Easy through to massive hit Life’s What You Make It through to the likes of April the 5th, Living in Another World, Give It Up… it’s just breathtaking in its vision and passion. I remember seeing them on The Tube, Channel 4’s amazing live music programme later that summer and that further cemented the idea that this band were special. Mark Hollis, chief writer and bass player Paul Webb and drummer Lee Harris were on fire that day!
Fast forward to 1991 and to Doves (or Sub Sub as we were then). We were still in the grip of dance music as Talk Talk’s next release Spirit Of Eden came out. Andy was the first to buy it and we’d come in from clubbing somewhere in the wee smalls and put this record on. Probably the only so called rock record at the time that we would listen to. However there is nothing you could call traditional rock on this record. The first four songs – starting with The Rainbow, which opens with the sound of wind and feedback, then Eden, Desire and Inheritance – are all seemingly performed as one and weirdly segue into each other. Considered their masterpiece, Mark was again co-writing with keyboard player and producer Tim Freise Greene, the collaboration they started on The Colour Of Spring…. Jimi you’re not a journalist, REMEMBER? Oh heck! I’m not here to give you a biography.
There is some good stuff out there about Talk Talk; great footage of them performing on the web. I can’t really describe this music. Others have managed in words what I can only feel. Okay, I’ll try. Put simply this music was, and still is, life-affirming. To me it’s like going to church. Shit, I feel I’m doing this band a disservice. I know what it’s like to be written about by someone who hasn’t a clue! But I do love them, so, sorry, strike me down.
Mark has always been very secretive and I think he is now retired from music, which as a fan is really sad but I’m sure he’s not sad! There isn’t enough mystery around bands anymore and the enigma and mystery around Talk Talk and Mark Hollis suits me just fine.
Jimi Goodwin, spring 2009
See a clip of Talk Talk performing Life's What You Make it here.
2:54 PM | 07/04/2009
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User Comments
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It's fantastic to hear someone who I really respect musically enthuse about some else that I admire in the same way, and has certainly shaped how I listen to music. There isn't another band who more accurately sum up the phrase "less is more" and Talk Talk's music is refined to the point of perfection.
Posted by Simon Brett at 9:58 AM | 08/04/2009 | Report Abuse
I totally agree with you, Jimi. I just wish Mark was still recording and pushing the envelope even more. But since that may never happen, thank goodness for what he has left us to enjoy. Their music is timeless!
Posted by Cindy Goddard at 6:50 PM | 08/04/2009 | Report Abuse
Totally agree. The best band ever, I guess Mark Hollis had very good reasons for retiring from "the business" but I wish he was still out there making beautiful music.
Posted by Andrew Bird at 11:35 PM | 10/04/2009 | Report Abuse
Totally agree. The best band ever, I guess Mark Hollis had very good reasons for retiring from "the business" but I wish he was still out there making beautiful music.
Posted by Andrew Bird at 11:35 PM | 10/04/2009 | Report Abuse
I also with what has been said here. Great if more music from Mark Hollis could ever emerge but if not then we do have the legacy of an amazing group of musicians creating something that is as unique and emotive now as it was then.
Posted by Craig Humphries at 9:59 PM | 09/05/2009 | Report Abuse
Mark Hollis is indeed a legend. Although not really fully appreciated at the time (particularly in the UK), Talk Talk developed and progressed with each album, culminating in two of the finest records of my lifetime in 'Spirt of Eden' and 'Laughing Stock'. Mark's 1998 solo LP continued this progression. Let's hope he gets the buzz back, and wants to make more inspiring, timesless music.
Posted by Rob at 4:49 PM | 24/07/2009 | Report Abuse
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