: Gary Steel
: Talk Talk Every Album, Every Song
: Sonicbond Publishing
: 9781789524260
: 1
: CHF 8.30
:
: Musik
: English
: 160
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

In this era of lavish box sets and extravagant vinyl reissues, the sheer economy of Talk Talk's output feels terrific, refreshing and just right. During the group's ten-year lifespan, they released just five studio albums, but in the process, redefined contemporary music and spawned a whole new movement that came to be known as 'post rock', influencing legions of bands in their wake. Leader Mark Hollis's determination to carry out his musical vision would see the group mutate from a synth-pop/new romantic outfit, into the most determinedly unique and unclassifiable art-pop act of the late 20th century. More than 30 years later, the group's astonishing last three albums are still blowing minds and being studiously examined by those who seek to break their mysterious code.
This book examines the whole of Talk Talk's oeuvre song by song, telling their bizarre and somewhat unlikely story along the way as we cast light on the essence of the group through their work. While a book on this compelling band necessarily discusses the tortured genius of singer/guitarist/writer Mark Hollis, it also casts light on the surprising après-Talk Talk careers of foundational members Lee Harris and Paul Webb, as well as that of producer/keyboardist Tim Friese-Greene.


The author
Gary Steel is a New Zealand-based journalist whose enjoyment of loud (and quiet) music hasn't diminished despite the cicada-like tinnitus he suffers from after attending thousands of rock gigs in his 40-plus years of music journalism. He has also interviewed a who's who of contemporary music and reviewed just about every record going for whoever would publish his pungent opinions. He has edited and published several music magazines, ran his own record store and now lives in an obscure location with his wife Yoko and two wee monsters. There he runs his www.Witchdoctor.co.nz website. His previous book was Gentle Giant on track for Sonicbond.
Chapter3

The Party’s Over (1982)


Personnel:

Mark Hollis: vocals

Simon Brenner: keyboards

Lee Harris: drums

Paul Webb: bass guitar

Produced at Chipping North Studios by Colin Thurston.

Release date: July 1982.

Highest chart places: UK: 23, USA: 132

Running time: 36:47

Imagine if your first exposure to Talk Talk wasSpirit Of Eden orLaughing Stock or evenThe Colour Of Spring. Imagine that you then started digging into Talk Talk’s back catalogue, beginning with their 1982 debut,The Party’s Over. The cover artwork certainly gives no indication that the sounds within are dramatically different to later discs, and the face with crying lips for eyes is in keeping with the conceptual continuity the group sought by keeping James Marsh on for every one of their album covers. The title is also in keeping with Mark’s melancholy outlook, although it has yet to mature from the ‘angry young man’ take on melancholy into the deep rapture of his later work. Imagine if, having gazed at the cover and wondered about the title, you then put your stylus down on the platter and pumped up the stereo, and on came ‘Talk Talk’, and then its eight subsequent songs, all of them produced by Duran Duran man Colin Thurston with the same superficial gloss he gave to that superficial band. Yuck.

First impressions count, but it’s worth diving down through that gloss because just under that top layer is a talented band and a decent record; just not one that has yet broken out of the tight strictures set for it by time and place and record company ambitions. And it’s worth remembering that – even though Mark’s idea of the group was vastly different to the reality ofThe Party’s Over – he too was seething with ambition and knew that the EMI deal was his big chance.

When they signed with EMI, the group had played fewer than six live dates, and they were promptly sent off to support Duran Duran on tour, who were at their commercial peak between their two biggest albums, their 1981 self- titled debut andRio (1982). It must have been challenging for Mark, who even then was a reticent performer who refused between-song chatter and blanched at looking directly at the audience. After all, nobody really cares about opening acts, and being painted as being somehow connected to a band he probably despised and had nothing in common with must have rankled.

Or maybe Mark and his colleagues didn’t object in the first instance to the Duran Duran comparisons/connections, possibly seeing benefits in terms of audience exposure while knowing full well that they were from another planet, musically and emotionally. Why else would they then allow EMI to foist Duran Duran’s producer, Colin Thurston, onto their album debut? It’s possible that Mark was just starstruck enough that Thurston had engineered David Bowie’sHeroes album to think that he would bring out the best of Talk Talk rather than try and mould them into a kind of faux-Duran Duran. It’s also possible that Mark was willing to go with the flow at this time, and that he secretly saw the linking of Talk Talk with the new romantic scene as a necessary bridge to cross in order to establish the group’s name with the public at large.

For EMI’s p