Talk Talk (RIP Mark Hollis)

spirit
how long

gifted
stolen

RIP.

Another facet of the man -- turns out he was a motorcyclist.

Appalled. A good mate. Was riding with him and a bunch of others only last March...seemed fit well and was delighted with his recent house move. Massive condolences to the family. He laughed when I said his music would be played at my funeral... Blue skies Mark.

— Adrian Butcher (@adebika) February 25, 2019

Correcting that -- a bicyclist (which makes far more sense).

I saw that too. It gladdened me.

Surprised how few places (relatively speaking) I've seen covering his passing. Somehow I think that's almost how he would want it?

for me this news has gradually converted from weird-feeling to totally devastating. i just put on "renée" and i find it hard to believe a songwriter of this caliber ever existed

xp as whiney speculated on the pitchfork thread, maybe the lack of coverage is because his death hasn't been confirmed yet. but yeah, it does feel weird because it became pretty widely known several hours ago

this band was fucking incredible and mark hollis was incredible

on my fb timeline it's close to when bowie and prince died.

Need to admit that I never listened to an entire album of theirs before, despite liking "New Grass". I just listened to Laughing Stock and really liked it. (I don't really know what I was on about years ago on this thread tbh.)

where have all the visionaries gone.

in the last three years:

david axelrod
bowie
prince

now mark.

Talk Talk are a band that I've been listening to for 25 years now. One of those rare bands that have outlasted every different musical phase I've had. I listened to The Colour Of Spring, Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock today and felt very emotional. Three of the greatest albums ever created.

RIP Mark.

listening back to his solo record from 1998. the first two minutes of 'the daily planet' could be mistaken for an outtake from the most recent julia holter record.

just how truly innovative he was is still yet to be understood i reckon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mTlYPEH3jI
i think it is an important point he made here about talk talk's late music being totally spontaneous and loose and at the same time very deeply textured.

never heard him speak before. actually, i've never even SEEN him before (i missed his pop 'it's my life'-era hey day). what a lovely guy. :(

Correcting that -- a bicyclist (which makes far more sense).

Hi Ned, have you seen any social media posts that confirm that? It's oddly important to me to know about this (not just as an insight into his life but also almost all the Hollis fans I've known irl have been cyclists of one sort or another). That previous tweet you posted was definitely from a motorcyclist from the looks of his twitter profile.

it's surprising, given t he qualities of his singing voice, that hollis had such a strong north london accent.

or surprising to me, anyway.

Hi Ned, have you seen any social media posts that confirm that? It's oddly important to me to know about this (not just as an insight into his life but also almost all the Hollis fans I've known irl have been cyclists of one sort or another). That previous tweet you posted was definitely from a motorcyclist from the looks of his twitter profile.

Given the references upthread, I would assume Steve Winwood was a strong vocal influence, at least later on

The late Talk Talk albums are the ones that get all the attention, but while their earlier music is unfashionable with critics and chinstrokers, they were fucking good at pop, too. 'Talk Talk' is as good as anything on Rio, and played better. A fine group of musicians.

Just listening to everything now, again. "After the Flood" is still wondrous. Thanks for it all, Mark.

"Lifes What You Make It" is great pop

Listening to The Party's Over at the moment. There's some great songs on it - just love Mark's singing voice.

Nice piece by lex over on the Guardian site:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/26/mark-hollis-talk-talk-reluctant-pop-star-who-redefined-rock

THAT'S NOT LEX

OMG LOLz

if this was any other thread that'd be much funnier

i have succumbed to listening. my choice was 'life's what you make it'. the later stuff....not now

Lex does not strike me as a fan.

Shit, I always thought that was who lex was for some reason.

I'm on Asides Besides now. John Cope is fantastic.

For once I'm glad lex isn't here to find out he's been confused with Petridish all this time.

Seems official now:

"Sadly it's true," said Mark Hollis' former manager Keith Aspden. "Mark has died after a short illness from which he never recovered."

News: @BBCNewsEnts report https://t.co/iMdcUlXksm#MarkHollis Obituary: https://t.co/nvrALusFY5 pic.twitter.com/q8Z7ygzDus

— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) February 26, 2019

That obit has some quotes and bits I’ve never heard before.

somehow i'd totally missed that he said he'd studied at sussex. if true, he would probably have been in the same year as billy idol (also born in 1955; he dropped out after just a year too). hillary benn and nigel planer would've been knocking around on campus at the same time. visions of them all sharing a house just like in the young ones...

Curious about him going to Southend Tech, as per the tweet below. Paul Webb also has photos from his "childhood stomping ground" Southend on his Instagram. Were they partly Essesx boys then? I always thought Norf London.

I've often recalled how #MarkHollis made us weep with laughter from the back of our maths class at Southend Tech. I've always found it kind of mind boggling that I was around someone for a short while who went on to make such achingly gorgeous music.

— jojo90 (@jonathanjo90) February 25, 2019

wilko johnson made an essex-y tweet about him yesterday, but it looks like it's deleted now

did enjoy looking looking at these pictures and imagining the life lived therein

Mark Hollis's piano room. pic.twitter.com/bMYL7rjKfJ

— Colour of Spring (@colourofspring) February 25, 2019

Mark Hollis's living room. #RIP Thanks to Mark Hollis for introducing me to Satie, Debussy and Can. pic.twitter.com/yMKrqGD9Qy

— Colour of Spring (@colourofspring) February 25, 2019

no idea as to their authenticity btw (were they published somewhere previously?)

Graham Sutton of Bark Psychosis:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuWgmWgg5D6/

someone said something similar upthread but they are one of the most *ILX* bands to me, I vaguely knew who they were and knew "It's My Life" and "Life's What You Make It" but I guess I didn't really know them anymore than like Flock of Seagulls or The Call or any other band with a couple of new wave hits I dug...

ILX talk got me interested and I bought the reissue of Spirit of Eden and was hooked on that album for a couple of months...just staggering to me still

Though today I'm going through the early stuff and as Turrican said its' really good! It's My Life minus a couple of poppier numbers is actually kind of a strange new wave record...also the mournfulness in his voice couldn't really be contained, there's a sadness to it all to me, even the stuff that seems really dated --- and as new wave qua new wave they were really great songwriters and arrangers

Two other good Guardian pieces -- Jude Rogers on Hollis as withdrawn outsider:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/26/mark-hollis-talk-talk-singer

Graeme Thomson on Hollis as English gospel singer:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/26/a-sacred-voice-mark-hollis-sang-the-english-gospel

Three, I should say!

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/26/talk-talk-mark-holliss-ambition-co-existed-with-commercial-success

where does the biographical bit about his brother and "I Believe in You" in the Petridis piece come from?

Here perhaps? https://onlyrockandroll.london/2017/03/15/too-much-too-soon-ed-hollis-and-speedball-records/

I just lost it when the coda appears on Time It's Time. And here I thought this would be a "safe" album for the office.

While of course I'd rather he be alive, I think his absence (now and for the past couple of decades) is key to the longevity of the last couple of albums. That is, they've been driven almost entirely by word of mouth, no marketing, no promotions, no reissues or reunion tour. If you discover them you do so more or less on purpose, and if and when they connect I imagine they do so as honestly as any music ever made. For years they have existed almost independent of anything, with a life of their own.

no reissues

this isn't strictly true [/sic]