Talk Talk

Talk Talk were a popular English new wave music group that was active from 1981 to 1991.

Band members

Principal members included:

Singer/songwriter - Mark Hollis
Producer/co-writer/keyboardist - Tim Friese-Greene
Bassist - Paul Webb
Drummer - Lee Harris

Career

Commonly perceived as a three-piece group, Talk Talk were technically a four-member band, but Tim Friese-Greene rarely participated in the band's publicity photography from 1983-1991.

The group is known for their early synthpop/New Wave singles, including the international hits Today, Talk Talk, It's My Life, Such a Shame, and Life's What You Make It. They are also recognised as forerunners to the post-rock genre for their later experimental albums.

Although they were associated with the New Wave movement and bands such as EMI stable-mates Duran Duran, Talk Talk had a progressive depth their contemporaries lacked. With the addition of unofficial fourth member Tim Friese-Greene in 1983, who replaced Simon Brenner on keyboards, and became producer for the band, each successive Talk Talk release became more sophisticated and innovative.

They had a huge success in 1984/85 in continental Europe with the album It's My Life. The accompanying single Such a Shame became a big hit and a #1 in several countries during this period, and an icon for many New Wave European listeners. But, strangely, this album and its singles were relatively ignored in their native UK, even though they maintained a substantial cult following.

They eventually abandoned the New Wave style completely with the minor classic The Colour of Spring in 1986. This became their biggest studio album success in the UK, partly thanks to the Top 20 single Life's What You Make It. More followed with Spirit of Eden (1988), an album founded on improvised structures and diverse, natural instruments (violin, harmonica) instead of a synth-driven, pop song mould.

In order to make best out of what was seen by the label as the band's commercial suicide, EMI released a number of substantially edited versions of the album's songs as singles, much to the band's discontent as it was intended to be a single listening experience. The album is nevertheless widely regarded as the group's masterpiece, and one of the landmark recordings of the late 1980s.

After being released from EMI in 1990, they moved to jazz label Verve Records to release Laughing Stock in 1991, their final album. Laughing Stock crystallised the experimental sound the band started with Spirit of Eden (which has been retroactively categorised as "post-rock" by some critics). Laughing Stock adopted an even more minimalist style then its predecessor, but this did not stop it achieving a respectable Top 40 showing in the UK album charts. With the band now released from EMI, the label decided to cash-in on the band's name and reputation (and make-up for the losses it made on Spirit of Eden) in the form of 1990's Natural History compilation. This proved a wise gambit as it went on to sell over one million copies in Britain alone and rose to number 3 in the UK albums chart.

The 1984 single It's My Life was also re-released, and became the band's biggest success, making number 13 in the UK chart. Following up on this renewed popular interest in the band, the label released History Revisited in 1991, a compilation of 12 inch singles and alternative versions which made the Top 40, an unusually high showing for a remix album. A further EMI compilation The Very Best of Talk Talk was released in 1997 and is thought to be the most considered retrospective of their first four albums.

After Laughing Stock, Talk Talk disbanded, never to reform. Paul Webb and Lee Harris went on to form the band .O.rang, while Tim Friese-Greene started recording under the name Heligoland. In 1998, Mark Hollis released his eponymous solo début Mark Hollis, which was very much in keeping with the minimalist post-rock sound of Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock. According to Hollis' management, he has now retired. In 2000 the song Life's What You Make It was featured in the rockstar video game Grand Theft Auto Vice City.

Webb also collaborated under the name of Rustin Man with Beth Gibbons and released Out of Season in 2002, while Harris featured on the Bark Psychosis album of 2004.

In 2003 No Doubt released a cover version of It's My Life which became a major international hit.

Discography

Albums

The Party's Over (1982) : UK #21, US #132
It's My Life (1984) : UK #35, US #42, Germany #2, Italy #5
The Colour of Spring (1986) : UK #8, US #58, Austria #16
Spirit of Eden (1988) : UK #19
Laughing Stock (1991) : UK #26
London 1986 (1999, live) : Germany #46

"Mirror Man" (1982)
"Talk Talk" (1982) : UK #52
"Today" (1982) : UK #14
"Talk Talk" (1982, reissue) : UK #23, US #75, South Africa #1 (1983 release)
"Another Word" : Germany #25 (released as a single only in this country in 1984)

"My Foolish Friend" (1983) : UK #57

"It's My Life" (1984) : UK #46, US #31, France #25 (1985 release), Germany #33 (in 1985), Italy #9
"Such a Shame" (1984) : UK #49, US #89, Austria #2, France #7 (1985 release), Germany #2, Italy #1, Switzerland #1
"Dum Dum Girl" (1984) : UK #74, Germany #20

"Life's What You Make It" (1986) : UK #16, US #90, France #49, Germany #24, Italy #14
"Living in Another World" (1986) : UK #48, France #44, Germany #34
"Give It Up" (1986) : UK #59
"I Don't Believe in You" (1986)

"I Believe in You" (1988)

"It's My Life" (1990, reissue) : UK #13, Germany #49
"Life's What You Make It" (1990, reissue) : UK #23
"Such a Shame" (1990, reissue)

"Living in Another World '91" (1991)

"After the Flood" (1991)
"New Grass" (1991)
"Ascension Day" (1991)

Natural History (1990) : UK #3
History Revisited - The Remixes (1991) : UK #35
The Very Best of Talk Talk (1997) : UK #54
Asides Besides (1998)
12X12 Original Remixes (2000)
The Collection (2000)
Missing Pieces (2001)
The Essential (2003)
Introducing (2003)

[Talk Talk - Today excerpt] ([file info])
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External links