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Mark Hollis (Talk Talk) RIP

andyoz said:
It doesn't even appear to have been reported on BBC news App.

But R Kelly is out on bail I see so at least they've got their priorities right..
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But was the last item in R4’s PM programme tonight, which quite surprised me.
 
kjb said:
That's such sad news -



My Talk Talk journey was the same as this. I was aware of Talk Talk as a kind of second rate Japan but didn't discover Colour of Spring and Laughing Stock until a decade or so after they were made. Beautiful records as is his solo record. It's huge shame he isn't more productive but giving it up to become a good father and focus on his family - and mean that and hold to it - seems about as virtuous as you can get. You can see his influence in quite a few places, especially the Bark Psychosis and some Radiohead records. Mark Eitzel from American Music Club cites him as a huge influence as well.

RIP
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I didn’t know that about Mark Eitzel. Makes sense somehow. There was a period when I only listened to AMC and those 2 Talk Talk albums.
 
Snufkin said:
Very sad news. I met Mark a few times before Talk Talk were formed and enjoyed talking to him about, among other things, Yamaha RD200's and Mini's. He had just sold his bike and bought an old Mini which he thought was much cooler. RIP Mark
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Wow, Martin, you actually knew him? Crikey.
 
Just learnt interesting fact about Spirit of Eden.

They had a separate 'hiss' track that they used to ride during the final mixing to make sure the hiss level was even across the whole record.

This was analogue remember. On this album, they were placing mic's further from the instruments than normal and they were running into tape noise floor issues on some of the basic multi-tracks.
 
andyoz said:
They had a separate 'hiss' track that they used to ride during the final mixing to make sure the hiss level was even across the whole record.
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Excellent stuff - all good music has hiss! Spirit Of Eden has to be one of the most carefully thought through and complete albums out there so it makes sense that was considered too! I also love the way Laughing Stock starts off with about 10 seconds of guitar amp tremelo hiss before a note is even heard.
 
Phill Brown talks about how he struggled with the digital era and things going to total silence.

He also says how they got to know certain analogue tape types (BASF etc) and how far they could push them into saturation to get a natural compression effect.
They used to carefully select the tape types depending of what they were recording.
It's why this stuff used to take ages/cost a fortune.

I'm just pissed I didn't snap up a nice tape machine 20 years ago at the bottom of the market. £50k stuff was selling for £3k and literally lasts forever. You can get tape now as like vinyl a few are back into making it.
 
Alex N said:
Very sad.

Upon hearing this news, I instantly remembered exactly where I was, and who I was with, the first time I heard Spirit of Eden, and it was almost thirty years ago. Right now, I can't think of any other record I could say that about.
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Yup. For me, it was a darkened room at a HiFi Show, yielding a true "What the **** is that?" moment. Glued to my chair for 20 mins or so.
 
Listened to Colour of Spring tonight, not spun it for a while. It really is a great album, lots going on & sounds unique. As a band they had their own sound & proves, once again, that the 80s, musically, was a far better decade than is often credited.
 
I thought there was no love for Mark Hollis on here but I was looking in the wrong forum. Anyway, how wrong was I ? So many fishies with a liking for TT as well. I have to admit that I was more into the more accesible of his music, and whilst I might say it was 'pop' , it's enduring pop, of a quite different category to, say, Duran Duran, as mentioned earlier. No comparison for me.

Your posts have prompted me to listen again and give that which I found less accesible another go.

A few years ago another PFM'er who's name I've forgotten was looking for a vinyl copy of Colour of Spring. I've been all digital for a while so I gifted my copy. Hope that's been spun again in light of Mark Hollis passing.
 
Something very special about him and Talk Talk. Always felt a bid a sad he stopped creating music so long ago, he was a rare talent.
 
Listening to Tidal's Talk Talk tribute now, brings home what a genius songwriter MH was. Really gutting to lose someoneso talented, even more so when he's a contemporary, and namesake.
 
I only got into TT a couple of years ago (weird that I ignored them in the 80s); I adore the SoE and LS. Currently playing TCoS, which I love too.
These 3 LPs are definitely in my top 20 all time fav LPs.
So much respect for Mark, not just as an incredible musician and songwriter but because he walked away from music to bring up his kids, and he never attempted any cash in's.
RIP.
 
It just so happens I'm in the process of going through my record collection to separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were, and amongst the LPs I've not looked at for years is It's My Life. I've got The Colour of Spring, The Spirit of Eden, Laughing Stock and Mark Hollis' self-titled album on vinyl (good luck trying to buy that on Discogs!), so I gave it a spin and it turns out it's better than I thought it was. In fact, there are hints on the album of what was to come, and there was me dismissing their pre-COS music as bog standard '80s pop. But this album just might be the album where the really good stuff begins!
 
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