Talk Talk - The Collection

Talk Talk - The Collection

Biography:
Talk Talk were an English rock band formed in 1981, led by Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar, piano), Lee Harris (drums), and Paul Webb (bass). The group achieved early chart success with the synth-pop singles “Talk Talk” (1982), “It’s My Life” and “Such a Shame” (both 1984) before moving towards more experimental music in the mid-1980s, pioneering what became known as post-rock. Talk Talk achieved widespread critical success, while selling records in Europe and the UK with the singles “Life’s What You Make It” (1985) and “Living in Another World” (1986), and in 1988 they released their fourth album Spirit of Eden, which was critically acclaimed yet commercially less successful.

Talk Talk began as a quartet consisting of Mark Hollis formerly from The Reaction (vocals/main songwriter), Lee Harris (drums), Paul Webb (bass guitar), and Simon Brenner (keyboards). In their early years they were often compared with Duran Duran. In addition to a band name consisting of a repeated word, the two shared a Roxy Music-inspired musical direction, as well as the same record label (EMI) and producer (Colin Thurston). The band also supported Duran Duran on tour in late 1981.

The band released their first single, “Mirror Man”, on EMI in February 1982. The single was not a great success, but was quickly followed by their self-titled single in April 1982 (a rerecording of a track by The Reaction) which reached No.52 in the UK. The band’s first album, titled The Party’s Over, was released in July 1982. The band had their first UK Top 40 hits with the singles “Today” (UK No. 14) and a re-release of “Talk Talk” (UK No. 23). These singles also were hits in other countries including Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The re-release of the “Talk Talk” single reached the U.S. Top 75. The album was produced by Colin Thurston, who was Duran Duran’s in-house EMI producer at the time, but picked by Hollis because of his involvement with David Bowie’s Heroes. It was a moderate success in the UK reaching No.21, and was later certified Silver by the BPI for sales of 60,000 copies by 1985. It was a Top 10 hit in New Zealand.

Brenner left after the 1983 non-LP hit single “My Foolish Friend”, which was produced by frequent Roxy Music collaborator Rhett Davies. At this point, Talk Talk was now a trio, as Brenner was never officially replaced. However, Tim Friese-Greene was recruited to assist with the recording of their second album, It’s My Life, and he became the band’s producer as well as keyboardist and Hollis’ songwriting partner. Although a major contributor to the band’s studio output and a de facto fourth member, Friese-Greene never officially joined the band; and as such did not regularly play with the touring band, and was absent from the band’s publicity material.

Although major success still eluded them in the UK, Talk Talk achieved considerable international success in 1984/85, particularly in continental Europe, North America and New-Zealand with the album It’s My Life. The accompanying single “Such a Shame” (a song inspired by the book The Dice Man) became a Top 10 hit in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Switzerland during this period. The title track of the album was also a Top 10 hit in Italy (where a remix of six songs from the albums and non-album singles, It’s My Mix, was the #86 best-selling album of 1985), and entered the U.S., Canadian, French, German, New Zealand and Netherlands Top 40. A third single, “Dum Dum Girl”, was a success in some European countries and in New Zealand; however, the album and its singles were largely ignored in the UK. Commercial success notwithstanding, the band made deliberate choices that moved them away from the mainstream. The music video for “It’s My Life”, for instance, featured a grumpy Hollis who mocks lip-synching; after EMI protested, they re-shot the video, turning it into “a total piss-take of lip-synching”, in Alan McGee’s words.

The artist James Marsh designed the first cover image for It’s My Life based on the band’s name. He followed the theme for subsequent singles, remaining the band’s artistic frontman and creating all their covers and posters throughout their career.

Talk Talk abandoned the synthpop style completely with their third album, 1986’s The Colour of Spring. It became their biggest success in the UK, making the Top 10 (and certified Gold by the BPI for sales over 100,000 copies), in part due to the Top 20 single “Life’s What You Make It”, which was also successful internationally. Another single, “Living in Another World”, charted in the Top 40 in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy (and just outside the Top 40 in the UK and France). By this time, all Talk Talk songs were being written by Hollis and Friese-Greene. The extended line-up for the 1986 tour consisted of Hollis, Webb and Harris, plus John Turnbull (guitars), Rupert Black and Ian Curnow (keyboards), Phil Reis and Leroy Williams (percussion), and Mark Feltham (harmonica). Most notable among these concerts was their appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, 11 July 1986, released on DVD in 2008 as Live at Montreux 1986.

Their final two albums, Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock, are highly acclaimed and remain influential to experimental alternative rock genres.

After Laughing Stock, Talk Talk disbanded in 1992, as Hollis wished to focus on his family. Paul Webb rejoined Lee Harris, and the two went on to form the band .O.rang, while Tim Friese-Greene started recording under the name Heligoland. In 1998, Mark Hollis released his self-titled solo debut Mark Hollis, which was much in keeping with the minimalist post-rock sound of Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, but he retired from the music industry shortly afterwards.

Talk Talk saw a mild resurgence in popularity after the band No Doubt covered their highest charting US single, “It’s My Life” in 2003.

EC1081	Talk Talk – The Collection
Label:	Disky Records
Catalog#:	SI 997932
Format:	CD
Made in:	EU
Released:	2000
Barcode:	0 724389 979329
Style:	Pop Rock, Synth-pop

============================================================================ Talk Talk – The Collection
============================================================================
01. Talk Talk
02. It’s My Life
03. Without You
04. Strike Up The Band
05. Life’s What You Make It
06. It’s Getting Late In The Evening
07. Pictures Of Bernadette
08. Happiness Is Easy
09. The Last Time
10. I Don’t Believe You
11. It’s You
12. Talk Talk (Demo Version)
13. It’s So Serious
14. The Party’s Over
15. Dum Dum Girl
16. Candy
Total Time: 01:10:02

Companies etc ▼

• Marketed By – Disky Communications Europe B.V.
• Distributed By – Disky Communications Europe B.V.
• Phonographic Copyright (p) – Disky Communications Europe B.V.
• Phonographic Copyright (p) – EMI Records Ltd.
• Copyright (c) – Disky Communications Europe B.V.
• Copyright (c) – EMI Records Ltd.

Credits ▼

• Design [Re-cover Design] – Ocheda Grafische Creaties*

Notes ▼

On Front Cover:
It’s My Life – Talk Talk – Life’s What You Make It – Dum Dum Girl ℗ & © 2000 Disky Communications Europe B.V.
Marketed and distributed by Disky Communications Europe B.V.,
P.O. Box 249, 1620 AE Hoorn, The Netherlands.
Printed in EU.
Made in EU
Tracks 1, 4, 13 & 14 ℗ 1982 EMI Records Ltd.
Track 16 ℗ 1983 EMI Records Ltd.
Tracks 2, 3, 9 to 12 & 15 ℗ 1984 EMI Records Ltd.
Tracks 5 to 8 & 10 ℗ 1986 EMI Records Ltd.
℗ The copyright in these sound recordings is owned by EMI Records Ltd.
℗ 2000 The copyright in this compilation is owned by EMI Records Ltd.
© 2000 EMI Records Ltd.
“Tim Friese-Greene” misspelled on songwriters credits. 

Barcode and Other Identifiers ▼

• Barcode (Scanned): 0724389979329
• Barcode (Text): 0 724389 979329
• Rights Society: BIEM/STEMRA
• Matrix / Runout: DOCdata DISKY SI 997932
• Mastering SID Code: IFPI LJ82
• Mould SID Code: IFPI 3611