The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

You are here: Home / Blog / Mark Hollis

Mark Hollis

by 75 Comments

I’m seeing reports that Mark Hollis has died. Can’t quite believe it, and a little surprised at how sad this makes me feel. Those last two Talk Talk albums are so incredible. Hopefully it’s false news, but either way I know what I’m listening to tonight.

0

Comments

  5. This really hit me hard, let’s hope it’s not true. Out of all the thousands of hours I dedicated to listening to music, my most treasured piece (the album) was and always will be Spirit of Eden. The joy and wonder of music and genius of it’s creator. Thank you, Mark Hollis.

  13. Very sad news, even though I was never a Talk Talk fan. 64 is no age.

    I once ‘acquired’ a 7″ white label with no info on it at all. Being the record nerd I was I recognized the number in the run-out groove as an Island release. So I called the office to ask what the single was called and it it was by, and I got the grilling of my life! They were furious that I’d got a copy and wanted to know how this advance release had got into the hands of a “civilian”! Anyway, I did find out who it was. And it was this – Mark Hollis’ group before Talk Talk:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwcFg5vbr80

  14. Very sad news indeed. Loved how mainstream 80s popsters Talk Talk completely retooled musically to deliver those last fascinating records. Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock are not only unique but have a timelessness that often marks the best music.

  15. The journey from ‘Party’s Over’ to ‘Laughing Stock’ is quite something isn’t it? I love it when Pop bands go rogue – Japan did it to some extent although they bottled it by renaming themselves Rain Tree Crow for their last one – Whether they were making fizzy synth pop or hushed, ambient dream pop Talk Talk were always Talk Talk and they kept a consistent thread of otherness that gradually opened out and took shape. He leaves an immaculate catalogue of music.

    Happily, Mark’s continued to influence countless others, try Graham Sutton’s band Bark Psychosis (their second LP features Talk Talk’s Lee Harris on drums) –

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2dG2ILwpjU

    and perhaps the closest we have to a band like TT now are this lot – These New Puritans (who worked with the aforementioned Sutton on their new LP which is out in a few weeks)
    (video NSFW)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH4zDJXybmk

    • Crikey… I realised watching that that for all the many hours of my life I’ve spent listening to MH, I’ve never seen him actually sing (not counting miming to the hits on Razzmatazz and the like). Even with the sound off you can tell he’s one of the not-messing-aboutest vocalists you’re ever gonna see.

  17. Very sad news. For years I hoped that I’d get to see him and/or Talk Talk live and that there might even be some new material. I last played all of the albums and his solo album back to back a year or so ago. It was and is an incredible and rare musical journey. I may do so tonight. RIP.

  18. This ‘rock’ death has hit me harder than almost any other in the last few years. Maybe its the age, 64, which is the same as me – it makes you reflect a little on your own life. I still play of Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock on a very regular basis – whenever I feel music is sounding samey and tired these are my go to albums. I also love the mystery that surrounds Mark, a bit like one of my other heroes Nick Drake, he was an enigma and we know very little about him and certainly next to nothing about his last 20 years. I would recommend the book Spirit of Talk Talk which came out a few years ago which fills in a few gaps.

    I cant think of another band/artist who went trough such a dramatic change in so short a space of time. A synth pop band who one day decided that it might be a good idea to ditch all digital technology and play extended pieces that have much more in common with Miles Davis circa A Silent Way than Duran Duran.

    So what to choose to play – I could pick from many but how about that wonderful opening track from Spirit Eden

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8cshTD5qhA

  19. I was given Spirit of Eden to review on its release, back in 1988. I was no more than mildly curious and nobody else wanted to touch it. What a mind-blowing listen that was. Few albums have demanded that I instantly pay full attention and rethink my entire understanding of where music is going. Swimming counter to what had seemed a permanent shift to digital, electronic, compressed and manufactured sound, this audacious music dared to linger on discordant harmonica notes and lingering, accidental-sounding natural amplified guitar swipes, swapping gated snare drums for the low, menacing rumble of dampened toms. I loved it and to this day have to play it only occasionally, so as not to become over familiar with its genius.

    For anyone interested in Hollis’ bloody-minded pursuit of the musical road less travelled, engineer Phill Brown’s Are We Still Rolling is a great read.

      • I had no interest in Talk Talk and their poppy, very “80s” hits. But when we did our top 100 albums poll here, Spirit Of Eden got a fair few mentions, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. I thought it was absolutely astonishing. Still do. Definitely one of the greatest albums I’ve ever heard. Today I checked out his solo album for the first time. Also superb.

  20. Spirit of Eden remains one of my all time favourite albums and is still listened to on a regular basis. I have a very good hi-res Sony music player with good headphones that is my late night listening – the tracks on the SD card are rotated on a regular basis – Spirit Of Eden is one of probably only three albums that have been constant from day one.

    It’s certainly a sad loss, especially at the young age of 64, but the funny thing is, I don’t feel it as a loss to me / it hasn’t hit me hard – he’s been gone from the industry for 20 years and I have everything all ready. Hopefully that makes some sense and doesn’t come across as me being a selfish / insensitive bastard…….

  22. This quote from him has been doing the rounds but feels as good a summing up of his approach as anything else:

    ‘Before you play two notes learn how to play one note — and don’t play one note unless you’ve got a reason to play it’

    I also really like this one:

    ‘I like silence. I get on great with silence, you know. I don’t have a problem with it. So if you’re going to break into it, just try and have a reason for doing it.’

    Happy memories of being about 19 years old on a family summer boating holiday in the Norfolk Broads in 1989 with a cassette copy of Spirit of Eden on one side of a C90. Astonishingly the weather was amazing all week, and after everyone else had gone to bed I’d lie outside on the roof of the boat looking up at the stars, smoking a cigarette listening to the album.

  23. The Colour of Spring got a lot of plays in the sixth form common room and I still regret missing the opportunity to see them live on that tour.

    It was years later before I bought Spirit of Eden, Laughing Stock and his solo album but they’ve had a lot of plays since.

    Truly one of a kind.

    RIP

  25. Thought I’d pop back in to read the thoughts of you all on Peter Tork and Mark Hollis. Also to share this which says more than i ever could. The link in the Tweet is to a wonderful piece of writing on Mark Hollis from Jude Rogers

  26. I have news of a sighting of Mark Hollis in the last 20 years.
    My mate used to play 5-a-side one evening every week in the mid/late 1990s and into the 2000s.
    It would have been around the Hampton area of SW London.

    A bloke who regularly played for the opposition, “quite quiet, nice fella, keeps himself to himself, doesn’t talk about music,” was Mark Hollis.

  27. Jonathan Higgs from Everything Everything suggesting that a Talk Talk reunion might actually have been on the cards:

    A reunion of the band was actually a lot closer than you think! Not sure I'm allowed to say that but I guess it matters little now, and makes it even sadder. A reunion was certainly on the cards very recently, we have the same management and it was imminent.— Jonathan Higgs (@JonathanJHiggs) February 26, 2019

  28. As my good friend @Twang hasn’t really listened to later period TT I made a Spotty playlist for him today – its here for anyone else in the same position and you are interested in seeing what all the fuss is about.

    I ignored the early stuff as I simply don’t really like anything pre Colour of Spring. I also included a couple of Marks solo tracks plus a couple from Rustin Man.

    Been reading all of the obits today and generally digging out old articles – discovered that Steven Wilson was on the verge of remixing both Eden and Laughing Stock but Hollis pulled it at the last minute.

  29. I’ve had COS on rotation all week. It was the perfect accompaniament walking the dog tonight as the sun set. As always with me I go for the most obvious and Life’s What You Make it remains a highlight. I suddenly realised tonight that there is even some Les Dawson piano in the middle. Hollis was indeed a gifted musician…

  32. To be brutally honest – given the generally melancholic yet uplifting nature of Hollis’s work, I was expecting the reporting of this death to include the dreaded euphemism ‘sudden’, so was slightly surprised to read ‘after a short illness’.

    But regardless, a sad loss of a major talent.

  33. There’s a very enjoyable Tom Robinson show on 6Music right now – [Sunday evening, available on iPlayer] – A tribute to Mark Hollis, songs by him and with Talk Talk and other collaborations and also music inspired by and an influence on Talk Talk.

      • The voice is the thing that’s holding me back from going ‘wow’ from the off. It’s slightly Black Star Bowie in places although I read somewhere that he claims to have never listened to it.

        Like you say, musically it’s wonderful.

    • The very same painstaking attention to detail. Webb has spent the last fifteen years learning to play each instrument to a sufficient standard for the album. That’s dedication.

    • Rightly or wrongly, I’ve always thought of his album with Beth Gibbons as being the album you’d ask someone to listen to if they wanted to get into Portishead. A more accessible introduction to her voice.

      I’m not sure how to describe his latest offering, although that’s no bad thing in my book.

  38. Like several people on here I’ve been listening to my Talk Talk CDs since the news of Mark’s death. I was listening to The Colour of Spring on Sunday Morning and thinking what a great album that is. I came down for breakfast where Mrs B was listening to Steve Wright’s Love Songs. the very next record opens with a familiar sounding drum and percussion intro, followed by a rumbling bass and an unusual piano riff. I’m thinking “Oh come on, I know this. Which Talk Talk album is it on?” I could almost hear Mark’s opening lyric. Until it came. It was Just Another Day by John Secada, released in 1992, a good 6 years after The Colour of Spring. I’d never picked up on that before, how like Talk Talk it is. Maybe it’s just me

    • They were quite influential.

      I don’t think Elbow would have had much of a career if they’d not heard TCOS. At least Guy Garvey has the good grace to acknowledge the similarity.

  41. Surviving members of Talk Talk will perform the band’s songs in concert for the first time since the 1980s, when the group retired from touring. They’ll be joined by special guests, to be announced, playing songs from across the legendary group’s discography. Billed “A Celebration of Talk Talk and Mark Hollis,” the show takes place November 26 at London’s Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank.

    https://pitchfork.com/news/talk-talk-announce-mark-hollis-tribute-show/

Leave a Reply