Entertainment For Lively Minds
Mark Hollis - Genius?
Caught a concert by Talk Talk on Sky Arts the other day. I was reminded how fine they were and got to thinking about how Spirit Of Eden is just a fabulous and impressive album.
Digging around the web, there is little about Talk Talk and Hollis. I did find it surprising that EMI sued Hollis for being wilfully obscure when he presented them with the album which suggests that the EMI of the past didn't always nurtue the artist. The case was thrown out of court.
Two things spring to mind. Firstly, the Talk Talk story, and subsequent retirement from the industry of Mark Hollis would make a very interesting piece in Word. Secondly, can musicians just complete their work and finish on the basis that they have nothing else to prove or do? And if so, who else has delivered music of this quality and then just stopped?
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Laughing Stock
Just loaded Laughing Stock onto my iPod in preparation for a long journey' listening tomorrow.
What a fantastic album.
Oh My!
Aren't they just fantastic?
The later work is amazing, but even some of the earlier stuff is great too (I'm thinking of It's My life & Such a Shame for example)
The clip is a fantastic song (from the album 'Spirit of Eden' in case anyone is wondering) but I can understand why some people wouldn't like this. There are some artists who, I'm almost shocked when people say they don't like them, but Talk Talk/Hollis and others, for example David Sylvian, Sigur Ros, I can see why they have a problem.
Can't think of anyone else who has just stopped (can we even be sure that Hollis has stopped?, just because he says he has doesn't rule out him changing his mind at some point - has he actually even said that he's stopped? - I know it was reported that he was addicted to heroin - maybe he still is) Is it even possible to believe an artist who claims to have stopped 'Because they have said all they have to say'? I imagine a lot of them say that when asked why they no longer make music! (Not that i am suggesting for one moment that this is the case with Hollis...)
Mark Hollis - Genius? Probably.
Thanks for posting the clip, it's made my day.
Funnily enough ...
...just bought Mark Hollis's solo album, along with David Sylvian's Secrets of the Beehive. Both are superb, if supremely languid listens. Hollis (and Talk Talk) was always moving away from pop songs towards extended moods and atmospheres, with apparent disregard for the commercial consequences. No doubt this irked his record company somewhat, who perhaps felt that, in the end, this was not the band they had originally signed.
John Foxx gave the impression of a full stop in the mid eighties, before re-appearing more than ten years later.
Now, can we have a new blog entry along similar lines. How about Vini Reilly - Genius? Er, hang on ... but if Mr Reilly ever calls it a day a large black cloud will descend over my little piece of Planet Earth ... sorry I got distracted. Snow is forecast round these parts. Back to Mr Hollis.
Interesting that 2 out of the first 3 replies...
... also namecheck David Sylvian, as I too have "Spirit Of Eden" and "Secrets Of The Beehive" inextricably linked in the musical part of my brain... "Laughing Stock" is also great, but going more in the direction of the "non-musical" sounds that Hollis explored more on his solo album. Is it true that Hollis recorded a full orchestra for a track and erased it all except their initial tuning-up? I love "The Colour Of Spring" too, as a great mid-point between the 80s pop of the first albums and the more "out-there" direction of the later work...
Actually, damn few performers of any type actually "retire" as such - the public usually ends up making that decision for them! Ronnie Barker seems to be a rare exception of a still-popular artist who simply decided he didn't want to do it any more, even if he ended up back on screen when he knew he only had a year or so left... Leonard Cohen had apparently meant to retire until his accountant's extra-curricular activities came to light, and Lee Mavers (The La's) might be argued to have done so, though a few "persian rugs" may have contributed too... Scott Walker's gaps between records are so long he could have already retired and we wouldn't know about it. Same with Kraftwerk - if the gap between new albums is the same for the next record as the last 2, we're not expecting it until 2020, when Ralf will be 74, well past bus pass age...
And in the spirt of the original post, without wishing to make artistic comparisons, I've read a few interviews with Enya where she's said she hates making new music and would give it up tomorrow if her record company didn't offer her so much money every 5 years...
I get the Sigur Ros link
but have always found David Sylvian to be a little cold for my tastes. Maybe I haven't ridded myself of the Japan links but both Sigur Ros and Talk Talk always feel to me to be very emotioally charged songs. Never really got that with David Sylvian (was it Smash Hits that used to call him David And Sylvia?).
Where should one start with DS?
"Everything & Nothing" is a good entry point...
... a 2 CD catch-all compilation of David Sylvian's post-Japan work, including some collaborations. A fiver at Ebay or Amazon Marketplace should sort you out.
My personal favourite actual album of his is the aforementioned "Secrets Of The Beehive", which for me is his "all killer no filler" best mix of atmosphere and actual tunes, but coming at it from the "Spirit Of Eden" direction, you shouldn't be afraid of his more esoteric stuff, though his last album under his own name, "Blemish" (he's now working as Nine Horses,) was a bit much for me... "Camphor", a compilation of his instrumentals might be a good next stop, especially if you find his vocals too mannered, as many do!
I'll add my vote for "Secrets Of The Beehive"
It's just one those great albums where each song is a perfectly formed classic, "Orpheus" is one of my favourite Sylvian tracks.
For a bit more variety, the compilation "Everything & Nothing" mentioned above is probably the best place to start though as it is an excellent selection, taking in stuff from the Japan reformation Rain Tree Crow and his very good collaboration with Robert Fripp.
With huge nod toward another of your posts
Why not pop across to Spotify?
They have 100+ tracks that you can listen to and it wont cost you a penny.
Try 'Nostalgia', 'Thalheim', 'The Scent of Magnolia' & 'Orpheus' (don't be fooled by the fade to silence - it's not over)
Can I also suggest you have a listen to 'Taking Islands In Africa' by Japan. One of my favourite tracks (awful title - but hey that's Sylvian for you)
Don't remember Smash Hits calling him that, but I imagine he was a difficult interviewee so it's highly likely they did!
Good Luck!
Stoopid Me
In my defence I've only had Spotify for 12 hours but you are right. It'll stop me listening to old Pyschedelic Furs albums that I only have on vinyl as well.
Secrets Of The Beehive is Very Good
Will buy. Mrs R is pleased - just found out it was one of her favourite albums. I may even buy it for her as a present.
A digression (but not much)
An artist who made quality music and then stopped is Fred Neil. Wrote Everybody's Talkin', Dolphins, Candy Man (as sung by Roy Orbison) and a pile of others. His album Fred Neil is essential (apart from the cruddy instrumental which ends it).
I may have posted about him before. I have a mild obsession. As an explanation "Green Rocky Road," a cracker, lies below....
Mark Hollis
The album Mark brought out in 1998 really is one of those lost classics. Absolutely beautiful. I think you can hear a lot of Talk Talk in Elbow as well.
Guy Garvey
recently described Talk Talk as the greatest band ever on his radio show. He also said that 'New Grass' will be played at his funeral.
Credit Crunch
Mark Hollis album is £3.00 from Play and Amazon. Laughing Stock is not much more. Boots fill etc.
Laughing Stock was £8 ish on Amazon last night.
Always forget about Play. Will go now.
you should also be able to find
the Sylvian comp on there for a fiver,too.
Will give it a Spotify first
and if it passes muster give it a purch.
re: solo album
get it!! it was deleted almost as soon as it was released.. stone cold definate lost classic in my opinion!
Is this the one that came out on Verve?
If so, then +1 over here as well. A great record.
Back when Talk Talk first came out, I foolishly (with hindsight) pegged them as late-in-the-day New Romantic makeweights, even though it was clear from their singles that they had a way with a tune and a hook. I also recall an early interview with the band wherein Hollis expressed an ambition to make what he called "truly timeless music". Given that this was the kind of thing that everyone said back then, I thought no more of it, other than to reflect upon whether or not it was actually possible to make "truly timeless music" by design. Yet, for some reason, this particular remark by this particular musician stayed with me. Twenty-odd years later, here we all are, and people are continuing to discover records like Laughing Stock, The Colour Of Spring and The Spirit Of Eden, and wondering how on Earth they managed to miss them in the first place. Job done, I reckon.
Remember the first time I heard Spirit of Eden...
...aged 18 on a boating holiday in the Norfolk Broads. Thankfully the weather during the whole week was fantastic and used to listen to it lying on top of the boat looking up at the night sky...Have always loved this and Laughing Stock, plus Mark's solo album as well. I think there was a retrospective in Mojo a while back?
In terms of retirement..obvious one I know but Beefheart springs to mind, and also Howard Devoto.
Can I just say
that as a result of this thread I have purchased the Mark Hollis solo CD from Amazon (for something insultingly stupid like £2.98) and it is gorgeous. Languid, relaxed, demanding, not something for all occasions, but gorgeous.
I'll own up to now being the proud owner
of 2 David Sylvian CD's. Both warmer, more human and lovelier than I imagined anyone who was in Japan could produce. My preconceptions were wrong.
Had he actually retired?
A bit late to this dicussion sorry! Has Mark Hollis officially retired from the music industry, or just gone quiet, possibly beavering away quietly on new music? I just find it astonishing that someone producing such wonderful, challenging output would choose to give up music. Did he really run out of things to say, or has this silence been imposed on him through the loss of a recording contract for example?
The solo album is an absolute lost classic - funnily enough I can imagine a 2009 audience being more receptive to it than a 1998 one. However Talk Talk were always ahead of their time.
One of a number of bands...
...along with the Smiths, who prove the eighties weren't all bad. Maybe Hollis just got fed up with making music. This was the reason, quoted by Andy Partridge as to why Colin Moulding finally quit XTC. With Hollis the heroin theory is possible - the beautiful track 'I Believe in You' is said to be about the addiction.
Ed Hollis
I always understood that 'I believe in you' was about Mark's brother, the producer and manager Ed Hollis. He died as a result of a long-term heroin addiction shortly after the completion of Spirit of Eden (and possibly before the video was filmed). The song had been a final plea to him.
Interesting.
I hadn't heard that.
Mark Hollis
I tried to find out what Mark was up a couple of years back and his producere said that he was "playing golf andf bringing up two boys". I associate golf with running out of ideas :)
Golf? Nooooooo
Golf? Golf? I'm with Mark Twain when it comes to golf.
Still, even musical heroes can have feet of clay.
Sob.
:)
Talk Talk
One of Britains greatest bands fullstop
Mark Hollis solo album
I got bored waiting for the next note to arrive and sold it. I must try again.
Loved The Colour Of Spring however.
Couldn`t have put it better.
I think I really like Talk Talk`s last two albums and his solo one...but The Colour of Spring is just fantastic...not too much "out there" but with added tunes. a great great album.
MARK HOLLIS/DAVID SYLVIAN
Good to hear blogging about the fantastic Mr Hollis as well as the equally excellent Mr Sylvian - I've loved both of their outputs since the early 80's.
Sylvian has a new album out on his own very successful label in September (Samadhisound), called Manafon - looking forward to it - went to see him on tour at Manchester Bridgewater Hall in 2007 and was so over come with teenage fandom that i went to the stage when the gig ended and managed to shake his hand - i'm 41 years old how can this be, its not a take that gig ha!
One of the unsung heros of british songwriters i feel, along with Mark Hollis (whose solo album is perfect for balmy summer evenings)... i wish Word mag would do something of an update on Sylvian, just to satisfy my own strange desires!
Mrs Pedr0
knows Mrs Hollis very well & I gather all is well & Mr Hollis is a content househusband. I will say no more.
That is very good to hear
A young Mark Hollis - genius then too...
I came across this recently on You Tube...
The interview is slightly odd to say the least, (but very funny), and then the music and the vocal kick in - worth waiting for...
not my favourite...
but talk talk are a fascinating band in terms of how they evolved.
they look wasted it has to be said, a sad portent.
I saw that concert on Sky
It was excellent and they are one of my favourite bands...but did the bassist really need to chamge his bass EVERY song? Bit too muso really.
What is regret?
The way Hollis sings
'all the bridges that I burnt ' on the 1st track of that solo album.
Really stunning....
I saw them supporting Genesis & Peter Gabriel at Milton Keynes
in 1981(or was in 1982?). It was absolutely chucking it down and I suspect they didn't get the reception they deserved.
Hollis
..never as good once Nash left.