Wallace references this interview with Talk Talk’s Tim Friese-Greene. Very good and worth reading.
http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/MagSitePages/Article.aspx?id=3930
Tag: Wyndham Wallace
Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, 20 years on
I’ve become quite enamored of Wyndham Wallace’s writings over the past several days. Here’s a wonderfully insightful piece he wrote on the 20th anniversary of the release of Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock. Enjoy.
There are many remarkable aspects to the story of Talk Talk’s fifth and final album, Laughing Stock. It took a year to make, and most of what was put to tape ended up on the scrapheap. In London’s Wessex Studios, where it was recorded, windows were blacked out, clocks removed, and light sources limited to oil projectors and strobe lights. Around fifty musicians contributed to its making, but only eighteen ended up on the finished album. It was a commercial failure, critically reviled as much as it was praised, and was impossible to perform live. Then the band broke up, forcing fans to wait seven years before its central protagonist released any new music, something followed by almost complete silence. Laughing Stock is also shrouded in mystery: apart from limited comments made during brief bursts of promotional activity to promote their own even more limited work since, the three authors of the record – Mark Hollis (songwriter and founder), Tim Friese-Greene (producer and co-songwriter since their third album, The Colour Of Spring) and Lee Harris (drums, and the only other remaining member of the band’s original line up by the time of Laughing Stock) – have refused to discuss it for years. But the music remains, its reputation growing with each passing year since its release two decades ago: stark, bold, indefinable and the greatest testament to the band. . . .
Nice Piece on Talk Talk’s THE COLOUR OF SPRING
It was, in retrospect, what people call a “pivotal album.” The Colour of Spring, Talk Talk’s third full-length release, appeared initially to be a straightforward development from the band’s previous recordings – artfully crafted pop delivering global hits – and yet pointed bravely towards something unexpected, something decidedly un-pop. One could see the footprints the band had left along the trail from their 1982 debut single, “Mirror Man”, to the 1986 release of this, their biggest selling record, but there were also signs they were heading into new, uncharted territory. Life’s What You Make It was the calling card, a bold burst of vibrant, optimistic acceptance, driven by a rolling piano line and drums inspired by Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, and Living in Another World stood proudly beside it, distinguished by Traffic’s Steve Winwood’s exuberant organ cameo. But April 5th and Chameleon Day were intimate, lingering slices of abstract sound that were as baffling as they were haunting.
To keep reading this excellent article by Wyndham Wallace, click here.
Progarchy 