Trivia / Talk Talk

• Bury Your Art: After the band successfully sued EMI to get out of their contract, the label responded by putting together both the 1990 Greatest Hits Album Natural History and the 1991 Remix Album History Revisited. The band begrudgingly accepted the release of Natural History, but were so incensed by History Revisited that they sued EMI again and successfully forced the label to permanently remove the album from print. The only song from it to resurface after the court case was the dub mix of "Happiness Is Easy", which was taken from the original 12" release of "I Don't Believe in You" in 1986 and reappeared on the 1998 compilation Asides Besides.
• Channel Hop: Talk Talk were signed onto EMI for most of their lifetime, but following an unexpected extension to their contract that would've otherwise have been fulfilled with the release of Spirit of Eden in 1988, the band filed a lawsuit against EMI on the basis that the notification for their contract extension was sent out later than their contract permitted. The band eventually won the case, allowing them to finally ditch EMI and move over to Polydor Records for their fifth and final album, Laughing Stock, released on Polydor's jazz label Verve. As the band were signed onto a two-album contract with Polydor, the second album came in the form of Mark Hollis' 1998 solo album, which incidentally was intended to be released under the Talk Talk name at first.
• Contractual Obligation Project: Though the band split up shortly after the release of Laughing Stock in 1991, their contract with Polydor Records required one more album to be fulfilled. Frontman Mark Hollis would thus come out of retirement in 1998 solely to put out a Self-Titled Album and complete his end of the bargain, quietly stepping back into retirement right after.
• Executive Meddling:
  • EMI pressured the band to release a single and video for "I Believe In You". Mark Hollis went on to state that acquiescing to this demand was a huge mistake. Despite this, EMI engaged in more meddling by unexpectedly extending the band's contract, which led to a legal battle that the band won and a Channel Hop to Polydor Records.
  • The music video for "It's My Life" was a statement against lip-syncing, composed entirely of nature footage alongside occasional shots of Mark Hollis with his lips shut. Despite gaining plenty of airplay, EMI were unhappy with the video and wanted a more commercial product. Out of spite, the band simply took the original video and green-screened themselves over it, lip-syncing in the hammiest way imaginable; EMI accepted it.
  • A more positive example happened during the creation of The Colour Of Spring, as executives thought that the album didn't have any singles, so made the band go back and record some more accessible songs, resulting in "Living in Another World" and "Life's What You Make It", two of the band's most popular songs.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • The 1991 Remix Album History Revisited: The Remixes has officially been out of print since 1992 as the result of Talk Talk winning a second court case against EMI (the first being the one that allowed them to leave the label in the first place), in which the band asserted that the album, which had been made without their involvement or even their consultation, was an illicitly improper use of their songs.
  • For reasons unknown, the 2001 compilation Missing Pieces (which consists of the "After the Flood" triple-CD single set in its entirety plus a solo piano instrumental by Mark Hollis, all on a since disc) hasn't been put back into print since it was first released.
• One-Hit Wonder: Played with; the band had a single Top 40 hit in the US with 1984's "It's My Life" (which also became a hit for No Doubt). They were much more successful in the UK, where they had four other Top 40 hits ("It's My Life" wasn't even one of them until a 1990 re-issue). Interestingly, their lasting legacy in alternative music history (and arguably, what they're best known for nowadays) is for their material after their hit-making days were over. Their last two albums, 1988's Spirit of Eden and 1991's Laughing Stock, were commercial flops at the time of release, despite critical acclaim. However, the albums soon became favorites in indie music circles, and they're both now lauded as hugely influential to the development of the Post-Rock genre; to this day, Talk Talk are held up as a quintessential example of a one-hit wonder that managed to leave behind a significant legacy past their sole hit.
• Reclusive Artist: The band while recording Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock.
  • Mark Hollis in particular stands out, preferring to pick up an award on the office rather than on the show (the photo linked— dated 2004— was the last time we ever saw from him).
    • He once resisted to give an interview onstage.
  • Hollis himself was incredibly private years after Talk Talk and his solo album, a rare feat for any artist. While 2004 was the last time people saw him physically, Hollis did compose a score for the 2012 BBC series Boss. When he died in 2019, literally nobody knew if it was true until his cousin-in-law Anthony Costello and bassist Paul Webb confirmed it to be true. The surviving members played a tribute concert to Hollis later in the year, the first time any of the members had played live as Talk Talk since 1986.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The sole reason why the 1991 Remix Album History Revisited: The Remixes remains out of print to this day. The band detested the album on the basis that it was made without their involvement or approval, and sued EMI for improper use of their material (namely falsely attributing them to an album that they never worked on) and unpaid royalties. The band won the lawsuit in 1992, and as a result, History Revisited was permanently deleted from their catalog. For what it's worth, the album wasn't too highly thought of by fans and critics even before the band members' opinions became known, being considered inoffensive at best by those who listened to it.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Laughing Stock was initially meant to have artwork of birds forming the outline of a much larger bird on the cover, however Mark Hollis requested a continuation of the "tree of birds" motif from Spirit of Eden's cover, which led to this artwork being shelved. It later turned up as the cover of the box set After The Flood.
  • Mark Hollis' 1998 Self-Titled Album was originally meant to be released under the Talk Talk name, bearing the title Mountains of the Moon. Why this never came to pass is not clearly known, though the fact that none of Hollis' Talk Talk bandmates were involved with the album's production was likely a contributing factor. Interestingly, promotional CD-R and cassette copies of Mark Hollis retain the Mountains of the Moon title, with the CD-R version also keeping the attribution to Talk Talk.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Drawing inspiration from Can, the band put together The Colour of Spring, Spirit of Eden, and Laughing Stock by improvising with session musicians and stitching songs together from the results.

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