Story behind the record cover - The Party's over (1982) - TALK TALK
"Record company EMI had great success in the early eighties with the band Duran Duran. The band made so-called New Romantic music, with a bit of new wave, some glam rock and a touch of funk. 'We'll have more of that, please', they thought, as record executives often think. Let's go and find another one like that. Mark Hollis and Simon Brenner made some music in their college days. Hollis had been writing songs since he was a teenager and had a pretty good voice. Brenner had bought a Wurlitzer piano and a cheap Japanese synthesizer from which he could get beautiful sounds. They were both about 23 years old. Hollis's lyrics were about the hard life. About the girls he wanted to pick up. And about the unpredictable behavior of said beings: when they said 'yes' they really meant 'no' and when they said 'no' they meant 'maybe'. He was tired of such talk and wrote a nice song about it: Talk Talk.
Something strange was going on at the Hollis's house. Normally, parents would rather have their child go to college than face an uncertain future in music, but in the Hollis' household it was the other way round. Father Hollis, a failed musician himself, wanted nothing more for Mark than to give up his studies and become a musician. His other son Ed was already working in the music industry as a DJ, producer and manager. It's him who came up with two more students, one of whom, Lee Harris, could play a little drums and the other, Paul Webb, played the bass. Then brother Ed and dad Hollis persuaded Mark and Simon to record some demos. They already had a band name in mind: Talk Talk.
Brother Ed managed to bring the demo to the attention of the EMI record bosses. They called in producer Colin Thurston of Duran Duran fame and so the four students were suddenly allowed to record an album in a large professional studio. There was also a marketing plan. The group would play as support act for Elvis Costello and 'Talk Talk' would be pulled from the album as a single. All according to strict EMI guidelines that had already generated a lot of money before, especially for the record company itself. Just a few photo shoots of the band members for the record cover and the single, and then everything could be set in motion. That's when singer Mark Hollis started to get upset. "Not a copy of Duran Duran!!" he murmured to his father, who had become the band's agent by then. "Then I won't sing another word." Mark already had bigger plans. He had discovered the music of King Crimson, Miles Davis and the French composer Claude Debussy in his father's record cabinet. He preferred to make artistic music instead of pop music. But that problem would surface much later. First the problem with EMI of the record sleeve had to be resolved, because a contract had already been signed.
Illustrator James Marsh was hired for the job. He listened to the song 'Talk Talk' and came up with the idea for the cover of "Party's Over". He replaced the two eyes with two mouths. Eyes are normally the mirrors of the soul and speak the truth, albeit non-verbally. What if man looked like this record cover? Then you wouldn't know if someone is telling the truth, would you? Suddenly, it could have a triple meaning. The idea appealed to Mark Hollis. He developed an excellent relationship with illustrator James Marsh and he was allowed to make all Talk Talk covers. It became a Talk Talk trademark, like Roger Dean's covers for the prog rock band Yes. Marsh's drawings are surrealistic drawings that are strongly reminiscent of the work of painters such as René Magritte and Salvador Dali. The record company agreed. A bit risky, because what would the teenage girl fan base think? Now they couldn't put a poster of the boys on the wall. Anyway, the record was a reasonable success. In any case, EMI did not suffer a loss.
Mark Holllis and his buddies were allowed to record another album. They were allowed some leeway in terms of complexity of the music, in return for some solid hit material. Mark Hollis had plenty of ideas, but they didn't match the views of his college friend Simon Brenner. Brenner was kicked out of the band and replaced by two other keyboardists, Tim Freese-Green and Ian Curnow. This second LP, "It's My Life" became a mega success with hits such as 'Such a shame' and 'It's my life'.
It's my life' is also the trademark of Mark Hollis'. He went his own way. "It's my life. I decide what I want to do." Much to the dissatisfaction of the record company, his father and his brother. Due to contractual obligations, one more commercially tinged album was made, "The Color of Spring". Then Mark Hollis took a radically different musical direction with "Spirit of Eden". EMI filed a lawsuit because the experimental music on this album was deemed 'not listenable'. The contract with EMI was terminated. Fortunately, record company Parlophone saw something in this music. The albums "Spirit of Eden" and successor "Laughing Stock" were released in the era of the late 1980's of 'post-rock' and 'independent' (indie) music.
I was introduced to these two albums through my son. "Dad, do you have any Talk Talk music?" he asked a few years ago. "Of course," I said. I even bought "It's My Life" in the eighties, because I liked the hits. As an avid record collector, "Spirit of Eden" and "Laughing Stock" are now also part of my record collection, but I had never actually played them. Until my son pointed it out to me. Nowadays, I play these records regularly. Brilliant, atmospheric, experimental music. The more you play the albums, the better they get. But Mark Hollis had had enough of the music industry, caused by too many bad experiences. He saw his brother Ed die from heroin and cocaine. Mark retired to the countryside with his family. He kept silent for years. In 2003 he released a limited edition solo album, It was not a commercial success, but that didn't matter to Mark Hollis; for him the party was long over. He died in 2019, after a short illness, at the age of 64 and was buried in private.
By Gerrit-Jan Vrielink
Translation Alex Driessen
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