The Quiet Man Whose Music SPOKE VOLUMES

“I STILL THINK SPIRIT OF EDEN IS THE MOST ADMIRABLE ‘FUCK-YOU’ TO THE POP MAINSTREAM EVER MADE.”
Steven Wilson

Few heard it coming in the early music of Talk Talk, whose 1982 debut album The Party’s Over, a slice of now-dated synth-pop sheen that wanted to be Roxy Music’s Avalon but landed on Midge Ure’s Ultravox, was described by critics as “a mess”, “airless” and “a laughable pomposity”. (To be fair, one spotted “a gothic, almost celestial majesty”.) Yet by the time the band’s “career” – for want of a better word – had ended 10 years later, they had transformed into something radically more exploratory and, to this day, quietly influential. Recent obituaries of Mark Hollis didn’t shy away from claiming that his passionate pursuit of an almost impossible ideal redefined rock.

“I never met Mark Hollis but always had the feeling that he was a co-tunneller under the surface of what pop music might mean,” tweeted Peter Hammill upon hearing of Mark’s death, aged 64, in late February. Musicians united in respect, emphasising the range of Talk Talk’s reach, from prog to pop to post-rock to all who seek to tweak the envelope. “Real originality is a rare. “Mark created very personal pictures with his music and magical voice: a wry, unique and soulful take on the world.” Steven Wilson, who spoke of his love of the band when collaborating with Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt as Storm Corrosion, commented that it was hard to think of any musician to whom the word “integrity” would more appropriately apply. “I still think is the most admirable ‘fuck-you’ to the pop mainstream ever made. And I loved Mark for it. His records still stand for me as the most beautiful pop music ever made, albums where every musical gesture seems somehow sacred. Listening to them changes you forever.”