Mark Hollis: A Perfect Silence

Product Information

Wardle has interviewed Keith Aspden, Talk Talk’s former manager; Mark Feltham, the harmonica player and one of Hollis’ most trusted session musicians; and Phill Brown, the audio engineer who worked on the great albums. When you combine this background with his appreciation of the late Mark Hollis and Talk Talk, he’s well-positioned to offer some unique insights into the pioneering art-pop outfit. Ed was many things to many people, but most importantly, Ed’s love and knowledge of music and his eclectic music collection would be the spark that fired up Hollis. In a mere eight years and five albums, Talk Talk undertook a transformation unprecedented in popular music history. From the beginning, Talk Talk was a rocket with a clear trajectory – discarding elements, parts, and (lunar) modules along its way as it moved through the spheres.

Mark Hollis was always something of an enigmatic, reclusive figure right up to his untimely passing in 2019, but boy did he produce some great music once he hit his stride. Among the interviewees for this book are Simon Brenner, producer Rhett Davies, Phill Brown, James Marsh, musical collaborators George Page, Phil Ramocon, Martin Ditcham, Dominic Miller, Mark Feltham, Johnny Turnbull, Robbie McIntosh and others.NME were particularly venomous, once describing him at an early gig as looking like a “nervous accountant who had stumbled onstage”. He was always reluctant to speak candidly about his life even to those closest to him – sometimes he would sit with a friend in a pub in complete silence – and so Wardle’s interviews reveal something about how he was perceived but not much about how it was to be Mark Hollis. The story of how Mark Hollis wrestled with the commercial demands of the 1980s has become the stuff of myth. An extremely good read though, and surely as close to the final word on this subject as we’re ever going to get. Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.

The Lo-Fi recording quality, the rattle, and the distortion made it sound bruised as if it was a vessel in the process of shedding all excess weight – its protective shields burning up – until it finally escaped gravity and achieved weightlessness. For the first time A Perfect Silence explains the realities and explodes the myths surrounding Hollis and Talk Talk's career, and in doing so reveals the working patterns, sense of humour and desire for privacy of the man himself. Ben Wardle, a lecturer in music business at the University of Gloucestershire, has set himself the challenge of getting behind or going over the wall and telling Hollis’ story. Mark Hollis was so much more than the hits ‘It’s My Life’ or ‘Life’s What You Make It’, and A Perfect Silence enjoyably and meticulously gives us that insight. Outside of Britain they had more success, notably in Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands following the release of their second album in 1984.Often in an artist’s oeuvre, a transformation takes place: sensibilities mature, and abilities crystalize. It is diligent, sceptical when it needs to be, well reported, authoritative and written from the heart. After that, a seven year gap before his last work, a self titled solo effort originally intended to be a Talk Talk album titled Mountains of the Moon, and that was that – twenty years of silence was its only follow up. The biography also confirms how Hollis was deeply influenced by his brother Ed, and includes key recollections from producer/musician Tim Friese-Greene and manager Keith Aspden. He has written and presented regularly for BBC’s Front Row and hosted a podcast about vinyl for several years.

Well, the world of music of cinema or TV is complex and full of unrealised projects, but that's particularly frustrating. He was legendised as a misunderstood visionary, or post-rock pioneer, or as an uncompromising innovator persecuted by treacherous music industry executives. At the base of it all, he had a really gentle, kind, sweet character, but was capable of great cruelty and ignorance at the same time,” one long-time collaborator said.Today, beyond the records, beyond the music, the rest is silence – or at least that is how Mark Hollis would have wished it, and his wife and sons seem determined to honour his legacy by saying nothing and keeping the door to the walled garden firmly locked.

Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH).Growing up amid the Punk movement, Hollis would take their modus operandi of DIY to heart, follow the sounds in his head, and form Talk Talk in 1981. Ben Wardle knows the music industry’s intricacies - he was a talent spotter for Warner and the creator of indie label Indolent.