Musicians from Talk Talk reunited for a one-off show celebrating the 40th anniversary of classic album ‘The Colour Of Spring’, and brought out Ride’s Mark Gardener, Ed Harcourt, Fyfe Dangerfield and more.
Check out what went down below, along with footage and the full setlist.
The gig took place on Saturday September 5 at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, and included a selection of songs from Talk Talk’s seminal album ‘The Colour of Spring’, in celebration of the milestone, along with some other classics from the band’s discography.
The band’s third studio album was released in February 1986 and represented a major transition for them musically – leaving behind the synthpop sound that had made them successful, and now embracing a more experimental, jazz and art pop-influenced approach.
For the gig on Saturday, musicians including Simon Brenner, the group’s founding keyboardist, as well as Phil Ramocon and Ian Curnow came together and paid tribute to their singer Mark Hollis, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 64.
They were joined on stage by Sophie Barker (Zero 7), Gale Paridjanian (Turin Brakes), Tim Eisenburg (Sweet Billy Pilgrim), Chris Hampson and Jacob Brown, as well as guest collaborations from Ed Harcourt and Guillemots’ Fyfe Dangerfield, and Ride’s Mark Gardener.
Both Harcourt and Dangerfield helped open the night with their own solo sets, and later returned to the stage during the main Talk Talk set.
To kick the headline set off, Elsenberg joined the band for ‘Today’ and ‘Talk Talk’, before later coming back for ‘I Don’t Believe In You’, and ‘The Party’s Over’.
Mark Gardener took to the stage to help break out ‘Living In Another World’ and ‘The Rainbow’, Fyfe Dangerfield joined for ‘Time It’s Time’, and Mark Harcourt helped perform ‘I Believe In You’ and ‘The Colour Of Spring’ – the latter of which being from Hollis’ 1998 solo album.
Sophie Barker joined in later in the set, and took on ‘Happiness Is Easy’, ‘Tomorrow Started’, ‘Such A Shame’, and fan favourite ‘It’s My Life’, while Olly Knights sang ‘Give It Up’. The set closed with ‘Life’s What You Make It’, which featured all guest performers.
Talk Talk’s setlist was:
‘Today’ (with Tim Elsenberg)
‘Talk Talk’ (with Tim Elsenberg)
‘Living in Another World’ (with Mark Gardener)
‘I Don’t Believe in You’ (with Tim Elsenberg)
‘Time It’s Time’ (with Fyfe Dangerfield)
‘The Rainbow’ (with Mark Gardener)
‘I Believe in You’ (with Ed Harcourt)
‘The Colour of Spring’ (Mark Hollis song, with Ed Harcourt)
‘Happiness Is Easy’ (with Sophie Barker)
‘Tomorrow Started’ (with Sophie Barker)
‘Give It Up’ (with Olly Knights)
‘Such a Shame’ (with Sophie Barker)
‘It’s My Life’ (with Sophie Barker)
‘The Party’s Over’ (with Tim Elsenberg)
‘Life’s What You Make It’
The gig this weekend took place shortly after Talk Talk released a 40th anniversary reissue of ‘The Colour Of Spring’, cut at half speed.
Before then, the band had already released a half-speed reissue of ‘Spirit Of Eden’, overseen by Mark Hollis’ son Charlie, as well as the band’s drummer Lee Harris and producer Matt Colton.
In an obituary for Mark Hollis, NME wrote: “Citing influences such as Debussy, Bartok, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, however, Hollis clearly had ambitions beyond the frivolous pop music of the early ‘80s. He shifted towards a more layered and organic style, improvising with an expanded band to create Talk Talk’s celebrated, 2 million-selling third album ‘The Colour Of Spring’, a Top Ten album in 1986 on the back of the prowling pianos and soaring guitar riffs of international hit ‘Life’s What You Make It’.”
