I was very sad to hear of the death of Mark Hollis on Monday, February 25, 2019.
The music he made with Talk Talk, and the solo album he released in 1998, is some of the most beautiful and mysterious I have ever heard. There wasn’t much of it, but it touched me deeply for 30 years. For anyone who hasn’t heard The Colour Of Spring, Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock in particular, I would urge immediate investigation.
I spent most of the Monday night and Tuesday morning following his death writing a piece for the Guardian on the beauty of Hollis’s voice and words. Several other writers also contributed pieces. Orchestrated by Laura Snapes, the Guardian‘s coverage in the aftermath of his death was superlative. The various pieces are collected here, and they are all excellent.
In the years before Hollis’s death, I wrote several other pieces about Talk Talk. Here are some of them: