The evolution of Talk Talk was probably the greatest New Wave story every told. That journey, from their beginnings as purveyors of slightly more sophisticated than average skinny tie synthpop, to their final form as astonishingly artful, soulful, post-rock trailblazers is astonishing to listen to over the course of their five studio LPs.

Smack in the middle of those five LPs was The Colour Of Spring, their first album on which they jettisoned the synthpop tropes that made their name, and the last on which they had actual pop songs. Working with producer Tim Friese-Greene—who, after working with the band on their It’s My Life album went on to become singer Mark Hollis’ chief collaborator and a de facto member of the band in-studio—Talk Talk brought in a host of guest musicians and partially constructed their songs out of improvisations. As a result, Spring was flexible and organic, a huge creative leap from their earlier output (which itself was fine stuff, it should be stressed). It was their biggest seller, and the last album for which they toured. As Friese-Greene’s improvisational composition and recording methods came to the fore on the band’s increasingly impenetrable and uncompromising subsequent LPs, recreating many Talk Talk songs in concert became totally impractical.
 

 
But though it worked out to be their last, that 1986 tour was a doozy. Talk Talk played to massive, appreciative crowds, their core trio augmented by five additional musicians. The tour was pretty well documented, too: an officially released DVD, Live at Montreux, came out eight years ago. It’s still in print, and is an essential view for even casual fans of the band. But another complete show was captured on that tour, in Salamanca, Spain. It was filmed for television, and you can watch a 2006 rebroadcast right here. Audio bootlegs have turned up, but they’re reputedly of sketchy quality, some full of dropouts, some even transferred at the wrong speed! And that’s unfortunate (such a shame…); while it’s arguably not quite the equal of the Montreaux set, it’s absolutely a worthy performance nonetheless. I’ve indexed the video for those of you who like to jump around, and you might want to pass by the first song, a tepid, we-had-to-play-it rendition of their signature debut single. I wouldn’t skip the lesser known songs, though—the versions here of the It’s My Life tracks “Tomorrow Started” and “It’s You,” and the Colour of Spring deep cut “Give it Up” are particularly awesome. And obviously there’s not a whole lot wrong with the de rigueur cluster of hits at the end.

00:00 Talk Talk
03:38 Dum Dum Girl
07:25 Call in the Night Boy
14:07 Tomorrow Started
21:55 My Foolish Friend
26:39 Life Is What You Make It
31:02 Mirror Man / Does Caroline Know
39:16 It’s you
43:11 Living in Another World
51:10 Give It Up
56:44 It’s My Life
1:05:38 Such a Shame
1:16:58 Renée
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds
Talk Talk’s ‘Talk Talk’ pre-Talk Talk
The reticent soul of Talk Talk

 
Talk Talk’s journey from their start as opportunistic Duran Duran wannabes to the final shape of their most lasting influence as an innovative, atmospheric, experimental wonder - who inspired not just Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac albums but the entire post-rock genre via Tortoise and Bark Psychosis - is one of the most amazing stories to emerge from New Wave. That story has been told in depth elsewhere, so I’ll not rehash it further here except to note that discussion of their early work sometimes tends to dismissively focus on how awesome it wasn’t compared to their last two albums, Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock.

I beg to differ. Not only were none of their pop chart contemporaries doing anything that approached the depth of songs like “Such a Shame” and “I Believe In You,” even their first album’s blatant attempts at hitching on to the popularity of the New Romantic trend showed that the seeds of later greatness had already been planted - this was absolutely not a fallow period. The most telling comparison is not between early and late Talk Talk, but between Talk Talk and The Reaction, TT leader Mark Hollis’ prior band. There’s an actual A/B comparison to make there, since Talk Talk’s namesake debut single was in fact a remake of a song by the earlier band, which probably would have been lost altogether had it not turned up on a Beggars Banquet label comp. Check it out.
 

The Reaction, Talk Talk

And now, here’s the version the of-a-certain-age types will remember from its saturation airplay on MTV.
 

 
As goofy as Hollis’ over-emoting in that video seems, there’s still no contest. The original is kinda meh even without comparing it to the later hit version, and then Simon Brenner’s piano solo just absolutely cements Talk Talk’s superiority - it gets me every time - and he’s the guy that bailed when the band started its drift towards art-rock! (Probably not a terrible thing, all in all - here’s one of his solo efforts. I give it less than a minute in before you get why you’ve never heard of him.)

But while “Talk Talk” didn’t become a good song until other musicians re-worked it, The Reaction did release an enjoyable single - “I Can’t Resist/I’m A Case.” Enjoy it here via YouTube user toorlooo, whose page is a treasure trove of rare and interesting Talk Talk material.

The Reaction, I Can’t Resist
 

The Reaction, I’m A Case
 

 
Gingham and strawberries… because punk rock.

 
I assume everyone here already recognizes the near-holy genius of late period Talk Talk, right ? O.K., good. Here then are both sides of the I Believe in You single (most certainly the last one they ever promoted with TV appearances) from the mighty Spirit of Eden LP (1988). An exercise in sensual ascetic reticence with brief explosions of un-checked emotion as well as a brave left turn down a dark corner for this one time shiny (but excellent) pop band. I honestly can’t express how much I truly love this music.