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