Very very sad, they were in the late 80s my absolute favourite band. and live at Hammersmith Odeon is possibly my favourite live concert ever. I was gobsmacked when that very concert appeared on a CD around 2002. If you are a fan, it's a must have, you hear a band -and an audience - that knows it is playing out of its skin. Mark Feltham guests on harmonica on a stonking "Living in another world".
Posted elsewhere, but sums up the impact this man's creativity had on this one man:
Genius, pure and simple.
So myself and a few friends had a way of introducing each other to quality music. On random Sundays we would each bring ten tunes that we would play one at a time before the next's turn. There were three of us that day.
Anyway. I had just had my turn. Next up, Dunk reaches for Spirit of Eden. Talk Talk? Says I, adding something derogatory to the effect 'weren't they some kind of also-rans from the new romantic era?'. I expected to be distinctly underwhelmed.
So, the first track starts and I am immediately intrigued, then totally absorbed, then utterly blown away. After that track finished, it was Leyton's turn. Shall we just leave it on? He suggests.
We did, none of the others wanted their 'turn'. The album got better and better and I realised that I had missed out on something very, very special. These days I consider it a contender for the best album ever made (next to Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime, most probably). There is nothing else like it and it is, quite simply, beautiful, stunning, pure emotion, bliss, sadness......well, actually, words don't do it justice, so I'll stop trying.
So I did a bit of a search on the net, and was mildly alarmed to discover that Talk Talk played two nights at the Odeon on 7th and 8th May 1986, and suddenly thought, was I really at the one that's on the CD? Well, from the set lists I am honestly not sure now. Both end with Renee, and here it is; which of the two nights, it doesn't say, but it sounds like I remember it, with him quietly saying "thank you very much" at the end and walking off, leaving us all in frantic disbelief that he is ending the concert this way; and as we now know, the 8th was their last live concert ever.
Comments
Going to play it right now. RIP, sir.
RIP Mark
RIP Mark