416 Hello Paul Webb* - Talk Talk

( * as  part  of  Talk  Talk )

Chart  entered : 24  April  1982

Chart  peak :  52  ( 23  in  re-mixed  form  November  1982 )

Number  of  hits  : 10  ( 9  with  Talk  Talk, 1  as  Rustin  Man )

I  know  this  seems  a  very  artificial  way  to  get  one  of  my  favourite  bands  on  here  but  what  the  heck !

Paul  was  born  in  Essex  in  1962. He  and  schoolfriend  Lee  Harris  played  in  a  reggae  band  called  Eskalator  as  bassist  and  drummer  respectively  before  being  approached  by  Ed  Hollis  , manager  of  Eddie  and  the  Hot  Rods,  in  1981  to  form  a  band  with  his  brother  Mark. Simon  Brenner  on  keyboards  completed  the  line  up.

Talk  Talk  were  quickly  signed  up  by  EMI  but  made  a  rod  for  their  own  backs  by  agreeing  to  a  support  slot  on  Duran  Duran's  autumn  tour  and  working  with  the  same  producer  Colin  Thurston. They  were  quickly  perceived  as  Duran  wannabe's  and  the  knives  were  sharpened  for  them  by  the  time  they  released  their  first  single  "Mirror  Man"  at  the  beginning  of  1982.

"Mirror  Man"  is  a  compellingly  strange  song , its  lyric  about  a  fashion-defying  girl  seemingly  at  odds  with  the  doom-laden  synths  and  Hollis's  angst-ridden  vocals  which  conjure  up  an  atmosphere  of  unspeakable  dread. The  chorus  hook  is  a  string  of  groans  over   a  sombre  string  synth  riff.  Such  bleakness  combined  with  the  negative  publicity  around  EMI's  "next  big  thing"  meant  it  missed  the  charts  altogether.

This  was  their  second  single. The  song  was  written  by  the  Hollis  brothers  and  originally  recorded  back  in  1977  by  Hollis's  previous  band  The  Reaction  as  a  punk  number  protesting  about  mendacious  politicians. Talk  Talk's  version  jettisons  all  the  guitars  and  the  raspy  snarl  in  Hollis's   voice   and  slightly  changes   the  lyric  to  make  it  more  personal  than  political  . Though  greeted  with  the  same  sneers  in  the  press it  has  little  in  common  with  Duran, Mark's  accusatory  lyrics  wrapp themselves  around  Paul's  bassline  and  Harris's  skittering   Linn  drum  patterns  with  Brenner  holding  a  single  quiet  chord  before  erupting  into  a  rich  Hammond-y  sound  for  the  chorus . The  sound  fills  out  as  the  record  progresses  with  a  Grand   piano  coming  in  at  the  middle  eight  and  Paul  throwing  in  an  extra  vocal  part  on  the  last  chorus.
After  the  subsequent  single  "Today "  broke  them  into  the  Top  20  it  was  re-mixed  ( to  little  real  effect )  and  became  a  more  substantial  hit  though  not  as  high  as  it  deserved.