A Celebration of Talk Talk and Mark Hollis
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Press Release Date: Wednesday 9 October 2019, 10am Contact: [email protected] / 0207 921 0676 Images: downloadable here Southbank Centre announces full line-up for worldwide exclusive: A Celebration of Talk Talk and Mark Hollis Including: Alexis Taylor, Andy Bell, Hayden Thorpe, Jane Weaver, Joan As Police Woman, Mark Gardener, My Brightest Diamond, Orlando Weeks, Simon Brenner, Sophie Barker, Tim Burgess and Turin Brakes Southbank Centre, in partnership with Eat Your Own Ears, announces the full line-up for a special one-off night paying tribute to the pioneering and hugely influential 1980s British pop and rock band, Talk Talk, and their late frontman Mark Hollis, at Royal Festival Hall, 26 November 2019. Special guests announced today are: ● Frontman of legendary UK band Hot Chip Alexis Taylor ● English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Hayden Thorpe, formerly of the indie pop band Wild Beasts ● Progressive pop singer, songwriter, musician, producer and label owner Jane Weaver ● American musician, singer-songwriter and producer Joan Wasser, aka Joan As Police Woman ● Founding members and songwriters of Oxford seminal four-piece Ride, Andy Bell and Mark Gardener ● My Brightest Diamond, the project of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Shara Nova ● Former frontman of Indie rock band The Maccabees and solo singer-songwriter Orlando Weeks ● British singer and songwriter, formerly of ambient heavyweights Zero 7, Sophie Barker ● English musician, singer-songwriter and record label founder Tim Burgess, best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band The Charlatans ● The ever evolving hit band Turin Brakes A Celebration of Talk Talk and Mark Hollis brings together founding member of Talk Talk Simon Brenner alongside the Spirit of Talk Talk band. With an extraordinary roll-call of guests they will perform songs from across the band’s eclectic catalogue, including their groundbreaking final records Spirit of Eden (1988) and Laughing Stock (1991) neither of which have ever before been performed live. The event follows the death of Mark Hollis, the band’s lead singer and chief songwriter, in February 2019. The Spirit of Talk Talk band includes former members Jeep Hook, Martin Ditcham and Rupert Black alongside David Rhodes, Ian Curnow and guest bassist John Mckenzie. Musical direction is from Grammy and Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter and past Mark Hollis collaborator Phil Ramocon. Alexis Taylor, Hot Chip, said: “Mark Hollis and Talk Talk were masters of creating atmosphere, drama and tension on beautiful sounding, original, expansive and, sometimes, very sparse recordings. They carried on a tradition started by the likes of Can and Miles Davis, in terms of editing down long takes of improvisation to create masterpieces that live on forever as long-playing records. It will be an honour to pay tribute to their music and share the stage with some of the musicians involved in making these wonderful recordings.” Joan As Police Woman, said: "I was thrilled to be invited to contribute a song to the Spirit of Talk Talk tribute album and book and now I can’t wait to collaborate and perform at Southbank Centre for this special celebration of the life and music of Mark Hollis.” Tom Baker, Eat Your Own Ears, and Bengi Ünsal, Head of Contemporary Music, Southbank Centre, said: “This celebration of Talk Talk and Mark Hollis is going to be a very special, one-off evening of magical music. It’s fantastic to have such an array of brilliant guests from Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, Jane Weaver, and Ride’s Mark Gardener and Andy Bell, to Joan As Police Woman alongside some of the fabulous musicians that have played with Mark Hollis on the Talk Talk albums and on tour. It’s going to be an unforgettable and truly magnificent event.” This event coincides with the release of The Spirit of Talk Talk, a full colour book celebrating the music and art of the legendary band, compiled by Toby Benjamin. The book includes a preface by founder member Simon Brenner, interviews with Paul Webb and Lee Harris, contributions and tributes from musicians, friends and fans, plus a heartfelt afterword honouring founder and leader Mark Hollis. The book will be available for purchase on the night. # ENDS # EVENT LISTINGS: A CELEBRATION OF TALK TALK AND MARK HOLLIS Tuesday 26 November 2019, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Ticketed, £25 - £50 Southbank Centre presents a special night paying tribute to the pioneering and hugely influential 1980s British pop and rock band, Talk Talk, and their late frontman Mark Hollis. A Celebration of Talk Talk and Mark Hollis features founding and former members of the band joined by a line-up of special guests including Joan As Police Woman, Tim Burgess, Jane Weaver, Alexis Taylor and Orlando Weeks to perform songs from across the band’s eclectic catalogue, including their groundbreaking final records Spirit of Eden (1988) and Laughing Stock (1991) neither of which have ever before been performed live. Presented in partnership with Eat Your Own Ears and coinciding with the release of The Spirit of Talk Talk book. For more information see www.spiritoftalktalk.com. https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/132355-celebration-talk-talk-and-mark-hollis-2019 Join the conversation: @southbankcentre #SCgigs For further press information, interview requests or to request press tickets please contact: Alexandra Shaw, Press Officer, [email protected] / 020 7921 0676 Listings for all Southbank Centre Gigs can be found here. Press images for all upcoming Southbank Centre Gigs can be downloaded here. UPCOMING GIGS & CONTEMPORARY MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE: KAYHAN KALHOR & THE REMBRANDT TRIO Friday 11 October 2019, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Ticketed, £20 - £30 Grammy-award winning Kayhan Kalhor, virtuoso of the Persian kamancheh (an Iranian bowed string instrument), is joined by Dutch jazz musicians Rembrandt Frerichs, Tony Overwater and Vinsent Planjer - together The Rembrandt Trio - for a live performance of their otherworldly 2019 album, It’s Still Autumn. Performing in two parts, ‘Dawn’ and ‘Dusk, the four musicians weave compositions together through improvisation to take the audience on a musical journey through an imaginary autumn landscape that slowly develops from a swirling river into a nightly thunderstorm. https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/137101-kayhan-kalhor-rembrandt-trio-2019 GEORGE DALARAS Wednesday 16 October 2019, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Ticketed, £40 & £50 George Dalaras, one of the most successful Greek musicians of all time, makes his appearance in Royal Festival Hall. Rembetiko - also known as the Greek Blues - came to prominence at the same time as jazz, and Dalaras was one of the genre’s innovators. Dalaras has released more than 95 solo albums, sold more than 20 million albums, toured all over the world and collaborated with artists including Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Paco de Lucía and Al Di Meola. He brings his acoustic band to join him for this unique performance. https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/130993-george-dalaras-2019 NOVELIST + SPECIAL GUESTS Friday 18 October 2019, 10.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Clore Ballroom, £12.50 Part of London Literature Festival An exclusive late night live show with grime MC Novelist and very special guests as part of Southbank Centre’s London Literature Festival. Audiences get the chance to meet and hear from the independent-minded, politically active South London rapper, as he shares his visionary experiments in grime and hip-hop in this intimate gig. Novelist will also be participating in Southbank Centre’s Violet Nights before the show. https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/137771-novelist-2019 DEEP∞MINIMALISM 2.0 Saturday 2 November - Sunday 3 November 2019, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall, various times and prices Following the sell out success of Southbank Centre’s first DEEP∞MINIMALISM festival in 2016, cellist and producer Oliver Coates programmes DEEP∞MINIMALISM 2.0, a weekend dedicated to meditative listening and deep concentration. Day one features Eliane Radigue’s sonic exploration of birth, death and life beyond death (written over eight years, and encompassing the death of her son), Hanne Darboven’s iridescent patterns for piano and cellos and Kathryn Williams’s single-breath flute exhalations, which encourage the audience to breath with the performer. The sounds of electronic music and musique concrète pioneer Tod Dockstader are interposed throughout the second DEEP∞MINIMALISM 2.0 day, alongside works by Morton Feldman, Laura Cannel and Hanne Darboven’s major composition for organ, Requiem, performed by James McVinnie. https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/festivals-series/deepminimalism CHLOÉ: ENDLESS REVISIONS Tuesday 5 November 2019, 7.45pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £15 Performing the UK premiere of her latest album Endless Revisions, French producer and DJ Chloé constructs a musical and physical playground in the space between electro and techno with a set design that responds and reacts to the music. Endless Revisions, released in 2017 under Chloé’s own label, Lumière Noire, evolves with every live performance, transforming in front of the audience, feeding them with new textures and inspiration. These new versions of the album are replayed, recreated and restructured alongside the evolution of the performance’s very architecture. She layers electronic music with synthesizers, drum machines and pedal to create a sonic tension, mixing electro and techno with a touch of new wave and post-punk. https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/139576-chloe-endless-revisions-2019 CHLOÉ: SLOW-MO Wednesday 6 November 2019, 7.45pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £15 Slow-Mo Live premiered at TAP in Poitiers and Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, where the audience lay down during the show, and at Sónar festival, Barcelona, in 2018.