Talk Talk - It's My Life

I don't know the exact date that this was released, but February 1984 was apparently when it first appeared on the shelves so it's effectively 40 years... 40 DARN YEARS ARRGHH... since Talk Talk released their second album, "It's My Life." 9 songs that are kind of 80s synthpop, but somehow a bit more than that.

Watch on YouTube

For me, Talk Talk is The Band(tm) and I've been a fan since 1991. Their music means a huge amount to me, to the point where I can say - without wishing to dwell on details - that I may well not be around if it wasn't for their songs. I first stumbled across them via their 1986 song, "Life's What You Make It" and that in turn led me to checking out a random 7 inch single, "It's My Life." Which I absolutely loved, but after that, I decided to track down their albums in order.

So... although the first album knocked my proverbial socks off, it was this second album (It's My Life) that absolutely cemented my love of the band. I was and still am a very big fan of synths, and this album is awash with them. The debut album was as well, but they were solid slabs of synth, whereas on this album it's done more subtly. They're more like textures rather than blasting synth leads. And hearing this after thinking the debut album was excellent, it was like "holy donuts! This is even better."

(And although synths still played a role on later albums, they mostly trimmed them out of the songs, so this was the last time they used them significantly.)

The bulk of the synth sounds were created by synth boffin Ian Curnow, and he used techniques with synths that nobody had done before. I can't remember exact details, but somehow he linked two Jupiter 8 synths together and found that by adjusting dials on one, it affected the other, creating the weird semi-guitar sound that is used on several of the tracks. Something that could be done fairly easily on modern keyboards now, but was a nightmare to do back in the 80s.

Sadly the main mover and songwriter for the band, Mark Hollis, died back in 2019. That hit me hard, because although he'd long, long since retired from the music scene, I always had that tiny little thought that maybe one day I'd meet him, maybe chat with him, or perhaps even work on a bit of music. (Very very unlikely, but while he was alive, I always had that tiny shred of hope.) Alas, it was not to be, though I do have a very nice hand written and signed letter from him, which I keep very safe.

Winifred

I've recently become obsessed with a group of animal characters created by Sam Fennah, originally for a series he was making called Satellite City. From what I gather, he kind of went for a reboot and wrote a book last year called "Amygdala" featuring all the characters and a bunch of new ones. The book itself is a behemoth, at well over 1000 pages, so I'm almost terrified at the thought of starting it. But it looks amazing, and has something like 80+ of Fennah's paintings which are stunning.

He also has a bunch of stuff on Youtube, but the one that really stuck with me is the one below, featuring a character called Winifred. I should mention that many of his characters are quite sinister looking in their own way and his videos tend to feature a lot of swearing. (Not this one though. This is just the animation and a song.) So if that puts you off, they may be best avoided. And Winifred in the video below is quite disturbing and isn't very easy to look at, but (as others have said) she has a kind of beauty of her own, if that makes sense.

Watch on YouTube

Having not yet read the book, I'm going on what I heard via a Wiki page, so I may be way off the mark here. But poor Winifred apparently used to have golden fur, and at some point something happened which left her blind and a shadow of her former self. That, combined with the stunning cover of the Bee Gees song, "I Started A Joke" is just heartbreaking, though it should also be mentioned that Winifred was also apparently not the nicest of characters before that all happened to her.

(And I quote from the esteemed Mr Fennah himself, "She'd murder you for a biscuit..." To be honest, I can relate, especially if it was a Jammy Dodger.. =^_^=  )

Question Time

Stolen, half-inched, taffed, nicked, grabbed and generally claimed from loganberrybunny and howsmyenglish  Bwahaha etc it's mine now and so on and so forth.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen in nature?
That's a tricky one because I'm one of these people that is constantly in awe of what nature does, and can't wrap my empty head round how it manages it. I suppose as an actual place or event though... well, over 120 years ago, a local area known as New Hawne Colliery was simply that. A huge mineworks, and they devasted a huge amount of the local scenery. Maybe it was vital at the time, maybe not. I'm not getting into that side of things. Just that the mines closed around 1920, give or take. And since then, although it's taken the best part of 100 years, nature has claimed it back against the odds. Trees and bushes have grown there, wild flowers have appeared, there is wildlife all over the place that have made it home again - rabbits, dragonflies, even rare butterflies apparently, although I never saw any. It's near impossible to get through the place now as it's so overgrown, but that's a good thing. It keeps us humans outta there.

What national or international events that you lived through do you remember best?
In recent times, stinky Covid. In not so recent times, September 11th, which terrified the butt off me even if I don't live in the USA. For a moment, the world felt like it had completely flipped its pancakes. And they never flipped back.

Does technology make us more alone?
No. Thanks to technology, specifically the internet, I've found so many friends that I would quite simply never have found otherwise. I know the internet, certainly in the form of smartphones, is blamed for wrecking society. But as long as it doesn't become a total obsession and social media etc don't take over your life, it's absolutely a force for good. Also technology meant I was finally able to achieve my dream of making music - something I just couldn't have done before because hardware synths cost staggering amounts of money, way beyond what I could have afforded. And that in turn has led to more friends or reconnecting with old friends from school, and so on.

How much do you trust online reviews?
Depends on the situation. I'll very often check Trustpilot if its a company I've never used before, but even then sometimes it'll depend on using a bit of common sense. As far as reviews for films or games is concerned, I don't trust them much because some of my favourite films have pretty naff reviews. I'll judge by what others have said about it, ideally people I know, if at all possible.

What are your experiences with severe weather?
To be honest, it isn't really something we get that much of in the UK. Not generally anyway. In the 80s we did used to get snow that was so deep, we had to dig tunnels through it to get to school. But tell kids that now and they'd never believe you. Probably the grimmest weather I remember was the flooding and rain back in 2007 (I think...) which I didn't experience directly. But my parents were driving back from Wales or somesuch, and witnessed the sight of three people literally rowing a boat across a field.

What are your favorite commercials?
Not a clue. Apart from an occassional online advert that I'll almost exclusively ignore, I haven't been deluged with the honour of commercials since the 90s. Most of my favourites would be from the 80s, mostly because a lot of them were for sweets and toys/games, which at the time were more important than oxygen.

Do you believe in intelligent alien life?
There's a distinct shortage of it left on earth, so there had bloody well better be some out there somewhere. Out of the trillions of planets that must be floating around lazily in space, we can't be the only ones with life on.

Would you like to ride in a car that drives itself?
No.

Have you ever interacted with the police?
Once as a kid, when someone broke our window and the local community plod turned up, and he turned his steely gaze on me and asked if I knew who had done it and if I'd pissed anyone off. Which was nice.

The only other time was when I was in WHSmiths, checked for an art magazine that they didn't have, and hurried out the shop because I knew I would be in time for the next bus. Next thing I know, two pairs of trotters on the shoulders and they insisted the WHSmiths manager had seen me acting suspiciously in the shop. So they searched every pocket, my entire backpack, and begrudgingly had to admit I'd stolen precisely sod all. Meantime, passers-by were there tutting away as if I'd done something wrong. Which was nice. Especially as I was having particularly nasty panic attacks back in those times, so that didn't really help.

Do you worry a lot about germs?
NO! I LOVE 'EM! THEY'RE MY BEST FRIENDS. THEY ARE SO CUDDLY AND WARM.