Transcription: The Countdown interview 1986

Photo by Rob Verhorst - 1986

Sorry for the long delay. I was having trouble remembering what interview transcripts had been requested of me. And then I got distracted. I blame Paul Webb's album for that. Go listen to his album. Tell him that weird person Motorcycle Peanut sent ya. 


Link to the interview on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/talkietalkie/permalink/1628838957147800/
 
Disclaimer: I don’t the rights. This transcript isn’t 100% and is posted for ease of comprehension especially for non-English speakers. As usual, feel free to run this text through your local translator. There's a handy Google translate tool in my blog post to the right side. And Brit people! Please feel free to correct the text if you can in the comments. Between the boys' accents, muttering and everyone talking over each other, I often don't understand what they're saying. I’ll do my best to keep the blog post updated with edits and changes. 

Note: the notation [?] indicates words I was unable to decipher. (?) indicates a guess at the word(s).

Adam Curry: In the [?] Countdown studio this evening Paul Webb-
Paul Webb: Lovely jacket.

Adam: Thank you! I like yours as well mate. Lee Harris. You’re not going to say anything to me? You’re not going to say to me will you? And Mark Hollis. You guys seem to despise the glamour group image. I always wonder what you think of groups such as Wham!, Duran Duran or the Drum Theatre. Mark maybe you could you tell me something about that?

Mark Hollis: I really don’t think about things like that. All I think about are making records. You know, image is [a] very simple thing. Images should be something that’s just based upon your music. I don’t think beyond that. I don’t consider other bands. I just consider making records. That’s what we’re here for. 

Adam: Do you find yourselves often limited as a trio to the number of instruments you can play?

Paul: Well we know we can take on more people anyway. 

Adam: How many?

Paul: It depends. I mean. Eight or nine usually, yeah.

Adam: And they play the violins or do you have a lot of synthesizers on stage? Especially with the new tour.

Paul: Uh. Yeah. I mean we work things out after we’d done the album then we work out how we’re gonna do it live. I mean…

Mark: With the thing with this live tour there is, purely from a point of view of economics, there is an extent to which we would have to use synthesizers live. I mean it’s just a fact.

Adam: Because you didn’t use any synthesizers on the album. So I was wondering if you were going to be touring that you were gonna have to use them.

Mark: This album really... With this new album we’re working with a base of 15 to 20 people. You see from a live point of view of touring you can’t take that number. We are limited to around sort of eight or nine people. So that’s what I mean consequently there will be areas where we will have to rely slightly on synthesizers. But that’s more in terms of the old material than the new, because with the new stuff, there will be some things on this album which will we will not be able to do live, because there’s no way at all we will resort to tapes or that sort of things. I mean, with the other stuff, it is, to an extent, sort of, you know organ and piano at least you know… We’ve forgot percussion really.

Adam: Your favourite video. Which one is that? The group’s favourite video.

(Off camera) Lee Harris(?): 'In Between Days', isn’t it?

Paul: What?

Mark: The Cure? [?] isn't it?

Lee: No. You’re suppose to tell them…

Mark: Oh… The Cure. 'In Between Days'.

Adam: Come on [?]. Why is it your favourite video?

Mark: Because we were told to say it was.

Adam: Very good answer! Here’s Talk Talk’s favourite video, The Cure and 'In Between Days'.

Adam: The Cure, 'In Between Days' video request by Talk Talk, even though they were told to say it was that. Yeah, missed it, but you’ve been broadcast.

Paul: {?}

Adam: What what that?

Paul: Sorry.

Adam: That’s all right. On the subject of videos in 'Life’s What You Make It', you had a lot of insects and bugs and no [?] in that one, I don’t believe. Could you tell me maybe why all the bugs and insects, Paul?

Paul: Well, we find animals more fascinating than ourselves really. So, uh, that’s why we do it.

Mark: I think animals are beautiful people.

Adam: Oh. Oh. Okay. I understand. Because you also have a lot of animals on your new album 'The Colour of Spring'. Let’s plug that here for you. Let's see if I can get it on the camera. I see a lot of butterflies in there but some pretty eccentric ones. What’s the reason for the animals on the cover here. What… Is there any meaning for the different colours and different types of butterflies?

Mark: You best ask the artist.

Adam: And who was the artist for the album cover

Mark: James Marsh. James Marsh.

Adam: Just a crazy kinda guy! Okay! Hold on! Now it took you two years to complete this album. Does the record company give you that much freedom to take all that time and spend all that money?

Paul: Yeah.

Mark: The freedom that we’ve had making this album, that’s been given to us by the success that we had with the last album. So the freedom that’s been given to us is really due to the people who bought our last album. I mean, it would be true to say when we made the 'It’s My Life' album the record company gave us freedom, you know, to make that album the way we did because at that point we hadn’t sold many records so we were lucky. But from the point of view of this album, that freedom’s been given by the people that bought it and [?] the record company.

Adam: Okay. You’re here to do your new single “Living In Another World'. I’ve listened to the lyrics. You came across kinda sad song or a breaking up song maybe. Mark, since you wrote them, maybe you can tell me what the lyrics are about exactly since I couldn’t find out for myself.

See how long you can keep this up without laughing. That’s not bad. Paul, maybe you can tell me.

Paul: Now, what I would like to say is we’d like to thank everyone in Holland who bought the record because it’s one of our favourite countries. It was the first place where Talk Talk actually broke as a band. And I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Adam: Great lyrics. Great lyrics guys. If you could go up to our official stage I think Mark is already up there by … Crazy guys. Talk Talk doing their single here in the Europe(?) Countdown. Here’s 'Living in Another World'.

Links to two of the performances from the show (the interview is not included in these clips):
Living in Another World - Countdown television performance - https://youtu.be/HUu3z_2nWBU

It's My Life - Countdown television performance - https://youtu.be/xe12p0sfU5o