The Reaction - You Have Got a Rare Magic, Don't Compromise

Live at the Marquee 1978

(All photos and documents herein provided by George Page and published/shared with his kind permission.) 

If you follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, then you might have this inkling that recently, I've been in touch with their guitarist, a legend, so far as I'm concerned and all around gentleman. 

For those not in the know, the Reaction is Mark Hollis' band prior to Talk Talk. They toured (a lot! Their tour itineraries are below) and recorded a few things here and there for an album that never came to pass. What came was a single, the b-side and a contribution to a compilation album. 

George has been digging tirelessly throughout his own files and archives and has been kind enough to share his finds with me and with his kind permission, with you. I've always been firm on my belief that these kind of thing should be accessible to the fans. Among the Talk Talk fans, there sits plenty of us that discovered Mark's first band with George Page, Bruce Douglas and Gino P. Williams and absolutely fell in love with the three tracks (I Can't Resist, I'm a Case and Talk Talk Talk Talk) that we were allowed to hear. 

The Reaction photoshoot @ Electric Avenue

Over the last two years demo tracks and even a live recording surfaced on YouTube. Gold! Pure gold for us. But unfortunately, so far as I can tell, all of these tracks have since been pulled down from YouTube. If new recordings pop up on YouTube (or on a public forum elsewhere) I'll be sure to share them with you. For now, here is a link to a playlist with everything I've been able to find, Reaction related, on YouTube.

I was fortunate enough to have received this from George Page. A letter from reviewer Geoff Baker from the Express & Echo newspaper in Exeter. I don't have the actual review yet (UPDATE: within hours of posting, the most excellent Mr. Page came through and sent me the review. I've transcribed it in next post or you can click on the link here), but I think the last line of Geoff's letter says it all. Clearly Geoff saw in a 23 year old Mark what we all now know.

(For those not in the know, Geoff Baker moved on to become Paul McCartney's PR guy for a while. Special thanks to Alla Webster for providing me with that tidbit.) 

Transcript of the letter is below. 

Letter from Geoff Baker to Mark Hollis and the Reaction

Letter Transcript: 

Dear Mark,

Regarding me and the bird coming to see you blast Sharr Murray* to bits at the Marquee. Well, we can’t make it, cos my editor won’t give me that day off. But, there’s always a but, we can come up to see you at the Roundhouse. Are you playing the Roundhouse? On Sunday July 23? I fucking hope so. If so, could you get my name on the door - plus two (cos I’ll bring the bird and I’ve told my brother what a blast you are on stage (I’ve also told half of the Westcountry) and he wants to come). If you can’t manage it, we’ll pay cos I don’t mind forking out for bands like you, it would just make it all easier if we were “on the door”.

I’ll send the single review up when its published on Saturday. I think they might have cut it cos I wrote a lot - I also wrote a review of your Exeter gig and I think they’ve spiked that as well - I have no control on what appears in the paper. In case it don’t get printed, I’ve included what I wrote about you that night.

Could you phone me some time to say whether you’re playing the Roundhouse? Thank you. Best of luck with future gigs - you have got a rare magic, don’t compromise.

Geoff   

______________

*Note: George explains that Sharr gave them a bad review which is what Geoff is referring to in the letter. From Geoff's enthusiasm in the letter, I assume they definitely blasted Sharr 'to bits'.

Oh... and happy birthday Mark Hollis, man of rare magic and few compromises.

Mark Hollis @ the Marquee, performing with The Reaction, 1978

 

The Reaction Tour itineraries:  

May 1978

July 1978

July 1978 with the Shirts

September - November 1978 with the Radio Stars