I just can't bring myself to see it starting

-
So, I'll be taking a short break from all this. Just over the holiday period. A combination of work pressures and (disrupted? broken? blended?) family life. You might understand, you might not. It's not that important, whatever your perspective or situation. I will try and fit in a couple of posts between now and the New Year but it's a wee bit unlikely, given everything at my door just now. So-so essays to mark, in-progress PhD's to read. Dull presents to wrap. Excited children to attend to. Et al. However, I thought I'd leave you with a remarkable cover version of a song that's very important to me for numerous (rather emotional) reasons. And, I have to say, I really like this take on it by Bon Iver. As far as I'm aware, Talk Talk never toured or played live any of the material from Spirit of Eden or Laughing Stock. A great shame as I do think this mesmerising performance illustrates, even with Hollis's distinctive vocals missing (replaced here by Sean Carey, Iver's drummer), that elements of that late-period Talk Talk sound could and should have been translated into a live setting. Can you even imagine witnessing such an event? Sigh. Anyway, this live version is a pretty faithful interpretation of the original, in the most part, but it does gets very interesting, and different, in the last couple of minutes. It's funny, when I close my eyes, when listening to this cover version on headphones, I can just picture Hollis at the front of the stage, in fading blue jeans and flowing white shirt, shaking his head about with hair flying everywhere. As he did, with no socks or shoes on, of course. It would be a kind of 'rocking out', I suppose. Anyway... I digress, sentences not paragraphs, you. So, to the point, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and I look forward to reading and listening a lot more in the months that will inevitably follow. And thank-you, all, for accepting me back into the fold, in what was a very unexpected return from my, it would seem, premature retirement. I'm not done quite yet, it seems...
-
Bon Iver - 'I believe in you' (Talk Talk cover, Live in Dublin, 2008) (7.14)
-
Bon's resting up here. You should buy this. Mark is alive, well and happy to be retired from the music industry, so I hear.
-
PS. I'd especially like to thank Jim, Davy, Steph, Matthew and Lis for being so supportive and encouraging in the last few months. Thanks, comrades. You continue to inspire. x
-