Rewind: Appleblim on “Laughing Stock”

In discussion with Appleblim on “Laughing Stock” by Talk Talk (1991).

How and when was your first encounter with Talk Talk?

Well, I grew up with ’Life’s What You Make it’ and ‘It’s my life’ being played on Top Of The Pops and Radio 1 as I was a kid, so those are kind of part of my makeup, you know in that strange way that all the pop music u grew up with is just part of your brain make-up almost, it rubs off on you, and I loved those songs even before I really knew why…

What made you choose “Laughing Stock”? Why is it so important to you?

From there I didn’t really hear of them again until I joined a band in 1994-ish. The two guitarists were big fans of Talk Talk, but the later stuff. I’d not heard it before. They were really big albums with a big circle of friends of theirs, in Plymouth where I had moved to as a teenager. “Spirit Of Eden” came first, then “Laughing Stock”, and I just couldn’t get enough of them. They are completely associated in my mind and memory with some really amazing people and a period in my life that had a big effect on me. Obviously those teenage years are intense and I just remember two albums, along with Bert Bansch ‘It Don’t Bother Be’, Nick Drake ‘Pink Moon’, Pentangle ‘Basket Of Light’, XTC ‘Skylarking’, Autechre ‘Amber’, Orbital green and brown albums, they were what we listened to most, in the bedsits, smoking dope, being skint, on the dole, making music in bands….an intense time, but looking back totally magical. Read the rest of this entry »