No More Talk
Written by Steve Hillier
Date Written April 1987
Place Written Welling, South London
Released When July 1997
Originally Sung By Steve Hillier
FeatureS Roland S-760, Yamaha DX100, Novation Bass Station
Spotify Link
“Let the feelings out and take the pain away”it’s a funny thing, I have stronger memories of writing this song in the 80s as a teenager than completing it in the 90s as a published songwriter.
I hated education, which is ironic given how I’ve been a part time University lecturer since 2004. No More Talk was the result of yet another depressing day in the Sixth Form at Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School. After the 51 bus home I would come home and erase the stink in my mind by immediately playing the piano, the only way my parents would know I was in the house. Although I could read music, I was never that good at it, certainly not a sight reader and having little patience to improve I would improvise melodies and write tunes of my own so I had something to play. No More Talk was one of these melodies.
As the demo sessions for what would become Goodbye were being completed, I was getting concerned. Dubstar needed another obvious single (Girlfriend and Cathedral Park were clear contenders right from the start), something that felt like it could be as big, potentially bigger than Stars. So I pulled out this nine year old melody and wrote new words reflecting the sheer frustration I was feeling. it became the lead single for the second album.
The release of No More Talk also marks the moment when my fears that Dubstar’s rise was over were realised. We were waiting outside BBC television centre to be called in for our appearance on the National Lottery. Jo Power from Food Records came over with the news that No More Talk was number 20 in the midweek charts. That sounds terrific now, but I knew this was a disappointment for everyone, we needed to be in the top ten. We should have been in the top ten. I was gutted, so I distracted myself by shuffling and grinning like a lunatic all the way through the biggest TV performance of our careers.
INSIDE OUTLINES, the first collection of solo piano pieces by Stephen Hillier is out now: