The Colour of Spring

Hollis told Electronics & Music Maker that synthesizers had only ever been an economic measure and that he absolutely hated them; Friese-Greene called MIDI a four-letter word. The album was built around acoustic piano and an old Hammond, with a breath-controlled Variophon, Steve Winwood on organ, Robbie McIntosh and David Rhodes on guitar, Danny Thompson on double bass, the harmonica player Mark Feltham and the Ambrosian Singers, fifteen to twenty players in all. Hollis was listening to Satie, Debussy and Bartók. Friese-Greene said none of the lead parts were sampled.

Hollis explained the songs to the Dutch magazine Oor that spring: Happiness Is Easy is about wars fought in the name of God; I Don't Believe in You about the propaganda promises made to Britain in 1945; Life's What You Make It is drawn from A Streetcar Named Desire; April 5th is his wife's birthday, a song about birth and rebirth. It went to number one in the Netherlands and eight in Britain, went gold in Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, and is in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.