There’s an awful lot of bollocks been written about I Believe In You – some of it by me! It’s time for a Talk Talk Mythbusters post – IBIY 2026 revised edition .
1. A choir? First off, it’s definitely a choir (well, six boy choristers, anyway) – that’s a note for the chap on YouTube who did a First-Time-Listen Reaction Video and wondered if that heavenly sound might be synths. Synths on Spirit of Eden? Wash your mouth out.
2. Did the choir make the tea lady cry? Well, we know there was a tea lady at Wessex (her name was Betty), and we know (thanks to Stuart Stawman) that the choir(s) could be heard beyond the studio, and we know the finished song is extremely moving, so, probably.
3. Is that a sneeze at the end? I’ve always heard what I thought was a sneeze as the song fades out, but when I asked Phill Brown, he said “It’s not a sneeze!” in his curmudgeonly fashion, but of course he didn’t say what it was. According to Stuart Stawman the choir is singing “how long, spirit of illusion” so perhaps that “sneeze” is the sh sound in ‘illusion’.
4. Heroin? Yes, ‘heroin’ is in the lyrics. This fact, coupled with tales of the oil-projector-lit darkened-for-months studio, led an English music magazine to conclude that the entire recording process was opiate-fuelled, and, by extension, that Mark Hollis himself was a junkie. They were made to retract that fabrication, yet the awful lie persisted, especially when the obituaries flooded the internet, written by bloggers with half a clue and a hunger for clicks. Phill Brown copped to the occasional spliff to deal with the intensity of the recording process, and he wasn’t the only one; but it seems that, rather than heroin, Spirit of Eden was brought to you by cups of tea (cheers Betty), pub curries and the enthusiastic use of the word ‘cunt’.
5. Is the song about Ed Hollis, who died – after decades of substance abuse – before it was released (or written, depending on who is telling the story)? Mark Hollis never said that it was about his brother. His family has sent the word out recently that it was written for a friend. Whoever it’s about, Ed was alive when it was written, and alive when it was released, and that’s all there is to it.
i Believe In You (album version) https://youtu.be/tSg2OIFum3o?si=QQFoKVysU7lopJjl
I believe in you (single version) https://youtu.be/AD8M_HVauls?si=WYoqFuAgcCzPWHp_