Talking Heads’ David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison will reunite for a live Q&A celebrating the 40th anniversary of their legendary concert film, Stop Making Sense. It marks their first public appearance together in more than 20 years.
Moderated by filmmaker Spike Lee, the Q&A will take place at the Toronto International Film Festival following a screening of Stop Making Sense on Monday, September 11th. The event will broadcast live in select IMAX theaters around the world
Following its premiere at TIFF, the 4K restoration of Stop Making Sense will be released in theaters worldwide on September 22nd.
Accompanying the film will be a new deluxe edition of its soundtrack, due out on August 18th via Rhino Records. The expanded set includes the film’s full setlist as well as two previously unreleased songs, plus new liner notes from all four band members. Pre-orders are ongoing.
Talking Heads’ members have had a complicated relationship since their breakup in 1991. With the exception of a one-off performance as part of their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, Byrne has resisted the idea of a Talking Heads reunion, saying such a comeback would “probably be quite a number of steps backwards.” He further expanded in an interview with WIRED last year, saying: “I think, in a nutshell, I could say that we came together more as friends than as, you know, incredible musicians. It was really a kind of shared musical taste. And then gradually, as you age and you grow and you explore, your musical tastes start to change. It became more work that we did, we didn’t hang out all the time anymore, so eventually you just kind of drift apart that way.”
Meanwhile, in his 2020 memoir Frantz described Byrne as “insecure” and “transactional.” In an accompanying interview with The Guardian, he said Byrne’s “brain is wired in such a way that he doesn’t know where he ends and other people begin. He can’t imagine that anyone else would be important.”
