Tears for Fears on track

Sonicbond Publishing Limited

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First Published in the United Kingdom 2022

First Published in the United States 2022

This digital edition 2023

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright Paul Clark 2022

ISBN 978-1-78952-238-9

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Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank Stephen Lambe at Sonicbond Publishing for giving me the chance to indulge my passion for all things Tears For Fears. I have been a fan of the band ever since I heard ‘Mad World’ for the first time as a nine-year-old back in 1982. Who knew that holding my cassette player to the radio to record that song would lead to one day writing a book on the band?

A note to the band; I have bought enough versions of your records (in all formats) down the years to make up for that initial illegal home taping. It wasn’t me that killed the music industry.

Thanks, Mum, as always, thanks for your support and help. I’ll know that you have read the book when you can list one more Tears For Fears song other than that ‘one’. To Dad, sadly not here to see this being published. Thanks to Kevin, Susan, Max, and Lottie. To Viv, for putting up with my nerdiness and converting to the Tears For Fears cause.

Thanks to Chris (H), Chris (R), and Graham. My thanks for putting up with numerous Tears For Fears entries on the playlists that we put together during our lockdown (and beyond) Zoom catch-ups.

Thanks to The We4Poets; David, Stanley, Michael, and Trish, for all their encouragement of my creative endeavours down the years.

To all the various Tears For Fears Facebook fan forums that I am a member of, that kept the hope alive that there would eventually be a new album. These passionate fanbases often supplied those nuggets of information that gave me those ‘I didn’t know that moments’ when I was writing this book.

Contents

Funny How Time Flies

Graduate – Acting My Age

The Hurting

Songs from the Big Chair

The Seeds of Love

Elemental

Raoul and the Kings of Spain

Everybody Loves a Happy Ending

Ready Boy & Girls? EP

The Tipping Point

Official Compilation Albums

Curt Smith Solo

Roland Orzabal Solo and Other Projects

Tear For Fears Live Projects

Documentaries

Introduction

With the universally positive reception that the 2022 album The Tipping Point received, it could be argued that the band prematurely used everybody loves a happy ending as an album title. Given what the band went through, both personally and professionally, to get their latest album released, it feels like the story of Tears For Fears has achieved a positive finale. That said, fans hope that The Tipping Point is the start of a new chapter and not the end of the road.

The album Everybody Loves a Happy Ending which announced the reunion of Curt and Roland in 2004, was well-received by fans (it is still much loved on fan forums), but it seemed to attract minimal interest elsewhere. It has been heartening to see the way that the band have been received since the release of ‘The Tipping Point’ single back in 2021.

Since then, it seems like the band had finally found a label and management that knew what to do with their prized asset. Forums buzzed with band activity as they popped up in numerous places both in the UK and around the world. Geography is seemingly not too much of an issue in the post-pandemic Zoom era. Their PR team worked wonders in getting them on podcasts, websites, magazine covers, newspaper features, morning TV shows, radio, all platforms of social media – even doing the football predictions on the BBC Sport website in December 2021. Who would have predicted that the two Janov advocates back in the 1980s would be discussing the finer details of their team’s fight for a top-four finish in the Premier League? (NB. It’s Manchester United)

The fact that there was an album to celebrate is a testament to the resolve of the band, especially given the issues that they faced in the years between albums. It was also an epic display of faith from a fanbase that had been promised a new album many times down the years but without any sign of that prospect ever being realised.

With such a recognisable back catalogue, there was always an interest in the band during the years between albums. This often took the form of interesting covers/interpretations, samples, or their songs appearing on soundtracks. Lorde reinterpreted ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ uniquely in 2013 for The Hunger Games soundtrack – the song was subsequently used by the band as their intro music on their Rule the World Tour in 2019. There is also the famous reimagining of ‘Mad World’ by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews for the movie Donnie Darko.

Though the band have been dormant, they have played the social media game; Curt is a notable presence on Twitter and has taken part with Tim Burgess on the Tears For Fears listening parties; Roland dabbled with Twitter when he was promoting his novel Sex, Drugs & Opera: There’s Life After Rock ‘n’ Roll but soon took a hasty retreat. You can’t blame him for having second thoughts about using that particular platform, although he was always a thoughtful and engaging presence when he was on there.

There have been accolades in the last few years. They received one for an Outstanding Song Collection at the 2021 Ivor Novello Awards. Songs from the Big Chair was the subject of The Classic Album documentary series in 2020. The recognition has shown that there is still an appreciation for the band’s music. Given that they have been around for over 40 years now, there have been several anniversaries along the way to celebrate their landmark albums. In every interview promoting those retrospectives, there would be a question about new material and the responses always hinted at the potential of a new album.

That new album has brought about a collection of songs that might not be instantly identified as typical for a Tears For Fears record to some ears, but then what is a typically Tears For Fears record? In the early 80s, they went from being a minimalist shoegazing electro/acoustic outfit to embracing anthemic progressive classic rock/pop in the middle of the decade. After that, they disappeared and metamorphized into a psychedelic prog-pop-soul band, with a side helping of The Beatles thrown in for good measure.

Curt Smith said in an interview with the streaming service, Tidal before the release of The Tipping Point about where he sees the band fitting in today: ‘I don’t think we’re tied to a decade, and we’ve never viewed ourselves as a heritage act, even though other people may have. To me, it means that you have nothing valid to say now’.

As was shown with the release of The Tipping Point, getting the songs written is not that easy, but it is just as difficult to agree on what the composition of the album should be. Curt told Paul Sinclair at Super Deluxe Edition before the release of The Tipping Point about what constitutes a Tears For Fears album: ‘The only definition I’ve ever been able to come up with is that it’s the stuff we agree on. The nature of a partnership is that a lot of the time you’re making concessions to the other party; you’re giving some leeway. And there’s only so far you can be pushed. But you know, where we converge and agree on things, that’s the sound of Tears For Fears.’ Roland Orzabal’s response was to joke, ‘that’s why it takes so long to release anything’.

They have been recognised by their peers as an influential band, from awards to name checks, covers and samples. Groups such as MGMT, The 1975, and Smashing Pumpkins have acknowledged the influence of Tears For Fears. The band even got a name check in the credits of Dave Grohl’s Storyteller book, in which the author said: ‘If it weren’t for my sister’s record collection (Neil Young, Bowie, Tears For Fears, Squeeze, etc), I may have followed a life of only death metal and corpse paint. She should be thanked for saving you all from that happening’.

The best description of the band comes from Zane Lowe, who, in an interview with Apple Music prior to the release of The Tipping Point, called them ‘the weirdest successful band’. In print, that might not be seen as complementary, but you can get his point. They have always been an atypical pop band. Even though it can be seen that they have been an influence in some quarters, Roland Orzabal did say in 2015, when discussing the band’s more progressive elements, ‘It’s hard to be influenced by Tears For Fears because there are so many iterations of the band’. That may be true, but the legacy of their impressive songbook is there for all to see.

As well as being great songwriters, they have become a great live act down the years. A new album brings the expectation of new performances. Roland Orzabal speaking to Tidal.com’s Craig Rosen, about the band’s live set: ‘When we started playing live again in the early 2000s, we were starting to increase the muso side of what we were doing. We’ve got so much in our back pocket. We can play the ’80s hits; then we bring out ‘Bad Man’s Song’. Now, you tell me that’s a typical ’80s song. Of course, it isn’t. It sounds like Little Feat. When we go up against the pure nostalgia bands, we tend to kick their asses. That sounds a bit arrogant, but we aim high. We don’t always get there, but we aim high’.

The band aimed high in the summer of 2022 and this is seen by the rave reviews for the initial US and UK dates on their Tipping Point World Tour. Sadly, that was until it was postponed due to a rib injury suffered by Curt Smith just before a gig at Lytham St Annes, in the UK, in July 2022.

Funny How Time Flies

The city of Bath, in southwest England, is where it all came together for Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith, and Tears For Fears.

Roland Jaime Orzabal de la Quintana was born in Portsmouth on August 22, 1961. Orzabal was originally given the name Raoul, but his mother, Margaret, changed it to Roland two weeks after he was born because it sounded more ‘English’. Roland is of French, Spanish, and Argentinian lineage and it is claimed that his maternal grandfather helped eject the Argentinian dictator Peron (husband of Eva). There is a plaque on the Argentine Pampas for Jose de la Quintana.

His parents ran an entertainment agency supplying artists for working men’s clubs. Among the acts would include ventriloquists and country and western singers. Orzabal’s mother was a stripper and would also train them. His father, George, recorded and produced the musicians on their books. It was this immersion into the entertainment world that would inspire Roland’s future career path: ‘I grew up idolising one singer in particular, who was the antithesis of my father. Black belt at judo, big guy, sounded like Elvis. I thought, ‘Yup, that’s what I wanted to do’’, Orzabal said in 2013 in an interview with Wyndham Wallace for The Quietus.

Orzabal moved to Bath,at the age of 11, with his mum (and two brothers, Carlos and Julian) when her relationship with Roland’s father ended.

Orzabal endured something of a difficult upbringing. His father was bedridden for most of Roland’s childhood and was confined to his home. Indeed, Roland was only three when his father suffered a nervous breakdown. He had undiagnosed PTSD from the second world war and could be violent towards Roland’s mother. The singer would later reflect upon these events in the song ‘Women in Chains’. He said to the Quietus in 2013:

Curt and I are both the middle of three boys, and in my situation, there was domestic violence. There are a lot of people who have difficult childhoods. My childhood was the same as my two brothers and they didn’t go around moaning about it! We can all make a big deal that we were council estate kids. But that was the biggest thing that upset me, that my dad would be physically violent towards my Mum. And it got so bad that in the end, she left.

The retreat into songwriting from an early age would also offer solace from the difficult home life. Orzabal said to Songwriting Magazine in 2022:

I played the guitar from age nine and whenever there was a bad atmosphere, which was 24/7, I would go into my bedroom and strum the guitar and find some kind of ‘company’. I suppose – that’s what Paul Simon calls it... When you’re playing the guitar, you have a circular relationship with yourself and you’re self-soothing. That is a remarkable thing about playing the guitar and singing; it’s incredible how much of a calming effect it has on you.

Curt Smith was born on June 24, 1961, and grew up in Bath, England. He was named after the actor Curt Jürgens. His childhood was as difficult as Roland’s. His parents worked constantly and he experienced a similar level of neglect. Curt Smith was quite rebellious as a child and would often find himself in various scrapes. Indeed, the first time that the pair met, Curt could not come out because he had been grounded after getting into a fight. The pair met through an introduction from a bass player friend of Roland’s called Paul, who had known Curt from his previous school, leading to Roland and Curt forming their first heavy metal band together at the age of 14. This was on the back of Roland hearing Smith sing ‘They came to my flat one time and heard me singing along to a Blue Öyster Cult record [‘Then Came the Last Days of May’], of all things, and Roland asked if I wanted to sing for their band.’ Smith said to The Quietus in 2013.

He strived for some attention and it is claimed that he stole a violin (which he gave to Orzabal) from his school. Smith came from a working-class background and Orzabal was more middle class, but both of their formative years were on the council estates of Bath.

However, Orzabal was the more precocious of the duo and he had cut his teeth in several bands long before Graduate and Tears For Fears. He was also the more bookish until he had a moment of revelation. He said to The Quietus in 2013:

I was one of those people in school who used to work hard and then when I was about 17, or 18, I had a mental Copernican inversion, so instead of just following what I was being told and doing well and getting ‘A’s, I just started questioning everything. We were reading a lot of existentialism, both in French and in English, so that kind of set me off.

Orzabal’s talents as a guitarist marked him out as a notable figure even in his teenage years and this led to him forming several bands. He said as he recounted the time to The Quietus: ‘Because I was more advanced on the guitar, at school I gave guitar lessons. The guys who were learning guitar, we’d form a band, and it would go on and on like that’.

It was these first steps that most teenagers who have a passion for music tend to follow and it’s as far as the local youth club that they go. For Roland Orzabal, in particular, there were flirtations with folk and heavy metal before he alighted on the idea for his next steps as a musician.

Graduate – Acting My Age

Personnel:

Roland Orzabal: vocals, lead guitar

Curt Smith: bass guitar, vocals

John Baker: rhythm guitar, vocals

Steve Buck: keyboards, flute

Andy Marsden: drums

Record label: Precision

Recorded by Glen Tommey and Tony Hatch

UK Release Date: May 1980

Highest Chart Placings: Didn’t Chart

Run Time: 36:27

The Tears For Fears story starts not with synthesisers or the pairing of Roland and Curt, but with a folk band called the Baker Brothers, featuring Roland and John Baker. Roland Orzabal had taught his good friend John to play the acoustic guitar and the pair performed in the local pubs and clubs of Bath. One of their regular gigs was on a Saturday afternoon at a hairdressing salon. Their early repertoire included the pair doing Simon and Garfunkel covers. The US duo’s soundtrack album The Graduate inspired the name of their next venture.

Graduate’s first manager Colin Wyatt introduced Orzabal and Baker to drummer Andy Marsden. He, in turn, recommended the keyboard player Steve Buck, who he had seen playing in a local nightspot. They had tried out several bass players without any success. Orzabal then asked his guitarist friend, Curt Smith, whether he could play the bass. His response was, ‘I can learn’, which he did. That conversation heralded the start (or to be precise, rekindled, as they had played in several less serious youth club bands before) of the partnership of Roland