1.1 Who were/are Tears For Fears?
From 1981 until 1990, Tears For Fears was a duo consisting of Roland Orzabal (guitar/vocals) and Curt Smith (bass/vocals). Together, they released three full-length albums: The Hurting (1983), Songs From The Big Chair (1985), and The Seeds Of Love (1989). The first two albums also listed Ian Stanley (keyboards) and Manny Elias (drums) as band members. Citing creative differences, Smith and Orzabal parted ways following the Seeds Of Love tour in 1990. Roland continued working under the TFF moniker until 1996, releasing four albums; Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92) (1992), Elemental (1993), Raoul And The Kings Of Spain (1995), and Saturnine Martial & Lunatic (1996). Roland and Curt reconciled their differences in 2000 and eventually got to work on a new album, Everybody Loves A Happy Ending, available September 2004.
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1.2 How/when was Tears For Fears formed?
Roland and Curt formed Tears For Fears in 1981 after the breakup of their previous band Graduate (more info in section 5). They both had become frustrated with being constantly outvoted within the band in regards to its musical direction, and as a result they decided to go it alone.
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1.3 Where does the name "Tears For Fears" come from?
The expression "tears for fears" is a reference to Primal Therapy. The basic idea is that you cleanse yourself of fears through the expression of emotions, or shedding of tears. Curt apparently nicked the phrase from the Arthur Janov book Prisoners Of Pain, a publication that turned out to have a major influence on the themes behind their debut album The Hurting.
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1.4 Were any other band names considered?
As a matter of fact, yes! Roland and Curt have disclosed in interviews that they considered calling themselves by a variety of names before the TFF moniker was adopted, including "Ideas As Opiates", "The Upside Down Clinic", and "History Of Headaches".
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1.5 Exactly who is Roland Orzabal?
Roland Jaime Orzabal de la Quintana was born on August 22, 1961. Although Roland is of French, Spanish, and Argentinian lineage, he was raised near Bath, England and still has a home in the area. He has two brothers, Carlos & Julian, and some half-siblings. He also has a wife (Caroline) and two sons (Raoul and Pascal). An interesting aside is that Roland's original name was Raoul, but his mother changed it to Roland two weeks after he was born because it sounded more "English".
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1.6 Exactly who is Curt Smith?
Curt Smith was born on June 24, 1961 and grew up in Bath, England. His mother apparently named him after the actor Curt Jürgens. Curt is currently married to his second wife, Frances. His first marriage ended in divorce. Curt and Frances have two daughters, Diva and Wilder. Curt asks that fans please respect his daughters' privacy.
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1.7 Why did Curt Smith leave Tears For Fears in 1990?
There are often many diverse circumstances that lead to the split of any musical group, but the chic term to describe them is usually "creative differences", and creative differences it was in this case. Both Roland and Curt have their own sides of the story: Curt's being that he became disillusioned during the recording of The Seeds Of Love and its subsequent tour, and Roland's being that this was eventually going to happen anyway since (in his opinion) TFF was becoming a one-man show. An issue involving management and debts that Roland and Curt disagreed on didn't help matters any. Basically, both men grew too far apart creatively and personally to continue working together in a sane manner.
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1.8 What circumstances caused Roland and Curt to reunite in 2000?
According to Curt, shortly after it happened:
Mutual acquaintances have been trying to get the two of us working together again for quite a while, but until now neither of us felt it would work. The reason for the change? Hard to pin down. We spoke for the first time in 8 or 9 years during some business transactions last year - the upshot of which is that we started sending each other material that we'd been working on. While I was in the UK early this year we decided to get together for a couple of days to talk about music and the emotional feasibility of us working together again. We both seemed to have the same ideas for a joint project and emotionally it was fine. Whether it's age or enough water under the bridge I don't know and don't really care - if it works it works and only time will tell if that's the case.
The new album released in September 2004 is a good sign that this is the case.
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1.9 Yeah, but I read in <insert rag here> that TFF are only back together to cash in on Gary Jules' success with the 'Mad World' cover. Is this true?
Well, considering that Roland and Curt announced that they were in contact and once again writing together in early 2000, and Gary Jules didn't even record his version of 'Mad World' until a full year later…you do the math. There's no question that both Roland and Curt are very fond of Jules' cover, but its chart success is merely a nice compliment to the release of the new TFF album, not the raison d'etre. This may just be a case of certain publications attempting to write off TFF as just another washed up 1980's relic going for a reunion money grab.
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1.10 Why didn't TFF appear at the Live Aid concert in 1985?
Despite their name being printed on the back of the festival t-shirts, TFF chose not to appear at the famous Live Aid charity concert, choosing instead to donate proceeds from select Big Chair tour dates to the famine relief effort. Their official reason for pulling out was that they had lost members of their backing band and could not perform. Later though, Roland admitted that the band had questioned the motives of concert organizer Bob Geldof. The band were also not thrilled with the fact that TFF had been announced as one of the acts without their consent. In the end, the band felt somewhat guilty for not appearing at the festival, and contributed a re-recorded version of 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' to Bob Geldof's "Sport Aid" campaign the following year.
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