9.1 How many home video releases have Tears For Fears issued?
TFF have issued six videos on VHS. They are:
· Tears For Fears: The Videosingles (1983) [USA release was titled Video 45]
· In My Mind's Eye (1984)
· Scenes From The Big Chair (1985)
· Sowing The Seeds (1990)
· Going To California (1990)
· Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92) (1992)
All but the The Videosingles and Sowing The Seeds have turned up on unofficial "Video-CDs" in recent days.
Four releases are also now available on DVD. They are:
· Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92) (2003)
· The Best Of Tears For Fears: The DVD Collection (2004)
· Classic Tears For Fears (2005)
· Scenes From The Big Chair (2005)
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9.2 How many promotional videos have Tears For Fears made?
By my count there are 28, including the video for 'Johnny Panic And The Bible Of Dreams'. They are:
· Mad World (1982)
· Change (1983)
· Pale Shelter (1983)
· The Way You Are (1983)
· Mothers Talk (Version 1) (1984)
· Mothers Talk (Version 2) (1984)
· Shout (1984)
· Everybody Wants To Rule The World (1985)
· Head Over Heels (1985)
· I Believe (1985)
· Mothers Talk (Version 3) (1986)
· Everybody Wants To Run The World (1986)
· Sowing The Seeds Of Love (1989)
· Tears Roll Down (1989)
· Woman In Chains (1989)
· Advice For The Young At Heart (1990)
· Famous Last Words (1990)
· Johnny Panic And The Bible Of Dreams (1991)
· Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down) (1992)
· Break It Down Again (1993)
· Cold (1993)
· Goodnight Song (1993)
· Elemental (1994)
· Raoul And The Kings Of Spain (1995)
· God's Mistake (1995)
· Secrets (Version 1) (1995)
· Secrets (Version 2) (1996)
· Closest Thing To Heaven (2004)
Fourteen of these (half) have never been released commercially, making them very hard to find.
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9.3 Did Roland and Curt make any solo videos?
Yes they did! Curt has made four promo videos to my knowledge, and Roland has made one. They are:
Curt Smith:
· Calling Out (1993)
· Words (1994)
· Reach Out (1998)
· Addict (2003)
Roland Orzabal:
· Low Life (2001)
Neither Roland or Curt has issued a live or compilation video commercially, although the 'Low Life' video was available on the 'For The Love Of Cain' cd-single.
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9.4 Have Roland or Curt appeared in other artists' videos?
Roland did appear in one of three promotional videos made for the Oleta Adams song 'Rhythm of Life'. Curt appeared in the video for the charity single 'Sailing' by the "Rock Against Repatriation" supergroup in 1990. Those are the only two I know of, although a Songs From The Big Chair poster appears conspicuously in one of the Mr. Mister videos ('Kyrie' I think)!
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9.5 Who is that dancing as if fending off a swarm of killer bees in the 'Mad World' video?
That would be Roland, and he's done that same "dance" in concert before as well. I'm not entirely sure why.
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9.6 Where was the 'Pale Shelter' video filmed?
Some fans (myself included) have mistakenly thought this video was filmed in London, when it was actually shot in and around Los Angeles, California, USA. The scene with the traffic cop was filmed at the corner of Sepulveda and Manchester in Westchester. That funny building is the Loyola Theater, now the Loyola Professional Building. The airport is LAX.
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9.7 Who is the woman in the video for 'The Way You Are'?
This was a photographer friend of Curt's. There's a good story behind why she was chosen, but no one seems to remember what Curt said.
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9.8 Why are there three different videos for 'Mothers Talk'?
(Version 1) and (Version 2) were made for the UK and European markets in 1984. Roland and Curt were extremely unhappy with the first version, and enlisted the help of director Nigel Dick to redo the video. Stills from Dick's (Version 2) are featured in the Songs From The Big Chair liner notes. Dick would go on to work with TFF on five more music videos. (Version 3) was constructed around the US Remix, and was released in the states in 1986.
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9.9 I heard there is a second video for 'Shout'. Is this true?
No. The band had tossed around the idea of redoing the 'Shout' video for its American single release, but this was never carried out.
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9.10 Tell me about the 'Head Over Heels' video!
The 'Head Over Heels' music video was filmed during several days at the Emmanual College Library in Toronto, Canada in May 1985 whilst Roland and Curt were there on the Big Chair tour. It was directed by Nigel Dick. The basic premise of the video is that Roland falls madly in love with a simple-appearing, home-body librarian (played by local model Joan Densmore) while his band-mates clown around. The video itself falls quite in-line with the duo's personalities. "They are very natural, rather funny, pleasant people. They have a warmth. Everyone has friends like them," said Nigel Dick during a break in the Head Over Heals filming. Nigel captured this well in this video. And as Roland says, "most people get (their) videos wrong." Roland and Curt want their videos to reflect who they are. "We're just selling normality really," continues Roland. Everyone's favorite part was filming with the chimpanzee, Zippy. During one scene, Roland was horsing around and the chimp looked at Roland and stuck his tongue out because "he knew I was taking the Mickey."
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9.11 What's the story behind the 'I Believe' video?
The picture sleeve for the 'I Believe' single featured a photo Roland shot of himself in the window of a hotel room. TFF decided to do a video for the song based on that photo, and what you see is the successful result. This clip was shot in an airplane hangar in Seattle, Washington, USA in the midst of the Big Chair tour.
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9.12 Who is the floating woman in the 'Sowing The Seeds Of Love' video?
That would be Caroline Orzabal, Roland's wife. Caroline also appears painting some murals in 'Secrets (Version 2)'
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9.13 Why are there two videos for 'Secrets'?
(Version 1) was shot in late 1995, but Roland simply wasn't happy with it. He ended up shooting (Version 2) - a collage of people's faces interspersed with shots of himself and his family - on his own. (Version 1) was supposedly never released, but I can confirm that it did find its way onto at least one promotional compilation.
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9.14 What the heck are these "CD-Video" things I've seen?
In 1988, Philips introduced the CD-Video format. The system consisted of 5" (12 cm.) compact discs that could hold one videoclip and a maximum of 20 minutes of audio, 8" discs (20 cm.) that could hold 30 minutes of video on each side, and 12" (30 cm.) discs that could hold 60 minutes of video on each side. All CDVs were gold coloured to indicate the difference between audio and video discs. This format paired analog video with digital audio. Unfortunately the system wasn't very successful, and the 5" CDV singles died a slow death by 1990. However, the 12" discs stayed and became known as LaserDisc. These are not to be confused with the "VideoCD" format, which has come about more recently. VideoCD discs feature both digital audio and video (the video compression is a notch lower than that of DVD video) and can be played in a standard CD-Rom drive. CDVs can only be played in certain types of LaserDisc players.
There have been six Tears For Fears singles released on 5" CD-Video disc. They are:
· Shout (1988)
· Everybody Wants To Rule The World (1988)
· Head Over Heels (1988)
· I Believe (1988)
· Sowing The Seeds Of Love (1989)
· Woman In Chains (1989)
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