Tears for Fears' Curt Smith launches Mayfield - Dec. '98

Curt Smith, who defined the cutting edge of the New Wave movement 15 years ago in Tears for Fears, is back from a five-year hiatus with a new group Mayfield.

With moody, perfect pop centring on songs with themes of alienation, loss and pain, Tears for Fears’ The Hurting became the hottest debut album of 1983. Created by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, two British lads who both hailed from broken middle-class homes, the group continued to generate hits. The 1985 follow-up album, Songs From the Big Chair, spawned two No. 1 singles, Everybody Wants to Rule the World and Shout. Smith returned from a five-year hiatus this summer with his new group Mayfield.

Orzabal was the eccentric guitarist and chief songwriter, Smith the charismatic bassist and lead singer. They seemed poised for a long chart-topping career together. That all ended in 1991 when Smith left the group - amid rumours that he and his childhood friend Orzabal had irreconcilable differences. While Orzabal kept the band going, Smith launched a solo career.

Neither has yet come close to recapturing their original success. "In the end you can be successful as anything and still incredibly unhappy," Smith said in a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles. "It’s just a question of what you value success to be. At the end of the Tears time I wasn’t enjoying anything. It was a job for me. It was like having a horrible office job you hate."

The bitterness between Smith and Orzabal never really went away. Though neither really aired their anger in the press, it surfaced in the music. Smith took a shot at Orzabal in the song Words on his 1993 solo album, Soul on Board. Orzabal responded with the searing Fish Out of Water on the 1993 Tears for Fears album Elemental, in which he suggested Smith had contributed little to the group.

"I think that when you’re songwriting you’ve got to get certain things out of your system," says Smith.

"I’ve never consciously wanted to go out of my way to tear Roland apart because I think the reason it didn’t work was both our faults. And I think the more you labour on it the more it eats away at you." But it seems the wounds are deep, and on the self-titled Mayfield album, Smith takes another stab at his former collaborator with the song Sun King.

"A small imbalanced vain recluse/You used the planets to excuse/Your costumed smile/Your childish abuse," Smith sings.

Despite the apparent vitriol, he says the song wasn’t meant to be taken too seriously.
"I’ve only heard Fish Out of Water once and it didn’t piss me off at all. At one level I was kind of flattered that someone would write a song about me.

"Sun King is supposed to be amusing - I’m laughing while I’m writing it because I find it funny. Something that’s so blatantly over the top, I’m kind of laughing while I’m writing it, because I really don’t harbour those kinds of grudges."
Whether the feud is still alive or not, Smith says the five-year break (during which he says he didn’t so much as look at a guitar) has helped him find a new love for music.

"I didn’t really like Soul on Board at all, I hated the whole experience. By the end of it I was so disillusioned with being a musician or part of the music industry," he says. "I think I made the mistake of going straight back in and trying to make a record instead of finding my feet and deciding what I wanted to do and enjoying the time off."

Living in New York and managing two other bands gave Smith the break he needed. He also found friends among the city’s diverse musical community who rekindled his desire to play and write - among them new songwriting partner Charleton Pettus.

"When I came back this time it was because I wanted to, because I missed it," says Smith. "When you do it because it’s pleasurable, there’s all the difference."
 

© The Canadian Press, 1998

One of Bath's most famous musical sons, Curt Smith, has spoken of his disillusionment with life in eighties duo Tears for Fears and his determination to succeed in a new solo career. In an exclusive interview with The Bath Chronicle, the singer, who rode high in the charts with a series of hits in the 1980s, said life in the music world lost its appeal in the late days of Tears for Fears.

The duo, made up of Curt and fellow musician Roland Orzabal, enjoyed chart success with songs such as Everybody Wants to Rule the World and Shout. But during the latter days of the band, Curt said he grew disillusioned with songwriting, leading him to take a five-year break from the music business.

Now Curt, performing under the name Mayfield, is determined to make a success of a new album and has travelled from his home in the United States to promote his music in the UK. He said: "I'd become really disillusioned with writing. Music shouldn't be a job, something you dread on a Monday morning - it should be a passion."

Speaking about the last days of Tears for Fears, he said: "I would get so bored. We'd get overly precise about everything and do so much tinkering with the product." As well as taking on a new stage name, the 37-year-old has gone blond and married for a second time, to a woman who works for a record company in Los Angeles. Curt's early musical career began in Bath where he was a member of a group called Graduate. While still living in the city he played at venues including Nero's - now PJ Peppers.

His mother Norma Smith, who used to work in the city centre branch of Boots, still lives in Bath. The new album, called Mayfield, is out on April 13.

Imogen Sellers

Founder member of TFF Roland Orzabal is making a departure into drum & bass for his next
album, and isn't finding it easy, as he tells: " It's a very different process doing this sort of
stuff, and to be honest, I find it really fucking hard" admits RO of his latest project, a drum &
bass-inspired album.

It's a complete tangent to his famed TFF projects, both with co-founder Curt Smith, who went his own way in 1993, and his later solo efforts. These include the critically acclaimed and highly personal concept album RATKOS , the touring of which knocked Roland for six. "I took the album on tour and was playing a lot of older TFF songs as well, and finally it just startedto get to me . I just thought I couldn't do it anymore. I came off the road thinking "what the fuck am I doing?"

As an album, Roland has been pleased with Raoul ...but it soon hit home thathe needed a new
approach."I thought it was something that finally felt as if it was a complete work",he enthuses.
"I always felt that some of the earlier album tracks had been a little lacking, and I've always looked
for that complete package and I think I did it  with RATKOS . The album wasn't a great seller, though, but Roland is philosophical.

"Unfortunately, when you do something that you really like it tends not to do that well. That's the bane of everyone's life." Roland has once again ensconced himself in his own Neptune's Kitchen studio with long-term collaborator Alan Griffiths to create what will be an album of song-based drum & bass- a departure for a singer who is renowned for his vocal and lyrics. But there are sound reasons for the decision. "In the past I always had something to say, there was always something inside me that I just had to get out, and I just don't anymore." On to pastures new, then ? " Well, I was looking around for different things that were turning me on," he elaborates. "I specifically liked drum and bass, so that's what I started mucking about with. I've messed around for a while, but it's so different when you put an actual song around it." There's a whole new process to go through for Roland, but ever the innovator, he likes to experiment .

"I'm working more with sampled loops, although I have had musicians involved, too, so it never sounds as if it's completely computer-generated," he explains. "What I'm doing now is a lot more structural. All of a sudden the lyrics aren't so important. It's so much more to do with the music, which, in a way, is quite ridiculous. All of a sudden I am not writing about anything. I still muck about lyrically, but there's so much less influence on that side." To date, Roland and Alan Griffiths have penned six tracks for the album, and are still the writing process.

"He's a bit like me, although he doesn't do melodies or lyrics," Roland discloses about Alan. "He 's one of these people who can doodle musically. He fiddles with knobs and distortions, and makes one hell of a noise!" Neptune's kitchen, Roland's home studio; is based around a 56-channelSSL desk, which used to belong to a certain Paul McCartney, and a ProTools and Radar system, a set-up that is relatively new to Roland.

"I only started using Protools in the last year or so, but again, it's made the whole process so much easier," he hesitantly proffers. "Until very recently we used to work with a cheap old Atary, thinking it was the best thing in the world because it was so immediate. We were very loath to change to ProTools and Logic Audio although we knew it was the logical thing to do." And are they pleased with the choice? "It's just wonderful. The advantage with having a sequencing and audio combined , for me, is that you start putting vocal and guitar tracks down at the same time as all your sequenced stuff, which again, eases the process."

It has also offered the team more flexibly for arranging. "If you feel that something is too long or rambling or that you might have a four-bar section when it should be an eight-bar, you don't have to worry about it ' cos you can always go back and change it at any point. Whereas in the old days, if you wanted to change anything you had to get in another machine." But Roland is no recent convert to digital systems. "I hated analogue" he cringes. "I know a lot of people feel romantic about it but then you can always master onto cassette if you want the compression. I hated analogue because when we started making records we used to use a lot of drum machines and the amount of top end lost immediately on anything metallic was soul destroying, and then when digital came along I thought 'about bloody time'!"

Using two Radars also gave Roland and Alan the flexibility to record live musician's tracks, and edit them at will at a later stage. "I bought the first Radar for the start of this album, and I immediately got into it " he smiles. "We started doing live takes of drums and bass on all the tracks we'd written, to see which ones would go into a band situation and which ones wouldn't. Again, it eases the decision making process and allows us to be more spontaneous."

The duo also use sampling, but Roland is quickly going off the notion of hardware sampling in favour of ProTools. "Al's really into his Akai samplers, but I really love my Roland S-750" he maintains. "The astonishing difference comes when you stick any of the samples into ProTools; the quality really shoots up. It's a shame that there's no sampler around that is good as ProTools. In sheer quality, nothing is up to scratch. For some people that can be good, if it colours the sound the way you want it to." Of course, part of TFF trademark is Roland's guitar and keyboard sounds, as well as the distinctive vocal nuances. In this department there's been little change, as Roland explains.

"My main keyboard is still an XP80 . i've got the JV2080 rack as well. It's just incredible, everything is there. I don't program the XP80 because there's always a sound around the corner. I used to program in the old days, but then you had to. The only thing I program now is the Nord Lead. I really don't want to go back to programming my life away like I had to with the Prophet V." Guitar-wise, Roland still uses his trusty Roland VG-8, AC30 amp, and a couple of Mesa Boogie heads. "I'm really not a purist about gear" he says, "I've learnt from touring that if you play it safe with equipment, there's less room for error. This stuff sounds great, and it's safe."

You can't  argue with that, and does the same hold true for microphones? "I use the Neumann 47 a lot and for some reason it's really good for quiet vocals." He elaborates:"It's something in the mid-range, I guess, that makes quiet things sound more present. Then I just recently bought the Sony top-of-the-range C-800G. That is quite remarkable.If you put them back to back without EQ, the Sony makes the Neumann sound like a box". Any other vocal tricks? "I also use a Martech mic pre-amp , which sounds superb, so I end up bypassing the desk and not using any EQ, then going straight to ProTools of the Radar." Accustomed though Roland is to touring, he has  not definite plans to take the new material to the live arena.

"I really don't know how this album is going to be presented yet", he insists," and whether I'll take it out live . It's also a case a case of the expense . I'll only take this new album out live if there is a demand, I toured the last two albums, on a budget, and I'm a bit tired of doing that, really, I want to make it more commercial if I do take it out." The earlier TFF tours were pretty rigorous, and Roland seems loath to go through the same scenario.

"We always used to use a combination of sequencing and live musicians for TFF, but we'd be triggering samples live too, so there was a lot of flexibility in the shows, and they were really effective." He reminisces. "You'd have to muck about like crazy beforehand, in rehearsal. In the old days, with a Revox tape machine for the backing vocals, we used to have terrible problems. If you missed the intro or something, you were fucked."

By the same token, Roland's wants to present something lasting with the content of the new album, making the most of live musicianship, but giving his unique production tag a high profile. "You get the best out of people by letting them do what they are good at,  but at the same time you also want to twist on it. I haven't jammed with a bunch of musicians for ages , which is deliberate , but it puts a different, and more controlled angle on the whole thing when it's just the two of you working on a project."

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO ROCK: TEARS FOR FEARS - 1996
 

"I can put things together and make them happen, but I'm not a natural musician. People soon realize that when they ask me to play on their records." (Roland Orzabal)

The first musical collaboration between Curt Smith (vocals/bass) and Roland Orzabal (guitar/vocals) came in 1979, when as part of schoolboy 2-Tone wannabes Graduate they released a best-forgotten single entitled "Elvis Should Play Ska". When Graduate met a predictably sticky end in 1981, Smith and Orzabal formed Tears For Fears, taking their name from Arthur Janov's book on primal therapy, a favourite hobby horse of the earnest Orzabal.

The duo signed to Mercury and, after a couple of flops, achieved a major breakthrough when "Mad World", a typically melodic, brooding synth-pop number, reached the UK Top 3. It was swiftly followed by a #1 album, The Hurting (1983), which yielded several more hit singles in a 65-week chart run. The combination of Orzabal's ear for a snappy tune and Chris Hughes' crisp production established Tears For Fears as a musical force, while the boyish looks of Smith put them alongside Duran Duran and Kajagoogoo in the teen-idol stakes.

While the gold discs began to pour in, Tears For Fears also acquired something of a reputation as gloomy bookworms whose interviews (and songs) often descended into sixth-form psycho babble. The case against them was strengthened by the often hilarious pretentiousness of their early videos: in "Mad World", for example, Smith gazed pensively from a window towards a small jetty, where Orzabal inexplicably writhed and cavorted as though fending off a swarm of killer bees. The later "Pale Shelter" depicted the duo walking in slow motion into the flight path of several hundred paper
airplanes. Only in later years, with bigger budgets at their disposal, did they really get to grips with the visual medium.

A two-year gap between albums was bridged with a couple of uninspiring singles, but they firmly re-established themselves at the beginning of 1985 when the anthemic (if stodgy) "Shout" reached the UK Top 5. Thus began a year of amazing success: the next single, "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", was a worldwide monster hit, reaching #1 in the States and #2 in Britain, where it was outsold only by USA For Africa's Band Aid riposte, "We Are The World". Their second album, Songs From The Big Chair (1985) - featuring a line-up now augmented by Ian Stanley (keyboards) and Manny Elias (drums) - sold eight million copies, its panoramic arrangements and layered melodies making it one of the earliest successes on the CD format. The plaudits and awards soon followed: Orzabal was named Songwriter Of The Year at the 1986 Ivor Novello Awards, while "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" won the Best British Single category at the Brit awards the same year. (The song was later re-recorded as "Everybody Wants To Run The World" and adopted as the theme to the 1986 Sport Aid/Race Against Time project for African famine relief.)

A successful world tour was followed by a lengthy period of inactivity. As work began on their third album and an assortment of producers were hired and fired, the strain on their partnership grew and rumours of a split gathered momentum. They struggled on, but by now it had become clear that
Tears For Fears had effectively become a vehicle for Orzabal, with Smith's role reduced to little more than playing bass and looking pretty à la Andrew Ridgeley. After three years of recording and bickering, The Seeds Of Love (1989) finally emerged in a blaze of publicity and high expectations. The title track, an ambitious, episodic Beatles pastiche, had already been a Top 5 UK hit, and it set the tone for the band's most complex and sophisticated work to date. But, although the album shot to #1 in Britain, its impact was short-lived and its eventual worldwide tally of four million sales was not
nearly enough to balance out the astronomical recording and promotion costs. It was at this point that Smith finally decided to bail out.

Although the split was touted as being amicable, Orzabal's comments during an interview to promote the retrospective Tears Roll Down (1992) suggested otherwise: "(Smith) sang four songs on the first album, two on the second, one on the third - how many do you think he'd have sung on the fourth?"

The simmering acrimony erupted into mudslinging with the release of the first post-Smith Tears For Fears album, Elemental (1993). Now working with Alan Griffiths, Orzabal echoed "How Do You Sleep?", John Lennon's mauling of Paul McCartney, with a savage attack on Smith entitled "Fish Out Of Water": 'The only thing you made was that tanned look on your face...'. It was the most interesting moment on a hollow, self-important record.

Smith launched his own solo career with Soul On Board (1993), an album of self-pitying slush which was panned by the critics and failed to chart in Britain or America. Little has been heard of him since. Orzabal has continued to fly the TFF flag alone, but with diminishing returns: Raoul And The Kings Of Spain (1995) failed to dent the Top 40 and the once-automatic hit singles have dried up. Apart, Orzabal's work may be pompous and Smith's vacuous, but in their years together they dampened each other's excesses and created a band which amounted to a great deal more than the sum of its parts.

Tears For Fears' Art Rock:  Songs as Sound Paintings
        The front and back covers of Raoul and the Kings of Spain depict
the running of the bulls at Pamplona, carnage that is a cogent metaphor for
a man's darker instincts.  In the music, Tears For Fears mastermind Roland
Orzabal looks through the maze of history -his own family history no less
than the fate of nations- in order to get closer to first principles and
fundamental truths.  That kind of ambition may be fashionable in pop music
right now, but what Orzabal has achieved here is undeniable.  In fact, not
since the heyday of the Doors has dark and daunting poetry coursed so
strongly through such and delible marriage of lyrics and music.  And,
miraculously, it's achieved without the waterlogged pretentiousness that is
often a hallmark of would-be art rock.

        Raoul reflects the turbulence of our times and the grandiose sense
of what's at stake as we tumble along in the rushing currents.  Orzabal
sees a world driven by dysfunction, coalescing only into a sort of ordered
chaos.  It's an overview evident in songs like Humdrum and Humble, Sketches
of Pain and Falling Down.  Orzabal's work has always provided an outlet for
emotional bloodletting, but here he takes it to another level, crafting
pieces of music that aren't so much songs as sound paintings.  Accordingly,
the sonics of this CD are spectacular, boasting brilliant presence and
immense space.  The flamenco-guitar section in Sketches of Pain, for
instance, explodes in a tactile hail of percussive strumming.  The song
(whose title puns on that of a famous Miles Davis album) compellingly
advances the notion that artistic expression and appreciation necessarily
partake, to some degree, of pain and suffering.  Or, to turn it around, pop
that is painless is also worthless.

        Falling Down is a loping odyssey whose restless organ and
portentous, minor-key mood recall the Doors' Riders on the Storm.  The
title song, with its falsetto swoops and galloping crescendos, makes an
arresting opening  that lays out the fundamental polarizing conflicts to be
explored.  Humdrum and Humble  drops heavy guitar downstrokes and hip-hop
rhythms into music that has an authoritative air of finality about it, human history
viewed from a field of rubble.

        These are the big, outward-gazing songs on Raoul and the Kings of
Spain.  A clutch of smaller-scale numbers (Secrets, Sorry, and Me and My
Big Ideas) offers a more intimate kind of illumination that's no less
compelling.  Whether Orzabal is singing about the personal or the
political, or some inseparable combination of the two, this is naked music.
He's unafraid to bare his heart and his mind in every song.

There's something awfully antiseptic about seeing a rock 'n roll show in Las
Vegas. The town has become a cliché for the generation geritol rockers that
are currently parading around as if H.G. Wells had wound up the old time
machine and cranked it in major reverse. Just a quick glance at the
multitude of monster Marquis is all you need for evidence...The Moody Blues,
Bob Seger, Doobie Brothers, The Turtles, Elvis (in various incarnations),
Neil Sedaka (although I have to admit I do love my little calendar girl),
Barry Manilow (I'm sure I'll get some flack for throwing that one in there)...
the list is endless.

And then there's Tears For Fears, Ministry...wait a minute...these guys are
still on a multi-vitamin schedule and not yet popping placebos.

In the midst of the glitz is a trendy oasis of fun (OK everybody smile
together with me) the Hard Rock Hotel. The Joint is the club inside of this
establishment which caters to a more gen-X clientele than anywhere else in
town. It is a beautiful arena which seats about 1,500 people and has perhaps
the best sound system I've heard at any venue. The bands that play there are
amongst the more current faves. Keep in mind though that this is still
Vegas. No mosh pits here, just tables and chairs, burly security, and a slew
of really cute cocktail waitresses (always a plus).

The mood was set as opener Amanda Marshall sang her little heart out for a
fairly apathetic early crowd. She is basically another in the vein of Joan
Osbourne and Etheridgeish singers, but she is quite a passionate performer
and I give her brownie points for that. The patrons may as well have been
clanking on the wine glasses instead of applauding for all of the genuine
enthusiasm I felt from this bunch. I almost wanted to smack a few of them
around, but common sense got the better of me. Instead I pulled out my oozie
and cleared the place (just kidding...it was only a semi-automatic).

Once Roland Orzabal and company took the stage the vibe was on the upswing.
I wasn't quite sure how to react at first. I've been a fan since the days of
"The Hurting" and have seen TFF play in very large venues. Here was one of
my favorite songwriters performing to a bunch of suits and cowboy hats. I
fought hard to loose my bias and enjoy the music. Unfortunately, this was
something I could not completely overcome...maybe counseling is in order.

The band itself was impeccable. Orzabal has surrounded
himself with a crew of ringers that pulled off a
flawless set consisting mostly of material from the new record, Raoul and
The King's of Spain. This album is the second since the 'breakup' of the two
original members. It's kind of as if George Michael would have continued on
as Wham. From the start this band was mostly a one man deal, and it
continues to be.

Raoul is a journey into the roots and personal state of mind of its creator.
"My name is Roland...but you can call me Raoul," he said. Apparently this
was his original name at birth. After opening with a few songs from the
record they played "Everybody wants to Rule the World". This one got 'em off
their fat asses. Everything they played seem to go over very well, but it
was obvious that the old material had a greater impact. If I had any
complaints it would be that the show concentrated a little too hard on
selling the current album. There was of course "Shout", "Woman in Chains",
"Seeds of Love" and "Elemental" which was the one song that went over better
than I would have anticipated. The surprise of the night was a cover of
Radiohead's "Creep" which seemed to have enthralled Orzabal when the band
opened for him last tour. This was a fun moment and a true showcase for his
amazing vocal talents. The genuine moments like "Creep" are what I treasure
from performers of this caliber. I can enjoy the perfection of the record
over and over in the comfort of my living room if I so desire. The
performance was incredible, but it could have been much more memorable with
a little more freedom and spontaneity.

When all was said and done I walked away just as big a fan of TFF as before.
This show had it's own set of peculiarities. Some inherent in the setting,
and some within the performance itself. Vegas is just a dimension all its
own.

Spin the wheel and watch your fortunes go...sit down and rock your socks off
for an hour or so...head back out and see if the Knicks covered the
spread... time for some real action...50 on red...Bloody Mary please...hit
me...another Bloody Mary miss...double down I said...wait...did I see a
concert tonight?!

--review by Christopher Horvath

The man who doesn't play auntie* [*Brazilian expression, a reference to a single old woman that didn´t  marry]

Roland Orzabal wants to make different tracks and release albums as a  solo artist: it's the end of Tears For Fears

Someone who understands about 'aunts ' is Mauro Rasi [Brazilian dramaturgist], who has four and is always talking about them. If you want to talk to the cute 'auntie' Roland Orzabal, the man-who-is-the-band Tears For Fears, you must  personify a little bit of the dramaturgist and break through the soberness of a blasé British.

"It's the second time I'm surprised with the Brazil's impeccable organization", he says, commenting his recent visit to the country, on touring with his last album Raoul And The Kings Of Spain.

Late could mean end, literally. "I will leave Tears For Fears name and will adopt my own on the next material. It's gonna be funny to hear the English press pronouncing my last name O-ro-al", he wrap up his tongue, joking with his own French-Argentinian ascendancy. With the change, Roland won't be anymore the  "tia fofinha" [cute auntie] from the affectionate Brazilian´s nickname. It's a joke that doesn't work. " 'Tia' what?", he queries.

Married, he talks proudly about his two children, the aunt (ops!) looks a lot  more virile than that cheeky thing ordering to everybody to release their problems (Shout). "On the contrary, today I teach to my children not to shout around the house", he laughs and adds one more joke about the old hit:  "I would't mind playing that song at a wedding."

But the climate isn't for jokes, but for confessions. Roland is very disappointed with the musical British scene today. That's why he moved to France to write Raoul, an album with "latin influences". He spend two months there, shaking his family's genealogical tree searching for inspiration, dealing with a genetical mix of his heritage, that blends English, French and Spanish. "I didn't feel English anymore and I was pondering this album's idea for a very long time."

For a very long time, you can read six years, because Raoul should have been the name of the band's release in 89,  but it ended up 'Seeds Of Love' because of Curt's nervous over the album title. The mention of the fact - and of the former partner's name - his eyes roll and a scornfull look comes over his face.

He explains the name: "Raoul is my nickname to my friends, and Curt didn't wanted my nick name on the album's cover".  Roland closes the subject returning to the blasé module and takes one ironical look every time in which his former partner's name is mentioned during the interview.

Without noone to give opinions of his ideas, the singer had included on the gigs covers of songs that he thiks pleasant, like Radiohead's Creep and U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday.

What do you like in these songs, Roland?

"Actually, only the arrangement, cos it's lyrics are weak - except Creep. And  then, he takes the opportunity to complain of his colleagues pop songwriters. "The lyrics can make one song immortal or ruin it up and the most bands don't realize this" Roland says, excluding only Radiohead and himself in the intelligence subject.

"I´d always tried to do lyrics full of quotes and metaphors." Excluding the identity's neurosis, the 'auntie' leader doesn't looked worried about a 80s band success in the middle of the 90s. At 34 years-old, he thinks he's a little old to be a popstar. "I had luck tasting sucess for 20 years." Now Roland is confident: "I always had an old-man spirit, I didin't became dazzled with the fame."

If the success decide to leave him, the singer has already two hobbies to replace the music: photography and tennis. On the first one, he's doing well.  With his photography experience, Roland, didin't liked the initial results of the Secrets video, fired the director and took control himself. But in the second hobby, Roland confess it's not going well. "My greatest fear is to make a second serve. And sometimes I just can´t see the adversary´s serve". To stop his great balls-out index, he promises dedicate himself to the sport after the world tour  finishes. "Just me, the racquets and the balls."

Somebody gives a wicked smile...
 

by Fred Shuster - Los Angeles Daily News

Los Angeles - Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears once sang, "Everybody Wants
to Rule the World". These days, he just wants to do his bit to help out.

Not that world domination is a concept he has withdrawn from entirely. But
by headlining last week's Toys for Tots benefit at the Universal
Amphitheatre, Orzabal is hinting that you don't have to be a king to feel
like one.

"It's a good cause, and I try to be part of as many good causes as I can
every year, especially this time of year," he said.

Orzabal is now on his own, parting ways with former Tears for Fears partner
Curt Smith just after finishing The Seeds of Love album in 1989. Citing
creative differences, Orzabal ousted Smith and took over the TFF moniker.
His latest album is Raoul and the Kings of Spain.

Asked to discuss his current relationship with Smith, with whom he enjoyed
the top ten hits "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", "Shout", "Head Over
Heels", "Sowing the Seeds of Love" and "Woman in Chains", Orzabal balked.

"I'm not going to tell you," he replied in a haughty British manner. "I'm
not going to talk about it."

But he does want to explain why Raoul is no concept album, despite
appearances to the contrary.

"The phrase 'concept album' has a dangerous ring to it because it makes you
think of Rick Wakeman's The Six Wives of Henry VIII or something," Orzabal,
34, said. "But I think I've gotten good at summing up a period of my life
and bringing in other themes to enlarge on that. This album is actually a
thematic effort about families and relationships, and I've included some
exotic elements, like bits of flamenco and Spanish lyrics."

Orzabal was born in Portsmouth, England, to a British mother and a French
father whose father was Argentine. Raoul contains religious imagery and
references to Orzabal's family tree.

"All my life I've been an Englishman, but all my life I've had these Latin
roots, and I decided to exploit them," he explained. "The album is about the
line of the father. In a sense, it's about families and how to survive them.
I was born Raoul - I was called that for the first two weeks of my life. My
first son is named Raoul."

The disc is guitar-heavy, an unusual twist for a musician who made bright
synth-pop singles and drenched early TFF albums Songs From the Big Chair and
The Seeds of Love in trendy dance rhythms.

"It's not just kids who respond to guitar, it's also the people who play
them," Orzabal said. "The more I play live, the less I want to be tied to
keyboards. So, I play guitar on stage. When we started improvising to write
new material, we filled the whole sound with guitars."

Orzabal currently is fronting a five-member band. He last toured two years
ago in support of the Elemental album, his first effort since the split with
Smith.

"Radio in the States is a very strange phenomenon," he said, "Two years ago,
we were all over alternative-rock stations. Now, I've come back with a
tougher, harder sound, and we're considered adult post-modern or adult album
alternative. Oh, well. Whatever."

Aside from road work, Orzabal has formed a production company called Bread &
Buddha. His first project will be an album for singer-guitarist Gail Ann
Dorsey, who is currently touring with David Bowie.

"We had just started work when she got the call to go on the road with him,"
Orzabal said.

Orzabal feels the current surge in Britpop bands such as Blur, Supergrass,
Pulp and Oasis in England was a necessary reaction to American domination of
the British album charts.

"Protectionism reared its ugly head," he said. "It's a very nationalistic
time right now at home. Music relies so heavily on fashion in Britain, and
things just naturally come along."

At the same time, Orzabal doesn't think many of today's new, young bands
will last out the decade.

"If you look at the history of bands like Blur-the Kinks, Madness-they tend
to hit a bad patch at some point," he said. "That's because that cheeky
Cockney act they all do wears thin after a while. But let's not put them
down too much. They're extremely talented musicians."

When you hear the opening track of Tears for Fears latest album Raoul and
the Kings of Spain, you'd expect to meet key man Roland Orzabal dressed in a
dramatic black suit and flowing cape, riding a jet black stallion and to
greet you with a benevolent swish of his hand. On the contrary, Orzabal
couldn't be more low-key when I meet him. Quietly spoken and dressed in a
t-shirt and sweat pants with a pair of black Birkenstocks on his feet, he's
the antithesis of the images of medieval and flamenco Spain he paints on his
album. Still, with his long , dark locks, there's potential.

This album is his second since his parting with the other half of the band
Curt Smith, some three years ago. Recorded in his Neptune's Kitchen complex
with the same team of musicians as his last album, he uses his family
history as a basis for the music and lyrics, as well as his son, who is
called Raoul.

XSeSS: How do you feel about this album?

RO: I feel good about it. I don't feel particularly het up about it. I'm
quite confident about it but I don't feel like I have to stand there and
sell it. I was quite fond of Elemental, and I would be...it was very me. I
think this album is much more to do with the people I'm working with, it's
much more of a relaxed, joint effort.

XSeSS: Was this second solo album more daunting than the first?

RO: Not at all. This one pretty much came out of the last album. There
wasn't a time lapse or anything; some of these songs we played on the road
last tour. There was only a break for Christmas and then we came to LA and
did five tracks. I knew we were on a roll. Elemental was a very stressful
period. It was amazing. But I knew that whatever came next was going to be
that much easier and all the songs came quickly.

XSeSS: Why did you choose the Spanish theme?

RO: It was an idea that I had dating back to 1989. The Seeds of Love was
going to be called Raoul and the Kings of Spain and we were in a big meeting
about it and there was a vote and it didn't happen. I called my first son
Raoul and we were writing, Allan [Griffiths] and I, and it just emerged. And
I thought, "Yeah, this is strong enough." When the seventh son of the
seventh son comes along it breaks the chain and I kind of then knew that I
had a strong working theme for the next album which I could build the
material around.

XSeSS: Do you still feel you should be called Tears for Fears?

RO: I don't feel I should be called Roland Orzabal other than by my very
close friends. It's just a question of taking something on and trying to
make it bigger and better.

XSeSS: Where you worried that if you changed the band name you would lose
your fans?

RO: No, not really. There's no doubt about it that there were a lot of fans
lost anyway. And you lose a lot of fans through time. There are a whole
bunch of reasons why your audience gets smaller. As you get better your
audience gets smaller. I mean, look at Joni Mitchell. There is a problem
when an artist develops along his own lines, that they get a shrinking
market. The whole thing ended up in my lap but I didn't want to use my own
name. I was just getting started on The Seeds of Love. If anything, we
should have changed our name after The Seeds of Love because it didn't have
anything to do with what we were doing before. But since I'd made that
break, it was just a case of moving on. Obviously when I'm sick of playing
the old hits and I want to distance myself from this business, I might
change the name and become a low profile.

XSeSS: Do you have a new audience now?

RO: People our age will remember the duo but a lot of kids now won't. All
they've probably seen is the "Break It Down Again" video. It became a
completely different act when I went out on my own. There are some
similarities but there are quite a lot of differences.

XSeSS: Are you ever worried about the longevity of your career?

RO: When I was 18, I loved the radio and I loved what was in the charts and
I dreamed of making a record like Duran Duran. Then I started making
records, we were in the charts and then we became the charts. We summed up
what pop music was at the time. But I also thought, that's all very well,
being at the top of the 80's charts, but what about the Beatles, Steely Dan,
Little Feat? After that I just went on and made something that I thought was
completely different and got out of the 80's quick. I think I spent three or
four years getting out the public eye after that. I thought, I want to make
music and be successful, but I want to do it on my own terms and I don't
want to be a part of the big swim.

XSeSS: Do you think you still have an 80's sound?

RO: I think I have my own sound and I don't think it is to do with an era.
Everyone is located in time and space. What is 90's music? Is it grunge or
is it Blur? I listen to The Breeders and Kristin Hersh and I hear so many of
those influences on the album, especially The Breeders because it's so
intelligent and it's guitar based. A song like "Sketches of Pain", it's
flamenco, it's not to do with the time it's to do with the place.

XSeSS: Do you think you could do an MTV Unplugged with this album?

RO: Yeah, I might be going around doing a radio tour with an acoustic
guitar. It's not hard.

XSeSS: Would you do a small club tour?

RO: Yes, but I like the lights and the screaming fans.

XSeSS: What will you do for the video? I imagine Spanish matadors and
dramatic skies.

RO: The first single is "God's Mistake" and we're taking Adam and Eve out to
Las Vegas to be married by an Elvis impersonator. The casting was a
nightmare. None of the Elvis impersonators were any good actually.

XSeSS: Do you miss having another person to discuss all these artistic
decisions with?

RO: No. We didn't really talk after the first album anyway. I just did my
work autonomously within the set up and subverted everything so I got my
way.

XSeSS: Did you ever expect to become famous?

RO: I don't think I am. Tears for Fears is kind of a big name but it's
loosely in the back of people's minds. I don't know. When I go home and I
have to take Raoul, whose three and a half, to the nursery, that kind of
thing doesn't really feature.

XSeSS: But it must be more than a job?

RO: It's an obsession.

XSeSS: Why did you start your own production company Bread & Buddha?

RO: I produced Oleta Adams before but after I produced her my input was
over, I lost control and so videos, etc. were out of my hands. The politics
of record companies is very trashy and I wanted to produce Gail Ann Dorsey,
my bass player. I wanted to be pro artist and be a buffer for her.

XSeSS: How do you reconcile your own artistic sensibility with a record
company?

RO: Well I've been with them a long time and when I renegotiated the deal I
got a very good deal. There's no doubt about it, success buys freedom.

XSeSS: What's next?

RO: I'm starting Gail's album, a tour, and then I want to release a
compilation of B-sides called Saturnine Marshall and Lunatic. There's some
really good stuff. Then I'm going to take some time off and think about
doing things slightly differently. There's a new thing emerging call CD-Plus
which is where you can play a CD on a CD player and in a computer. Apple is
doing it. You can access the video and the music for the price of a CD. I
think that's quite challenging because for the first time you can make a
video and reach the fans immediately rather than having to rely on someone
at MTV liking the video. I think it's really going to force artists to think
more. I think you're going to get a medium that will allow the artist to
make the whole thing. I think the days of lighting a spliff and turning on
Pink Floyd are over. This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius.

XSeSS: Apart from your future projects, do you have any other aspirations?

RO: To meet God, I suppose. But I'm sure that will happen anyway.

The new-look Tears For Fears tonight return to Birmingham's HEC for their first concert at the venue in three years. It will be the band's biggest UK show since the departure of pin-up CO-founder Curt Smith. The band have played just two British shows since Smith left, at Manchester Apollo on Friday and Oxford Apollo on Saturday. And after tonight's gig they will travel to London for a show tomorrow at Wembley Arena.

TFF last appeared at Birmingham's NEC during a two-night stint in March 1990. But the visit was tinged with sadness after fans Jason Baker, aged 20, and Wendy Cleaton, 17, died as they drove home from TFF's first concert. News of the deaths stunned Orzabal and Smith and during their second concert they played Famous Last Words in a tribute to the two Hereford fans, who had planned to marry.

Meanwhile, Orzabal is confident tonight's show will be a stunner, even though the band's CO-founder Curt Smith is no longer a part of the band. They released three studio albums and a greatest hits compilation which sold more than 15 million copies world-wide.But they fell out and Smith decided on a solo career with Orzabal continuing alone.

Orzabal said, "Curt went because our partnership was outmoded. I was the writer, the producer and the MD. There wasn't much left for him to do." Orzabal released his first solo TFF album "Elemental" in June, which peaked at number five.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Roland Orzabal is late. It's a luxury he can afford as the millionaire star of Tears For Fears. Orzabal's plane from America has been delayed and he's four hours behind schedule, but he's not worried. "I don't particularly enjoy interviews anyway," he said pointedly. "The promotional side of things is a lot of hard work."
Orzabal has been persuaded to do a handful of interviews to promote his recently-released album Elemental and current UK tour. Orzabal said, "I'm more pleased with Elemental then I was with the others."

He is not baffled by its comparative lack of success in England, putting it down to a negative reaction to his split with Smith. He said, "In England, pop stars are like characters from a soap. When someone leaves a band it's almost like dirty Den leaving EastEnders. The English don't particularly take to change that well."
"We tend to take things at face value. It will take a while to rebuild the whole thing, but it will be done. Everyone has peaks and troughs. My peaks have been large and my toughs not very rough-like."

Orzabal is a single-minded man whose thirst for success has not been quenched. He believes strongly that TFF will eventually surpass their previous achievements now that he is the band's sole member. He said, "Curt and I had too much success too soon, too young. We suffered from the get rich quick aspect of the job. I mean, Curt ended up in a house with 17 bedrooms. What can you do with 17 bedrooms? I took things a little easier. I lived in London so I couldn't go as mad. You can mess yourself up and you have to be very careful." Orzabal added, "After Big Chair, we were 23 and 24 and we had an awful lot of money. But I haven't changed because of success. Success has given me a greater perspective and the opportunity to travel. But apart form that I haven't changed. The only changes are natural ones that have happened over time. "I've avoided the limelight and fame trap quite well considering the amount of records we've sold."

And is there anything Orzabal hasn't achieved with TFF or in his own right?
"Well, I've not been Prime Minister," he answers. It's hard to know whether or not he's being serious.
 

Ten Stupid Questions: Roland Orzabal, Starman
During their ' 80s heyday, British pop act Tears For Fears consisted of Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal. With the release of a new TFF album, Elemental, it's just Orzabal. "The relationship I had with Curt was like that of a producer to an artist", says Orzabal, 31. "I'd help him get his vocals right and even write his songs for him. It wasn't really a shared thing."

"Ouch !

A soft-spoken nouveau country gentleman and astrology devoted. Orzabal is a bit intense: even when sitting on the floor, he gave smart answers to our stupid questions.

What's the worst part about being a pop star ?
" Politics in the music business. It's not fun. But I think I' ve gained
integrity, which I don't think is necessarily something you start out with."

With which of the four elements - earth,wind,fire,and water - do you identify ?
"You have to get in touch with all of them. But  the tricky one is water,the element of fear
...and I think as men,we have traditionally a more difficult relationship with that  element."

What's your sign?
"I'm leo,with an Aquarian mid heaven, so I can be mistaken for Aquarius.
My Sun-Uranus conjunction in Leo makes me an honorary Aquarian anyway."

What's the one piece of criticism that still bothers you ?
"When people say that what I do is depressing. It sounds very happy to me"

If you could have been born in another time ,when would you choose ?
"Somewhere toward the end  of the age of Aquarius - just under 2.000 years from now,when robotics, plastic surgery and the intervention of science will be in full swing."

Which song do you wish you had written ?
Paul Simon's ''Still Crazy After All These Years ". There's such a calm in that song,cool,
philosophical outlook in that song, a kind of acceptance that things aren't perfect. It's a state I'd like to get to."

What do you never leave home without?
"My toothbrush and Crest."

What kind of underwear do you prefer ?
"Boxers. Today they're a tartan print, and no I'm not Scottish"

Do you like kippers?
"No, I'm not a big fish fan."

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be ?
"I'd like to have high cheekbones, and I 'd definitely be four inches taller - so six feet."

We're in the beautiful countryside of the West of England. An attractive
rambling house dominates the immediate scenery, and a small one-year old
child comes lurching out and grabs my knee, squealing with delight.
The child is Raoul Orzabal, and his father -a certain Roland Orzabal- beams
in pride and delight. "What an honour", he says laughing and ushers us
inside to the gigantic kitchen diner (complete with fireplace) where he sits
us down and makes us all coffee like an attentive mother hen.

He bought the place a few years ago, just after his wedding. the previous
owner was a photographer who converted the stables into a photo studio. This
is now Roland's super home studio in which the new TFF album "Elemental" was
recorded -without Curt Smith. His only comment about Curt ,who for two years
has tried to pursue a solo career in Los Angeles, is: "I've really done
everything on my own anyway. The separation was just a logical step. Maybe I
am just not glamorous enough..."

He looks dreamily out of his kitchen window at the panoramic view "I wouldn't
swap this paradise with the pop circus for anything in the world. It's like
Italy when we sit outside in the Summer. It's like a child's dream which has
come true."

Until the age of seven  Roland lived in Portsmouth. After that his family
moved to Bath. As an intelligent boy with a passion for astrology, he was
expected to receive an Oxbridge scholarship and to study philosophy. But
nothing went to plan. Roland took acting lessons and studied drama and
opera, took to wine, women and song and started his first band in 1980
called "The Graduate". A record was released and the Orzabal-Smith team
attracted attention. They got a record contract and changed the name.
"I was only 18 and success came quickly and the money poured in. I never
looked back." Since then the release of the first record by TFF "The
Hurting" (courtesy of Orzabal's interest in psychology, modeled on Janov's
scream therapy), the albums and singles from the duo hits the charts on a
regular basis.

Until 1989 TFF sold over five million copies of their four albums. They were
the British pop band of the Eighties and were loved by fans of every sex and
age. they were literally a phenomenon. After the success of "The Hurting"
(a surprise British album topper) they achieved a major international
breakthrough with its successor "SFTBC". This is the album that gave the
world THAT song EWTRTW, which was later adopted by Geldof's Sport Aid
campaign and established them as a major league establishment rock fodder.
But Orzabal and smith were growing apart, and while their '89 Beatles
tribute LP "STSOL" was a success, the tour that followed merely confirmed
the rift between them.

"Well", smiles the musician now turned country gent, looking at his worn out
jeans, "life goes on. I don't believe that my songs from that period were my
best, although they were successful. The music and songs were effortless
expressions of myself. Then it was pure chaos which can be fun for a while,
but then you have to pay for it, and it became worrying , I am more
realistic today. After "Seeds of Love" I was close to my 30th birthday and I
started to recognize my limits as a person and as a musician. I set myself
limits. I have to do this until such and such time and then finish. I have
become more pragmatic."

It's still obviously a major leap for Roland to be in the spotlight alone
after all those years in partnership with Curt Smith, the guy he originally
met as a 13 year-old at school in Bath.
Now obviously everything is different since the turn of the decade for the
32 year old Roland. Not only does he have TFF on his own, he also works in a
new management, and a new team: the producer Tim Palmer and guitarist Alan
Griffiths.

"The work was brilliant. We started regularly in the morning and both of
them were so enthused they often worked on guitar parts before I even got
to the studio. Maybe our culinary supplies were also responsible."
Roland is supposed to be a perfectionist who hates mistakes and who also
repeatedly emphasizes that there is no such thing as the right or wrong way.
Now he even steers away from the idea of TFF as the immaculate conception.
"I don't want things perfect. I only try to reflect things I notice and
hear. Once I listen to the finished version of a song I am often surprised
about the result, that's why I do it."

He never keeps notes as most of his colleagues. He keeps everything in his
head. Memories of a photographer who slipped him a note after a concert,
because she wondered how he could write such beautiful melodies and be so
cold at the same time, turned into the song cold. His newly discovered roots
and his former dreams resulted in "Don't dream your lives away". this
recalls the 'message' songs of the Sixties which often appealed to TFF.
"I got a lot of letters from people who thought about their life because of
my songs. I'm not a better person for it but a catalyst for information, and
I am often surprised where I got my information from. There is only a thin
line between illusion and  disillusion. You have to feel part of life and
you have to allow yourself to be raised by superior feelings. These are
great experiences. You have to take your own responsibility in the end.
Naturally I don't have all the answers either. I am searching too. Maybe
I'll get an insight through my constant studies of astrology, mythology and
psychology. And maybe some more humour. I search for the realization of my
dreams in ordinary every day existence. We all have to live with the faults
of capitalism, which is supposed to be the better alternative to socialism.
We will see.... maybe everything will be a bit more human at the end of this
decade."

Roland looked out at his country garden "I have always wanted to live like
this. And now, since I'm actually here, I feel better than ever and
everything is easier."

Solitary Tear:  A pop duo in the great British tradition of Wham!, Pet Shop Boys, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark and others, Tears for Fears had one guy who seemed to do all the work and all the talking, while the other one apparently just showed up for the video shoots.

Four years after the last Tears for Fears album, singer-songwriter-producer Roland Orzabal stands alone, having shed fellow Tear Curt Smith due to the time-honored rock cliche; of  creative differences.   On the new Tears for Fears album, Elemental,  Orzabal keeps the band's brand name for himself, and its dense, beyond-Beatlesque sound makes you wonder what that other guy was up to all that time.

Orzabal is in Manhattan doing the usual interview after interview before an evening performance at Lincoln Center (the band plays Constitution Hall on Tuesday), and he's quiet and considered on the phone, and surprisingly frank about the Tears trauma.

"Well, the fact is that I'd always been the songwriter, and Curt relied on me for songs, and those songs were getting less and less as the years progressed,"  Orzabal says.   "And then during [the 1989 LP]  The Seeds of Love,  I kind of took over as the producer as well, so it was becoming like a one-man band.  And then in the end it became one in reality.  We had a lot of shared assets - well, actually a lot of liabilities - after that last tour.  And I took over the running of the company.  This is just another phase Tears for Fears is going through."

A[n] unmistakable touch of antipathy is evident in Orzabal s voice when he's asked about his erstwhile partner.  "I think it's similar to the animosity between a parent and a child; the parent wants the child to grow up and the child doesn't t want to grow up.  You know, for [expletive] sake, get out of the nest!"

Smith recently released his own solo album, still available only in Europe.

"Yeah, I ve heard it,"  Orzabal grumbles when pressed.   "He made the album in America, it's kind of what you call adult contemporary, kind of like a Christian record.  It's all about being good, being a good boy, being nice at all costs."

Several of the songs on Elemental seem like shades of "How Do You Sleep?",  John Lennon's musical poison-pen letter to his ex-partner Paul McCartney.  That's hardly surprising, since much of Orzabal's work since the 1983 double-platinum The Hurting has been about exorcising emotional demons - the big 1985 hit  "Shout" was about Orzabal's involvement with Arthur Janov's primal scream therapy.

"Well, a lot of the songs were written while I was in a sense going through the divorce," Orzabal says.   "Things like "Break It Down Again" refer to that to some degree, and "Fish Out of Water",  obviously.  I did psychotherapy for about six years, I stopped going regularly when I'd finished Elemental, which I think probably says something.  I think I'm moving on."

So fans who are fascinated with the band's breakup and its emotional aftermath can ponder lyrics like these, from "Fish Out of Water":  'You always said you were the compassionate one / But now you're laughing at the sun / With all your high class friends you think you've got it made / The only thing you made was that tanned look on your face.'

Ouch, Roland!

"After the breakup, things were a complete mess on the business end as well,"  Orzabal says.   "So I was on my own, without a manager, without anybody that was familiar.  And I needed to go through that.  You can hear it on a song like "Cold",  where I say 'Look, I need distance, I need to be on my own, I don't want a relationship.'"

Relieved of the stress of being saddled with a useless partner, Orzabal says, recording  Elemental was a pleasurable process.

"We actually built a recording studio at my home to record this album,"  he says.  "It's an old photographer's studio that we converted.  It was called Neptune's Kitchen, and we used a lot of copper that was doused in acid to look like it s been underwater and all the colors are sort of greens and blues like the sea.  And there's a weathervane on top of the building which is a whale."

"It was necessary, economically, to work at home," Orzabal says, "because I spend so long in the studios on albums that the bills mount up, and doing it at home was a sensible move.  Also, I have a little boy, so I could sort of spend time with him, watch him grow up.  He'd run around in the studio, play the keyboards."

"I'm kind of used to working autonomously,"  Orzabal says,  "I would say that this album is less of a solo album than The Seeds of Love,  in fact.  The team I worked with was amazing -Tim Palmer the co-producer, and Alan Griffiths, who co-wrote the stuff.   Griffiths is playing guitar and keyboards on the current Tears For Fears tour, which also includes bassist/singer Gail Ann Dorsey, drummer Brian MacLeod, guitarist Jeffrey Trott and keyboardist Jebin Bruni."

"The show is a little more focused and a lot more gutsy than previously,"  Orzabal says.   "The light show is fantastic.  We mainly perform the new album, obviously, because it sounds great and it translates very well live.  But we segue quite often into older songs, and that surprise element seems to be working very well, the audience really appreciates it."

So Orzabal enjoys being the focus, the recognizable face of Tears For Fears.   "It's a lot easier, to be honest.  I think I was very lazy in a duo.  It was so much more exciting and inspiring when we had Oleta Adams with us on that last tour."   (The story of how Tears for Fears discovered singer/songwriter Adams languishing in a Kansas City hotel lounge in 1985 is the stuff of pop music fairy tales.)

"I thought, at this point in my career, I had to bring everything back to its basic elements.  For me to be at center stage just makes so much sense right now.  And I have a lot of fun.  I can take responsibility for what I'm doing."

'Number One'  - 1990

    George Michael is coming to the show tonight. And Peter Gabriel. And... Bob
Geldof!" An evil grin appears on Roland Orzabal's face as he goes into the Geldof routine,
"Hello, pock off, feed the world! Hello, pock off, feed the world! That's all he ever
says."

    Still, you did your bit didn't you, Roland ol' son? EWTRTW was adapted to 'Everybody
wants to Run the world' and became the official anthem of the Run the World thing
in 86'.

    Ah...that was...unfortunate. It ruined quite a nice song.

    But you must have agreed to it.

    Yeah
    Er...why then? Because you thought it was a good cause?

    No- to get Bob Geldof off our backs! He gave us so much gip for not turning up at Live Aid.

    So you felt guilty?

    Yeah. All those millions of people dying, it was our fault. I felt terrible. I tell you , I know how Hitler must have felt...

    So why didn't you appear at Live Aid?

    I was having my period.

    Nor will TFF be putting in an appearance at the forthcoming Mandela Day 2 Concert?

    We're actually playing somewhere else that day.

    Would you play there if you weren't?

    No! I've written a poem for him, though. It goes 'His name is Nelson, he's not a sailor, ladies and gentlemen, Nelson Mandela!'

    Roland is fingering a strange flowery brooch thingy attached to his lapel, and
showing off his astrologically sound t-shirt. He is, he apologizes (though not very
profusely) in a flippant mood (something to do with the moon being in Leo apparently).
    Do you ever fall out with Curt, Roland?

    Non-stop. But that's part of being in a duo. It's two men. How do two men get on? We
get on each other's nerves at times. When you're after the same goal it can get very
tricky, very competitive, but we make do.

    Do you ever think I don't want to do this anymore, I should be a postman?

    Oh yeah, I often think I'd like to be a postman.

    So what keeps dragging you back?

    The higher self. The part of you with its eye on the future.

    Er Roland, do you actually like being a pop star?

    Being a pop star means nothing to me. Or my friends. My friends aren't pop stars.

    But it makes you different...you're famous, people adore you.

    Yeah, they want to sleep with me. One of the perks of the job. Ha Ha. What you must
realize is that it's a game and it provides a social function, just like Kylie. It's not a
bad job...it's a bit like being a social worker.

    What's the best thing about it?

    It's a laugh, really. Everybody thinks you're something special, so you can play on
it. Depending on your mood you can come across as difficult, intellectual or just
plain stupid. It's good fun. And I must say I'm enjoying it more now than I've ever done.

    And the worst thing?

    The gutter press. That can be very painful. Especially when they bring in your
family- that's heartbreaking. But I have all their names on a list and if they start
disappearing then it's got nothing to do with me. I've got a very, very, very, very long
memory.

    So what's next for TFF?

    At the end of this tour do you disappear for another four years?

    No, that would be too predictable. It depends on how the new material sounds. If
it sounds marketable then we may well do another TFF album and if it doesn't ....well, I
really wouldn't want to put Curt through it, bless him. He puts up with enough from me
anyway.

    Who inspires you?

    We ran out of inspirations. In 84 when we were doing the 'Big Chair' album, there was
all this Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Art of Noise, Trevor Horn stuff around and we
were very much in love with what was going down in modern music. But after that nothing
caught our attention. I remember writing songs for this album and avoiding anything
remotely danceable. God knows why- I shot myself in the foot there. Everyone was into
dancing and I was putting down an 'I am the Walrus' rhythm!'

    Do you look down your nose at the other things in the chart?

    No.

    What about dance music then?

    When hip hop and house first started there were some fantastic records, but the
problem is it's the thing to do now and the house is the dance music at the moment. The
same old problem. As people get older they turn it into a rotten cliché. Still, punk came
along to clear it all away before...maybe that'll happen again.

    What advice would you give to the young at heart?

    I'm not gonna say. I don't want to read it back. I'm feeling flippant.

    How do yo think other people would describe you?

    Oh, they'd say he's a tiny bit eccentric, a wee bit defensive, quite witty, quite warm...
and kind to animals. ("Everyone thinks I am nice when really I am a bastard")

    And what would you like to be remembered for?

   Being a great lover!

    And he laughs like a drain.

                  The idea of rebirth is really quite simple; it's not as
overtly dramatic as people seem to think. For instance, you die as a child to
become a teenager, you die as a teenager to become an adult.....you have to
leave some things behind in order to change and transform."

                  Roland Orzabal, co-founder of the thinking man's pop group,
Tears For Fears, is waxing philosophical about metamorphosis. Frankly, this
isn't too surprising: Since the band's inception in 1981, it's a theme that
has surged like an electrical current through virtually all of Orzabal's
lyrics, energizing two hit albums-the Hurting and the phenomenally successful
SFTBC ( Some 8 million copies sold worldwide ). The refrain "Change/You can
change", from"Change" ( The Hurting ) is the essential Tears For Fears
philosophy in a nutshell.

        &nbs