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Graduate

Pre-TFF Album: "Graduate - "Acting My Age" (1980). Members: Orzabal, Smith, Steve Buck, Andy Marsden & John Baker. Single released: "Elvis Should Play Ska" -- reached #106 in the UK. Roland and Curt left "Graduate" in '81 to form "The History of Headaches", which was quickly changed to "Tears For Fears".

A "Graduate" re-release, "Acting My Age" was reissued in January, 2002.19 tracks in all including the 9 bonus tracks 'Ambition', 'I See Through You', 'Premature Baby', 'Christ Look Upon Us', 'Oh U Boys', 'Only The Best', 'Think Of Me', 'Happens So Fast' & 'No Second Troy'.

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Track List:

Acting My Age
Slick and Tired
Ever Met A Day
Dancing Nights
Shut Up
Elvis Should Play Ska
Watching Your World
Love That Is Bad
Julie Julie
Bad Dreams
Ambition
I See Through You
Premature Baby
Christ Look Upon Us
Oh U Boys
Only The Best
Think Of Me
Happens So Fast
No Second Troy

Before "Graduate", Roland and Curt were briefly in a band called "Neon" - with Pete Byrne and Rob Fisher (Naked Eyes). Curt and Roland played instruments as well as sung backing vocals.

To hear the demo of these songs (The Time Is Now, Victims of Fact, and Communication Without Sound), check out the TFF Music Samples.

For lyrics, check out Graduate Lyrics

For more on "Graduate", check out Christopher Macadams' Graduate Web Site

Review of "Graduate" from Post Punk Diary - May 28, 1980

GRADUATE have been having a little bit of success with their latest single "Elvis
Should Play Ska" in Holland, and their label, Precision Records, put together an album to
help it along. To further promote the album, two of the tracks have been excerpted as a
single.

The songs are "Ever Met A Day," and "Shut Up." Both were written by Roland Orzabal.
Sounds magazine said that, "The singer goes in for some vocal acrobatics that don't
quite come off, while the band never manage to climb out of first gear. The result is
clinically produced pop with no direction, no roots and as much balls as you'd expect
from Tony Hatch at the controls. Classic musical wallpaper... Graduate are currently
vying with the Korgis to be the first attraction from Bath to overtake the Roman ruins
in the popularity stakes...and unfortunately they don't pass the test."

The following information was provided by Scott Fay...

The band name Graduate came from the fact that the song they used to open their gigs up with was a cover of the Simon and Garfunkel tune "Mrs. Robinson", from the move "The Graduate".

Scott went on to say...

I have info on 3 of Roland's songs that are not familiar songs to probably most of you. All 3 were going to appear on a 2nd Graduate album called "Ambition" that never was released. They were recorded in the summer of 1980. They are:

Premature Baby - this was written by Roland, with affection, for his older brother.

Oh U Boys - this has a line at the beginning "Meet you at Charlies". Charlie Browns was a Bath nightclub where Graduate played their first gigs.

Think of Me - in the early days, Roland, John Baker, and Andy Marsden would play acoustic gigs in pubs. This was one of the first non-cover songs they attempted. It was written by Roland when he was 14 years old.

Other songs to be on the unreleased album are: Sam, Only The Best, Happened So Fast, and Me or You (this first song co-written by Roland and Curt).

The demos for the unreleased Ambition LP were recorded July 23rd-25th.The song "Suffer the Children", which was recorded not as Graduate, but under the band name White Papers, on February 27th, 1981 at Crescent Studios in Bath. It was recorded live, in one evening, and the keyboards were added later.

The White Papers band name came from a song Graduate performed at gigs. The name refers to the visa needed to enter the US at the time. That was where Roland was hoping to go because there were no primal therapy sessions in the UK.