TV Guide
http://tvguide.com/news/insider/041001c.asp


Happy Ending for Tears for Fears? by Danny Spiegel

Backstage at Last Call with Carson Daly, Tears for
Fears duo Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal are waiting to
go on. They've been doing a lot of that lately. That's
what happens when you're one of the biggest bands of
the '80s (with hits like "Shout" and "Sowing the Seeds
of Love") and you're promoting your first joint album
together, Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, in more than
15 years. You do a lot of TV appearances (including,
so far, The Tonight Show, Conan, Today and The Late
Late Show), which means a lot of rehearsals and then a
lot of waiting. "This is our third TV show in as many
days," says Orzabal. "Basically, we're taking over
American TV for every week up until the election."

It was back in 1990 when Orzabal and Smith elected to
go their separate musical ways after 14 years
together, a partnership that began when they were
teenagers in Bath, England. After the split, Orzabal,
who retained the band's name, recorded two new albums
in 1993 and 1995, while Smith pursued his own
projects. It was a "stony silence," as Orzabal calls
it, until five years ago, when a mundane business
transaction resulted in a long overdue phone call.
Says Orzabal, "It was just one conversation, really,
that made us both realize there was no point in not
talking."

And then, slowly and gingerly, the new collaboration
began. "We had been doing solo stuff," Smith says,
"and now suddenly you've got to take someone else into
consideration." Twelve solid tracks and a new record
deal later, that initial anxiousness has now been
supplanted by the pressures of these single
performances on talk shows and the like. "We're
nervous on TV because you get one shot at it," Orzabal
explains. "We run the song in rehearsal and it
completely gels, and then the moment the red light
goes on, it's just not as cohesive because we've been
hanging around for three hours."

Not that anyone has noticed. "In my mind it was a huge
booking," says Daly, who hosts the band tonight on NBC
at 1:35 am/ET. "Tears for Fears? Oh my god, of course
we'd love to have them." And they're not the only
ones: In the next two weeks TFF will also appear on
Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Ellen DeGeneres Show before
they go on tour at the end of October. What's left
after that? Jokes Smith, "We're doing guest spots on
Blue's Clues tomorrow."

<end>