"Hello, can I speak to David Essex in room number 40 please". "David
Essex", by the way is one of the many pseudonyms used by the group on tour
in an attempt to deter any uninvited phone callers, "Room 40" is the number
of the Florence hotel room where a rather exhausted Roland Orzabal is
relaxing after a gruelling overnight coach journey from Rome. Curt meanwhile
is still in the land of nod following a tiring training session with the TFF
football team. So it was Roland's turn to do all the talking about the
gents' , um, lifestyle.

Films: do you like Ghostbusters and popcorn or depressing French subtitled
films about LIFE?

I don't really have time to go to the cinema nowadays. Living in hotel rooms
for eight months of the year like we've been doing recently, you get to
watch a lot of videos. My favourites are Elephant Man, Frances, Sybil, and
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. I also enjoy fun things like Ghostbusters
and Star Wars.

Books: Enid Blyton or Jean Paul Sartre?

The last book I read was The Love You Make, an inside story of the Beatles.
The one before was And I don't want to live this life by Deborah Spungen,
Nancy Spungen's mother. Nancy was the murdered girlfriend of Sid Vicious
from the Sex Pistols.

Cars:a vast collection of original American cadillacs from the '50s or a
battered Morris Metro?

We've got two cars. A white Morris Minor which I bought for my wife when she
was learning to drive and a little Volvo which I bought her when she passed
the test. They're both completely useless as far as I'm concerned because I
can't drive! We use the Volvo most of the time because the Morris is always
out on loan to various members of our family and neighbours.

Hi Fi: a 200 watt component system with graphic equalizer and compact disc
player or box-shaped record player that takes 14 singles all stacked on top
of each other?

I have a huge JVC ghettoblaster which has detachable speakers.I don't own
any records at all, not even TFF records, except for the odd gold and silver
disc which is kept hidden away in a cupboard. But I do have a massive
cassette collection which is littered all over the living room floor.

Clothes:Mr Byrite or Yohji Yamamoto?

I tend to go for utilitarian stuff like jeans and boots with a long thick
coat over the top. It's nice to dress up every now and then but I wouldn't
do it too much. I've just bought a really nice Katherine Hamnett parka in
khaki which is really nice. It cost 130 Pounds Sterling and that's about my
limit as far as clothes go.

Music:Make It Big by Wham! or Carmina Burana by Carl Orff?

I don't really listen to music much. I like the sound of silence. I
sometimes listen to my wife's records. She's got a lot of Bowie and old
Motown records along with some records by Lloyd Cole and Everything But The
Girl which I happen to like as well.

Food: McDonalds or Nouvelle Cuisine?

I don't really eat much at home. My wife, Caroline, is a fantastic cook but
she's incredibly lazy so we tend to go out for a lot of meals or rely on
takeaways.

Home Furniture: MFI chipboard 'n' foam or trendy Italian designs?

Our house is what's known as Cottage Style. We have an antique sofa covered
in a flamboyant fabric, lots of birds and flowers and a few other Victorian
chairs scattered around. I don't really like modern furniture but I love
modern prints and fabrics. We have a large Georgian mirror over the
mantlepiece and the floors are scrubbed pine. It's very messy but
comfortable.

Sport:three games fo squash followed by a furious work-out in the

multi-gym or Saturday night watching darts on the box? I don't really play
any sport at all but I am the manager of the TFF 11. We had a very close
match in Grenoble (France) recently. We lost 8-2! My ambition is to manage
Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Hobbies: stamp collecting or an annual expedition to Outer Mongolia?

It's a bit of an in-joke with the road crew at the moment but Curt's hobby
is marriage guidance. He's always dishing out advice to the roadies and the
manager. But our real hobbies are photography. We are both fanatical about
taking pictures. We went to Japan recently and spent most of our time buying
tons and tons of cameras and bits of equiqment. The cover of I Believe (a
self-portrait of Roland) was actually taken by me in a hotel room. We
organised the video for the song around the picture. I was really pleased
with it - simple but effective.

Interview: Simon Mills