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Home , Break It Down Again, Curt Smith, MAD World, Roland Orzabal

12 EVENT MUSIC Back to the couch A new generation are discovering egalitarian 1980s pop stars , writes Sally Browne

A SINGER, a rabbi and chimpanzee walk into gates of the US with a No.1 album, Songs from a library. It sounds like the start of a joke but the Big Chair. At that time Tears for Fears it’s a rough translation of what happens in the hysteria was in full swing and fans couldn’t get video for Head Over Heels, the hit single from enough of them. legendary 1980s band Tears for Fears. ‘‘We were massive,’’ Orzabal says as a The video recently got a 21st century make- simple statement of fact. ‘‘It depends on your over when a bunch of fans on YouTube personality how you deal with it. And I redubbed it for a so-called ‘‘literal version’’. found that my egalitarian instincts took The internet craze has seen users re- over. I wanted to speak to the fans and recording versions of songs by acts including treat them as equals, and the hysteria A-ha, Bonnie Tyler and Red Hot Chili sort of washed over me really.’’ Peppers, but, instead of the original lyrics, they Smith and Orzabal go way back. sing precisely what is going on in each frame They met as 14-year-olds, in one of the (often absurd) film clip. of the picturesque town of Whether you would like to call it a tribute or Bath’s few council estates. As mockery, it’s a nostalgic trip down memory the middle sons of lane but one that , of Tears for three boys, and Fears, isn’t sure he wants to take. both ‘‘from ‘‘Oh God! I hate it,’’ he says down the phone what you line from his home near Bath, UK. And then might call he breaks down laughing. dysfunction- ‘‘Well, put it this way, I tried watching it. But al families, it makes me feel so embarrassed. without ‘‘I hate the video anyway, and I scripted it. sounding too So it’s my own fault. tragic’’, they ‘‘But the literal version, that’s hilarious. But found they had at a I can’t stand it. The guy sounds just like me.’’ lot in common. Tears for Fears are back on the radar for a But that friendship number of reasons. Not least of which is a tour broke down at the end that will see them joining fellow 1980s legends of the ’80s when the Spandau Ballet on the road in . It will band split and Smith be Tears for Fears’ first visit here in 25 years. moved to Los Angeles. After splitting acrimoniously in 1990, the It was band paper- band reunited for one album in 2004. Now, work that got them from their bases of Los Angeles, where Curt talking again and led to Smith lives, and Bath, they tour only when the record Everybody Loves they want to. A Happy Ending in 2004. ‘‘We’re both sort of family guys keen on They also found themselves Dreamers: Roland Orzabal being around for our kids and so we (tour) on the public radar again when a (left) and when we like. And when the offer came up for cover of their song Australia, we said ‘wow, fantastic’.’’ became a worldwide hit after sation closes by discussing Touring with Spandau Ballet also seemed a featuring in the movie Donnie one of Orzabal’s memorable good fit. Darko. The pared-down acoustic dreams. It was around the ‘‘It wasn’t an alien concept. It wasn’t like version, by singer , time he split with Smith. For touring with , which we would takes the song back to its simplest any Psychology 101 students, never do,’’ Orzabal jokes. roots. Orzabal says it’s now one of the the implications are telling. ‘‘We never, ever said yes to any ’80s revival songs he’s most proud of. ‘‘I was in a lake, and my tours or anything like that. ‘‘I probably enjoyed that more than all the accountant and my lawyer were in a ‘‘But this one came along and I thought, I hard labour of making your own record,’’ he speedboat and they were looking at me know the (Spandau) guys and they’ve hated says ‘‘When someone else records this beauti- band’s name and there was this dragon’s tail in the water. each other more than Curt and I have hated ful little gem, you have to shake yourself comes from. Now he And I was speaking to my accountant and my each other, so sparks could fly.’’ because you think, ‘What, I wrote that?’ I love says he’s embarrassed lawyer and saying ‘Look, look, there’s a After 22 million album sales including five it. I absolutely love it.’’ about wearing his heart on his sleeve. dragon’s tail in the water’. And they said top 10 records, Tears for Fears could well rest Although they knew their way around a ‘‘I would never do that (now),’’ he says. ‘‘And ‘Roland every time you move, the dragon’s tail on their laurels. synthesiser, Tears for Fears have never been I don’t know why I did it. Other than the fact moves. It’s your tail’. At the height of their success they held the part of the ’80s pack. Their songs were poppy, that I think was influenced a little bit by Joy ‘‘I’ve had loads of dreams. (To quote Mad world’s attention with inventive and unusual yet deep, moody, but catchy, bringing in all the Division. And that kind of blackness. I got very World) The dreams in which I’m dying are the songs such as Everybody Wants to Rule the elements that a 1980s studio had to offer. depressed when I was in my teens. And I think best I’ve ever had.’’ World, Shout, Mad World, of Lyrically, Orzabal was inspired by psychology in those days, you were allowed to express Tears for Fears and Spandau Ballet play the Love and . – namely the work of Arthur Janov, who those feelings. They were almost fashionable.’’ Brisbane Entertainment Centre on April 27. They were even able to break down the iron developed primal therapy. It’s where the On the subject of psychology, our conver- Tickets: ticketek.com or 132 849. Still rocking the boat with passion Music and vegan food keep Chrissie on edge all the time and engaged NATIONAL TOUR 2010 in what I consider a war.’’ Sally Browne She started the restaurant, she SBS TV’s CULT HIT QUIZ SHOW Hynde up front, writes says, so she would have some- where to eat when she went LIVE ON STAGE SHE may have grown up in thing,’’ Hynde says. ‘‘To me a home to Akron and to show meat Featuring Julia Zemiro & Brian Nankervis America’s mid-west, but Chrissie rock show has to be very eaters there is an alternative. Hynde has long had a love-affair personal. It’s kind of like a secret The RocKwiz Orkestra She likes simple food, though, Dugald and with London. between the audience and and her favourite vegan dish is Special Guests! She moved there as a 22-year- a band.’’ beans on toast. old following a trail of bands such Hynde (pictured) admits she Now, as well as the Pretenders, as The Beatles and The Stones, was a bit of an anglophile Hynde is working with singer- got a job at music mag NME, growing up in Ohio, where she John Paul Jones on a then went on to form her own bought outdated copies of NME. collaborative record due out this influential band, The Pretenders. When she arrived in the UK she year. So it seems appropriate the took odd jobs, scoring a gig at the She’s enjoying the process and band’s latest release, Live in NME after discussing an album says nobody has asked her to London, would be recorded there. in a pub one evening. make a record with them before. The CD and DVD, recorded at ‘‘Brian Eno was my first inter- Recently Hynde has returned She’s also planning to return to the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, view. And I interviewed Tim to her hometown of Akron, Ohio, Australia this year for another BRISBANE QPAC CONCERT HALL shows off the band’s current Buckley, Mose Allison – some of where she has started a vegan tour of the wineries with A Day Tues 23rd, Wed 24th & Thur 25th March - SELLING FAST! ‘‘tasty’’ line-up. my heroes. But I wasn’t really a restaurant, The VegiTerranean. on the Green. www.qtix.com.au - 136 246 ‘‘What I remember about gigs good writer. I was just blagging it She is passionately vegan. ‘‘(It’s) one of the stand-out www.sbs.com.au/rockwiz are usually things that happen in really. I found in rock ’n’ roll ‘‘I personally think about tours of all time.’’ she says. the audience. Some crazy guy in that’s all you had to do. We’re slaughter houses and factory The Pretenders Live in London the balcony dancing or some- sort of a self-taught bunch.’’ farms every day so that keeps me CD/DVD is out now.

Page 12 THE SUNDAY MAIL, event March 21, 2010 thesundaymail.com.au