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Post by Jules on Mar 3, 2020 20:20:51 GMT
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elbuhin
Young at Heart
Posts: 17
Favourite TFF Album: Songs from the Big Chair
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Post by elbuhin on Mar 4, 2020 0:24:28 GMT
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Post by Jules on Mar 4, 2020 13:33:44 GMT
Thanks! I actually laughed out when I read "He sometimes bumps into Curt on the way to tennis"... I can't access your second link, but it seems to line up with what he said in this interview: tearsforfears.boards.net/thread/138/new-curt-interviewRoland seems to be recovering pretty well - whether his voice will ever be as good as it once was is also down to age, I guess. Even with the best technique you lose some range and power.
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Post by Jules on Mar 20, 2020 19:06:13 GMT
I've extracted the text so it's easier to read:
My tears and fears over losing my wife
‘I tried to move on quickly but it’s not possible to process grief so fast. It took a long time to recover'
29 Feb. 2020 By John Earls
BACK at the height of their powers after a 14-year hiatus, Tears For Fears should have been enjoying the fruits of their longawaited reunion. Singers Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith were playing to packed out arenas and working on a new album. Then, Roland’s wife Caroline fell suddenly and terminally ill.
The couple had been married for 35 years, getting wed when Roland was 21 in 1982, just as the band who started on a Bath council estate were finding their sound. Tears For Fears cancelled a US tour so Roland could be with Caroline but her condition worsened and she died in July 2017, aged 55. The impact, not surprisingly, was devastating and the star lost a year grieving after suffering a physical breakdown.
Roland says: “I had to watch my wife die. Like a lot of people, I went crazy afterwards. The whole of 2018 was a write-off for me. Again, like a lot of people who lose their wife or husband, I got ill.”
Incredibly, Tears For Fears resumed touring just two months after the tragedy which Roland, 58, now admits was a major mistake.
“I tried to move on quickly, but it’s not possible to process grief that fast,” he explains. “I was trying to do one thing, get back to work, but the mind and the soul has its own agenda. I fell apart and it takes along time and a lot of work to recover.
“I was in no fit state to tour or to do anything, really. But we’ve come back brighter and stronger.”
Wavy-haired frontman Roland, whose early struggles with depression inspired global hits such as Mad World and Shout, says seeing “a great grief therapist” in Los Angeles helped him recover. He is also now happy in a new relationship.
Having overcome his grief, Roland is now touring again with Curt and the “best band” they’ve ever had.
While Roland doesn’t name his new partner, he does explain: “It’s only really in the last eight months that I feel like I’m fully back. My new relationship has helped like crazy and I know I’m very lucky.”
But his loss has helped inspire Tears For Fears’ latest songs, including new single The Tipping Point, due out in April.
“The Tipping Point is about that time when the person you love is ill and it’s ‘At what point do you let someone go?’ “ he reveals. “It’s strange and it’s tough to come 360 degrees, going through the depression that inspired Mad World to arrive at the same place as a 56-year-old.”
As well as the new single, Tears For Fears are releasing a box-set edition of their 18 million-selling second album Songs From The Big Chair to mark its 35th anniversary. It reminds Roland of seeing him and Curt, also 58, take off in America.
The album and its singles Shout and Everybody Wants To Rule The World reached No 1 Stateside.
Now, Roland is relaxed and self-deprecating talking about Tears For Fears’ incredible story.
But he admits that, in the ‘80s, he was unable to entirely enjoy their success.
“I was staid, obsessive and not much fun to be around,” he admits.
“I wasn’t a party animal and I was on everyone’s back so much that I was called 'the police’ when we were on tour.
“For other members of the band and our crew, there was a lot of excess — a lot of archetypal ‘80s drugs being consumed. “It wasn’t in my nature to indulge and I think being the sober one is a good place to be.
“It was a bit like a stag do: when everyone else is having fun, you have to have one responsible adult, and I was that guy. I was the designated driver! “ Ironically, Roland’s one indulgent spending habit helped his own downfall, following his and Curt’s split in 1991.
“I didn’t fall into the nouveau spending trap,” he says. “I was newly-married and living in a nice Georgian house when I was only 21. That was good enough for me. The only habit I got into was good wine, which I loved from a very early age. “That was great. But the problem is if you start drinking it every day. That’s when you get into trouble.” Roland developed a drink problem and later endured his own hard times with drugs, admitting: “I experienced the excesses later in my life. Being clean was and is better."
Roland’s devotion to his wife and his ability to stay grounded were shaped by his poverty-stricken upbringing. Like bandmate Curt, Roland grew up on a council estate in Bath. His French father and English mother ran an entertainment firm, but dad George was often bedridden during Roland ‘ s childhood.
“I was acutely aware, even when I was five, that we had no car and we never went on holiday,” the star recalls. “Curt and I were both council house kids with intellectual leanings. We both had poverty and
we both wanted to get out of it. We were very aware of how poor we were.”
Tears For Fears formed when, aged 16, Roland invited Curt to join his school band, Graduate. The pair hit it off and soon realised they were better off on their own, with Curt’s falsetto voice a contrast to Roland’s deep tones.
Although Roland was the songwriter, he explains: “It wouldn’t have worked without Curt.
“I tried singing the demos of Mad World and Pale Shelter and they were terrible.
“Curt brought them to life, though there were some songs like Shout I was better suited to.
“It’s funny, because in the UK I think Curt is regarded as the lead singer, whereas in America the fans think I have that role.” Asked about his sometimes high-brow lyrics, Roland laughs: “I was a swot at school. I’d got into reading heavy books about existential philosophy at a very early age.
“I was a young man looking for an answer. I was highly impressionable and very sensitive.”
Roland had begun to suffer from depression in his late teens and his dark thoughts inspired early hits such as Mad World and Pale Shelter on successful debut album The Hurting.
“We were called ‘The thinking girl’s Wham!” he says today.
“We were singing these dark songs about heavy subjects, yet there we were on Top Of The Pops, miming away. Our success caused a little bit of unease and a slight embarrassment.”
Attitudes to mental health have changed greatly since then, but Roland warns: “Until you go through extreme depression and anxiety, it’s going to be a mystery.
“I’m pleased attitudes have changed, that we can talk about it and have adverts on TV.
“But it’s something you can only truly know if you ‘ve experienced it.
“I was guilty of poo-pooing other people’s depression then, when I went through it, I was suddenly, ‘Oh, OK. I get it now’.”
AFTER the mega-success of Songs From The Big Chair, released in February 1985, Curt and Roland’s relationship began to suffer.
They struggled for four years to finish their third album The Seeds Of Love. It reached No 1, but was their final album together until they reformed for 2005’s Everybody Loves A Happy Ending.
Curt now lives in LA with wife Frances. They have two daughters, Diva and Wilder. Roland mainly lives in England, though he too has a house in LA to make it easier to record with Curt.
He stays fit by playing tennis three times a week, while Curt is a keen runner. Joking about his fellow celebrity tennis enthusiasts, Roland claims: “I think I could take Cliff Richard and I could definitely take Bill Gates.”
He sometimes bumps into Curt on the way to tennis, which is when he realises how far the pair have come from their struggling childhoods.
“We pass each other in the hills in LA, me with a tennis racquet and Curt out jogging,” Roland summarises. “We’ll look at each other and ask, ‘Whatever happened to those council house kids?”
The 35th anniversary deluxe 4CD/2DVD boxset of Songs From The Big Chair is released on March 13 on UMC/Virgin, also available on picture disc vinyl
SOURCE: The Daily Express via PressReader
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