It's New Wave time again with Tears For Fears

The reunited Tears For Fears came over for a show at the Big Dome in May of 2010. I cannot recall if it was Tears For Fears first time here, but Pinoys, who found so much to relate to in its hits from many years ago, went wild over the duo. So promoter Ovation Productions decided the band was ripe for another gig. And to please more fans this time around, it will not be for just one night.

Roland Orzabal, on vocals, guitar and synthesizers and Curt Smith on vocals, synthesizers and bass guitar, will be at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Aug. 10 and 11 and at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu on Aug. 12. That means three nights in town to better accommodate all those who want to watch these guys do their big hits live. Talks have it that the first night had already sold out but you can still try for the second and if truly desperate, fly to Cebu.

Orzabal and Smith first met as kids and grew up trying to form their own band in Bath, England. Tears For Fears was the best result of several efforts. All it took was one song, Pale Shelter, for the duo to land a recording contract and Tears For Fears was on its way to a lot of big sellers in the ’80s. Their also critically-acclaimed albums were The Hurting, Songs From The Big Chair and The Seeds Of Love. Their music was tagged as New Wave, which was quite popular at the time but it was really an ingenious mix of synthesizers and pretty pop melodies. Very chic and hip — and of course, very Brit.

Listening to Tears For Fears now, I see the sound as based on a techno and The Beatles formula. Its songs are framed in lush arrangements with philosophical musings that explore the duo’s personal experiences as troubled youth. They are beautiful screams or calls for help. Had they been discovered today, I believe that Orzabal and Smith would have been classified as emo and the kids would have really loved them. Now that is not much different from those adolescents who listened and understood what Tears For Fears was trying to say nearly 30 years ago.

They are now the grown-ups who I know will be besides themselves with joy over the live rendition of these songs: Mad World, Change, The Way You Are, Suffer The Children, Mothers Talk, Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Head Over Heels, I Believe, Sowing The Seeds Of Love, Woman In Chains, Advice For The Young And Heart, Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down), Break It Down Again, New Star, Goodnight Song and others.

Orzabal and Smith had a huge falling-out during the ’90s. That is the reason why the hits stopped coming. Orzabal continued recording solo as Tears For Fears, but it was just not the same without Smith. But they had been friends for so long that it was not difficult to get back together and be Tears For Fears again. That first Asian tour two years ago was the result of Orzabal and Smith’s reunion. They have been together ever since so it might not be far-fetched to think of these two guys once more recording an album.

Still on another great duo from the past. Joining Tears for Fears in the Araneta Coliseum show is Per Sorensen, the voice of Fra Lippo Lippi. He was actually a member of the Norwegian duo that swept Manila by storm in the late ’80s. But since his bandmate Rune Kristoffersen is not performing with him anymore, Sorensen is billed as the voice of Fra Lippo Lippi.

He is also actually The Voice of the duo, having sung the lead vocals for the hit songs of the Fra Lippo Lippi. So what the audience will be getting will be the songs of Fra Lippo Lippi sounding as they have always remembered. Angel, Light & Shade, Distance Between Us, Shouldn’t Have To Be Like That, Some People, Everytime I See You, Come Summer and Beauty and Madness.

I do not know if Sorensen will perform songs from the CD but I heard that Sorensen has released a new solo album. It will be a big treat for his fans if he does.