Roland Orzabal

Although Tomcats Screaming Outside is technically his debut album, Roland Orzabal has been a solo artist in all but name for the best part of a decade. The dominant half of Tears for Fears, Orzabal turned the 1980s pop duo into a one-man band after the departure of Curt Smith in the early 1990s, releasing two albums, Elemental and Raoul and the Kings of Spain. Although "Ticket to the World," "Bullet for Brains," and "For the Love of Cain"–big chorus, guitar-led pop/rock anthems–could happily fit into either of his post-Curt Smith albums, Tomcats is very much a return to the experimental ways of Tears for Fears' heyday. The dark production and menacing rhythm tracks of "Under Either" and "Hypnoculture," the ambient sway of "Day by Day," the grunge-esque "Dandelion," and the drum & bass of "Kill Love" and "Hey Andy" are all coupled with contagious melodies and Orzabal's twisted vocals, leaving little doubt that the imagination that separated his former band from their peers and made their songs so enduring is still incredibly fertile. Solo album or not, Tomcats Screaming Outside is the best Tears for Fears album in a decade.

DVD collection featuring the bulk of the music videoclips recorded by Curt and Roland from early cuts like 'Change' and 'Mad World' up through the early '90s when Roland led the band after Curt's departure. 15 videos including 'Head Over Heals', 'Shout' and 'Sowing The Seeds Of Love'…

Graduate was the ska youth group of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, who from 1982 would star in an important musical stage at the helm of Tears For Fears. Graduate were formed in bath in 1979 and took their name from the fact that they used to open their gigs with a cover version of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Mrs Robinson’ as featured in the sublime film ‘The Graduate’. The group consisted of John Baker, guitar and vocals; Steve Buck, keyboards and flautist; Andy Marsden, drums; Roland Orzabal, guitar and keyboards; Curt Smith, bass and synthesizers. It would appear that Curt was not an original member of the band. Roland, John and Andy were gigging around before the name Graduate was taken on.

Seventeen years is a long time between albums. It's even longer when you consider the magnitude of how much life happens during that interval. Tears for Fears had experienced mega pop successes (and loads of industry pressure) with Songs from the Big Chair and The Seeds of Love. Curt Smith, sick of paying fame's price, quit in 1991. Roland Orzabal carried on the name for two more lackluster albums. The lads reunited for 2004's Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, but it was short-lived. They planned to record again shortly thereafter, but Orzabal's wife Caroline became gravely ill. Further, their record company tried pairing them with contemporary hitmaking songwriters. They scuttled the sessions. Caroline died in 2017, and a bereft Orzabal turned to his old friend Smith for community and solace; the duo began touring and writing together again in a room with two acoustic guitars. The Tipping Point was eventually completed during the pandemic…

Following a sold-out summer arena tour highlighted by their triumphant UK return in front of 65,000-plus fans as special guests of The Killers during British Summer Time Festival at Hyde Park, Tears For Fears – Roland Orzabal [vocals, guitar, keyboards] and Curt Smith [vocals, bass, keyboards] – close out 2017 with the release of their first career-spanning Greatest Hits album, Rule The World.

If The Hurting was mental anguish, Songs from the Big Chair marks the progression towards emotional healing, a particularly bold sort of catharsis culled from Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith's shared attraction to primal scream therapy. The album also heralded a dramatic maturation in the band's music, away from the synth-pop brand with which it was (unjustly) seared following the debut, and towards a complex, enveloping pop sophistication…