Primal therapy, synthesizers and a name that stuck: Tears for Fears

Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith met as teenagers in Bath, Somerset, and bonded over rock groups like Thin Lizzy and Blue Öyster Cult. Their first act was Graduate, a mod revival and new wave band that released the album Acting My Age and a single, “Elvis Should Play Ska”, in 1980. It missed the UK chart but did well in Spain and Switzerland. The band split in 1981, and the two worked as session musicians for Neon.

They then turned to electronic music, impressed by Tubeway Army, OMD, Depeche Mode and the Human League, and took on the duo format popularized by OMD and Soft Cell. They first called themselves History of Headaches; the eventual name was inspired by the primal therapy of the American psychologist Arthur Janov. The Hurting (1983) reached number one in the UK, and “Mad World”, “Change” and “Pale Shelter” all reached the UK top five.

Songs from the Big Chair (1985) topped the Billboard 200, with “Shout” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” both reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The second won the Brit Award for Best British Single in 1986. The Seeds of Love (1989) entered the UK chart at number one and yielded the transatlantic top five hit “Sowing the Seeds of Love”. “Woman in Chains” is another song that carries the band's name.

After a tour in 1990 the pair had an acrimonious split. Orzabal kept the Tears for Fears name as a solo project, releasing Elemental in 1993, which produced “Break It Down Again”, and Raoul and the Kings of Spain in 1995. They reconciled in 2000 and made Everybody Loves a Happy Ending in 2004. After almost a decade in development, The Tipping Point appeared in 2022, giving the band its sixth UK top five album. In 2021 they received an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection.