Song of the Day # 555 Tears For Fears

'And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad. The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I ever had.' 

I dreamed about going to watch Tears For Fears last night. In my dream they were about to play a tiny upstairs club in Newcastle in the here and now. In 2015. So, a new first for this blog as I start to post what goes on in my head while semi-conscious and probably begin to part company once and for all from reality along the way. Odd thing to dream about and not I imagine something about to happen unless they've fallen on bad times that I haven't heard about. Sadly my dream ended before I got to see them play. 

I'm not a fan, I hastily add, of anything beyond their first album but I have reasons for a permanent emotional bond with this band. Before I get to those, here's a video of them playing their first big hit on Top of the Pops, a song, like most of their early ones, about deep, emotional teenage trauma watched by a group of barely interested people in a TV studio wearing party hats. Mad World indeed.

They were actually the first live band I ever saw, when they first emerged, supporting The Thompson Twins at Hammersmith Palais in 1982. I thought they were very good, though of course I had nothing else to base that judgement on. They were still a relatively credible proposition in those days, being supported by John Peel among others though I imagine he fairly soon severed his affections when they trotted off to huge American success with their next album. Mad World though, the best thing they ever did, still sounds good and deservedly almost got to Number 1 in the UK.

The Thompson Twins, later the same evening, was a different story. Strange to think they'd actually once been a hip proposition before mutating into the three headed monstrosity that conquered the world on a wave of cheery synths and lurid videos. Previously they'd been a much larger percussive Talking Heads inspired group with political leanings. 

But not the night I saw them. They'd just trimmed down to the three piece outfit they soon became famous as. I think it was one of their first gigs. They seemed to have a very good sound considering they were a trio until mid-point through an early number they threw down their instruments and started dancing around the stage while the music continued in the background and you realised the whole thing was taped. I learned the truth at seventeen. Round about the same time when Janis Ian chanced upon it.