(Morristown, NJ) -- British rock legends Tears for Fears come to Mayo Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at 8 pm. Tickets are $79-$150. The band made a name for themselves in the 1980s, with a string of hits that included “Shout,” “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Head Over Heels” and “Sowing the Seeds of Love.”
Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith are the duo behind Tears for Fears. An omnipresent fixture in the early days of music video, Tears For Fears brought Orzabal and Smith into the pop music spotlight via their 1983 debut album The Hurting, a sophisticated collection of inward-looking, electro-tinged pop songs including “Mad World” (recently covered to enormous international success by Gary Jules on the “Donnie Darko” soundtrack), “Pale Shelter” and “Change,” all Top 10 hits in the band’s British homeland.
The Bath-based duo, longtime friends and prior members of youthful band Graduate, never anticipated the even greater success that would greet them next, however. 1985’s Songs From The Big Chair was an international sensation, boasting three Top 5 singles in the U.S. alone (dual No. 1’s “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” and “Shout,” and “Head Over Heels”) and catapulting the pair to superstardom.
In an attempt to satisfy the international demand for the band, the group then spent an extended period touring and promoting the new album around the world—a time that, as we would later see, would take its toll on the band in the days to come. Tears For Fears continued, and indeed when Big Chair’s follow-up Sowing The Seeds Of Love emerged four years later, it soared into the Top 10 and offered the No. 2 smash “The Seeds Of Love.” A joyous, profoundly Beatle-esque burst of rich melodic pop accompanied by an equally memorable video, it proved well worth the wait to those fans who’d been clamoring from more from Roland and Curt.
Smith left the group in 1990, but the duo reunited in the 2000s. Tears For Fears continues to sell out shows throughout the world, and Orzabal and Smith maintain their status as one of pop music’s more productive musical collaborations.
Mayo Performing Arts Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, presents a wide range of programs that entertain, enrich, and educate the diverse population of the region and enhance the economic vitality of Northern New Jersey. The 2015-2016 season is made possible, in part, by a grant the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as support received from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, F.M. Kirby Foundation and numerous corporations, foundations and individuals. The Mayo Performing Arts Center has been designated a Major Presenting Organization by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.