Review of Tears For Fears: Scenes From The Big Chair

Introduction

Tears For Fears emerged from Bath in 1982 with Mad World, a song with a video of Roland Olazabel dancing dodgily on a local pier. Mad World was a huge hit (and later covered very successfully by Gary Jules) but wasn`t their first single as both Pale Shelter and Suffer The Children were re-issues after flopping first time round, happily rectified after their first hit. Made up of old friends Curt Smith (bass) and Roland Olazabel (guitar), the two had a musical pedigree of sorts after playing in ska band Graduate before ditching two-tone for synthesisers, drum machines and lots of angst.

Debut album The Hurting was a stunning album based around the work of Arthur Janov and his primal screaming therapy. Following the rather poor single The Way You Are and a lacklustre version of Mothers Talk, the band rethought their direction and became more of a rock band, a move that was spectacularly successful with the release of global smashes Shout and Everybody Wants To Rule The World. With ex-Ants drummer Chris Hughes producing again, Ian Stanley on synths and Manny Elias on drums, Tears For Fears were arguably one of the biggest bands in the world in 1985. So it was quite shocking that the group refused to appear at Live Aid. It`s rumoured that Olazabel and Smith (or maybe just the former) were narked at the emotional blackmail that Bob Geldof tried to invoke (and worked on just about everyone else). Still, the band made up for it in a big way by releasing Everybody Wants To Run The World for the Race Against Time charity event linked to the Band Aid trust.

Scenes From The Big Chair is a documentary cum performance film based around the world tour for the album Songs From The Big Chair mixing interviews with both live performances and promo video`s.

Video

The main feature looks like it`s a pretty good conversion from VHS to DVD. The picture can be a little soft and grainy at times but nothing too off-putting. The Californian gig is done better but suffers a little from the 90`s fad of mixing black and white footage, and then really grainy at times, with brightly coloured shots. It`s very much a mix and match affair that is well edited regardless. Less annoying than a lot of similarly shot concerts from this era I`ve seen. Helps that I like the band though, I suppose…

Audio

Both films can be heard in a very well done Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround soundtrack, although there is a 2.0 Stereo mix on standby. The surround mixes sound superb and are very loud, although the soundtrack for the main feature is virtually limited to the front speakers. Subtitles can be used for both the interview portions of the main feature and the interview with Chris Hughes.

Features

The main extra is the Going To California concert film, which is a full gig from the tour to support Sowing The Seeds and includes both a gospel song and a Beatles cover…

Interview with Chris Hughes - the ex-Ants drummer was producer on Songs From The Big Chair and this half hour interview with him on his recollections from that period is superb and really detailed.

This DVD also has a video jukebox extra to it although it doesn`t quite work as it really should due to the editing for the main feature…

Conclusion

This is a welcome re-issue of a documentary film from when Tears For Fears were riding the crest of a wave in terms of success. This was almost certainly put together for the US rather than the band`s home audience as TFF made it big over the pond with Songs From The Big Chair. Still, I`ll take it where I can get, particularly something as well put together as this. Some companies would have been happy to just put out the feature with nothing attached, but to their credit we also also have not only a full length concert from the Seeds Of Love era, but also an up to date interview with producer Chris Hughes, who puts a useful spin on things and adds in a lot of detail surrounding the making of the album.

Whilst the picture is not prefect, and given it`s age that isn`t altogether surprising, the sound is superb. The surround mix, which was a slight surprise actually, is well done and uses all the surround speakers well. One of my greatest pleasures watching this was to watch the promo for my favourite TFF track Head Over Heels while having the sound blast out of my player really loud. Similarly, I Believe sounds simply awesome whilst Shout and Everybody Wants To Rule The World just rock.

An excellent addition to my library…