h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

But I have a few questions:

Where did they get there name from?

Weren't they session musicians for about ten years as well? (I could be wrong here)

And why on the re-release of Song from the Big Chair is there 7 previously unreleased tracks? What are they about?

'Tears for Fears had taken their name from a chapter in Arthur Janov's book on psychotherapy Prisoners of Pain' - second section, third paragraph.

As far as I know the two key members of TfF weren't what you would call session musicians. It's quite likely that both of them 'guested' on other people's LPs (I know Orzabal has done some producing). Pre-Graduate era I think they were probably too young to be working as session musicians, certainly not for ten years. I could, of course be completely wrong about this, so if you find out for definite please correct me.

I haven't actually got the reissue of Songs From the Big Chair, but I can guess the additional tracks are b-sides and remixes (maybe the track 'The Big Chair' is included?). Come to think of it I don't remember where I got the idea that the reissues had the same tracks as the originals - perhaps I should check this out.

Other than those points I hope you enjoyed it.

Shucks. I knew where they got their name, too. It's just that I haven't been to H2G2 since June... love the band... the "Head Over Heels" video is good fun.

The reissues due include The Big Chair and American versions of two of the singles. The reissues of Seeds of Love also include when Tears Roll Down and that other one with Johnny in the title, the b-side. There's also stuff on the Hurting reissue. No change to Elemental as far as I'm aware and I haven't seen Raoul and The Kings of Spain about for quite some time.

Ta for the info.

Raoul... was on a different label, so may not have been reissued with the others. Roland Orzabal is actually selling autographed copies on his website so perhaps rather too many were pressed first time around and now he's trying to clear some space in his house.

As another TfF fan (or at least someone who knows the LPs) what do you think of the later stuff? I reckon the last two are pretty good but by that time the band were hasbeens and consequently didn't receive the success they should have. Ah, well. Such is life.

I quite like the last two albums. I don't think they've ever done a truly bad album. Possibly the Hurting was the best and the last two weren't as good as before they split up, but they were still better than a lot of the junk being sold at the time. The first half of the 90's seemed to be rather poor from what I can remember. But people and particulary the musical press weren't interested in 80's bands anymore. (Perhaps the publication of Mojo will help to curb this) Look what happened to the Human League and Duran Duran (though they did have one top ten hit in '93 (?)). Certainly the last two albums had a different style without the influence of Kurt Smith though I got the feeling Roland Ozkabal did more than his fair share anyway. I remember Elemental was in the charts but I only knew from the radio that Raoul had been released which wasn't that easy to find. I think he performed from Raoul on Danny Baker's TV show as well. I didn't know until you're article that he'd done a solo album ( for that one!). But I got the feeling that the last two albums were solo efforts anyway and he was just using the name to shift more copies. I'm sure John Lennon's stuff would have shifted more copies if he'd kept the name of the Beatles, if you see what I mean. I just wonder if the reissues and the sudden number of Best of albums (I can't remember off-hand if these include tracks from the last two albums) means that there's increased interest in TfF - possibly fueled by the number of nostalgia programmes about, such as the Top Ten on Channel 4 - or it was coinciding with Ozkabal's album or they both just wanted more money. Perhaps what was missing from the last two albums, and the Ozkabal solo album, was really good hit singles they they managed to produce in the first three albums - though I'm not sure if this would work as the charts now seems to be dictated by the fashion conscience ephemeral tastes of Smash Hits reading 12-year girls.