Tear for Fears Newcastle City Hall 22nd March 1983
Tears for Fears seemed to appear from nowhere and were suddenly massively popular. This concert at the City Hall was completely sold out, and came a couple of weeks after the release of Tears for Fears first album “The Hurting”. The Hurting reached No. 1 on the UK Album Chart, was certified Gold within three weeks of release, and contains Tears for Fears first three hit singles: “Mad World”, “Change”, and “Pale Shelter”, all of which reached the Top 5 in the UK. I remember thinking how young Roland and Curt looked. I only knew the singles, but enjoyed the gig. “Mad World” and “Pale Shelter” are great pop.
From the tour programme: “Mad World was released in September 1982 and while Curt and Roland expected moderate sales, they were staggered when it smashed into the UK charts reaching No. 3 just before Christmas and staying there for three weeks.” Support came from North East band Verba Verba.
Curt Smith said of “Mad World”: “We were sitting in his [Roland’s] flat….and we were looking out of the window at people going to work, and existences we thought were pointless….we thought it was a really great, original track but we also thought there were songs on the album that were far more commercial. So we thought we’d release it first and that it would garner us some critical acclaim because it was interesting and different. None of us – including the record company – thought it would be a hit”.
“All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere”
(Mad World, Tears for Fears, 1982)
Vintagerock's Weblog. 
Posted by Mark Watson on October 11, 2024 at 10:04 am
Regarding Verba Verba. I went to see them a few times at a nightclub in Darlington. They were brilliant. The singer made me think of Clare Grogan but she had a much better voice than Clare. They did a song called Black Plastic. Ive been on youtube and theres a video of a tv appearence they did in 1983 and it includes Black Plastic. It was uploaded by John Hodgson who was in Makaton Chat, who i saw at the same venue and were also brilliant.
Posted by vintagerock on October 13, 2024 at 3:24 pm
Many thanks for sharing Mark. I will certainly have a look at the video. Happy days and happy memories Peter