Tears For Fears – THE BIG BLACK SMOKE (CLEAR VINYL 2LP) Vinyl Double Album

STUNNING TEARS FOR FEARS BROADCAST FROM 1985British synth-pop duo Tears For Fears, featuring Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, were enjoying life at the top of the charts when they made this live recording for the King Biscuit Flower Hour in June of 1985. Their successful sophomore album, Songs from the Big Chair, had just been released and it was on the promotional tour that they played this lively set at London’s prestigious Hammersmith Odeon. This show contains the strongest material from their debut album, The Hurting, as well as new material off their recent release, which was riding up the charts at the time. This concert is a testament to the new wave aesthetic embodied by Tears for Fears in the mid-’80s, and this is a showcase set of the band at near perfection. Orzabal and Smith were already press darlings in the U.K., deeply embraced by BBC Radio 1, so the audience is receptive to them and is familiar with the material. Bonus cuts here come from another Hammersmith show, this time at the less salubrious Palais – just around the corner from the Odeon recorded in 1983.