Month: August 2012

Tears For Fears Fan Traveller: Cammie

Andye (Nigeria/Atlanta), Cammie (New York), Captain Julian (UK) and Yvette (Armenia/Los Angeles)

Our membership has grown to include so many from all around the United States, Asia & Europe. In addition to the enormous crowd of ticket holders, we, the travelling fans, had 165+ active road trippers that met up at each Tears For Fears show; travelling great distances to see the band on the sunny west coast. We even had the ultra cool Captain Julian Orzabal of DelaQ. What a blessing that was! It is a great joy to begin profiling some of our lovely Tears For Fears Travellers who are dedicating themselves to fan touring and celebrating the band.

Cammie (@BxBourgie) joined us this year and tells her story.  

I was born, raised and currently reside in Curt Smith’s favorite U.S. city. I can’t speak for any other New Yorker, but me? I’m spoiled, especially when it comes to bands, concerts and tours. I always expect that if my favorite band is doing shows somewhere in the U.S, they will more than likely make their way to NYC at some point. Why should I have to take a bus, train or plane somewhere else to hear my favorite band play? I’m in NYC! Everyone comes here! They’ll make it here eventually. So I’ll just wait.

Photo from Jason DeBord -a concert reviewer & videographer

In 2011, one of my absolute favorite bands ever, Tears For Fears, were doing a few shows on the West Coast, and I decided to sit and wait here in NYC, for them to announce a date or two here. Yeah… didn’t happen! (“Its not that we don’t love you…”) I missed them when they were here in 2010 because I was on a cruise, but when they didn’t come back the next year, I decided to stalk Curt’s Twitter ( Roland does not do the social media thing right now), and wait for an announcement of Tears For Fears tour dates. I waited almost a year. Then I began to see tweets. From Curt. About show dates. Curt answered my tweet to him, confirming the San Francisco date among others, but I knew better than to ask about NYC; I know that Curt likes to stay close to his family in L.A. I had a decision to make. Let another year pass without seeing Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal right in front of my very eyes sing the songs that I’ve loved since I got cable television and MTV when I was 14, saw the video for Head Over Heels for the first time and fell in LOVE… or was I gonna sit around and wait. I’m a travel junkie, it’s what I love to do, so this was an easy decision!

Fan Travel Tshirts

I bought a ticket to the San Fran show as soon as they went on sale, a flight and a hotel. And then met some fabulous Tears for Fears fans on Twitter, changed my flights around, booked ANOTHER hotel, got ANOTHER ticket to the Vegas show from a generous fan who was unable to attend, and had one of the most awesome experiences of my life. Not only did I get to sing along to EVERY song, almost close enough to touch the ever youthful Curt Smith and the beautifully elusive Roland Orzabal, I had great time meeting many other Tears For Fears fans – some for hours, others only briefly – as well as someone I never expected to meet who was also one of the most charming men I’ve ever encountered.

Roland & Curt in San Francisco by Jason DeBord

I know many people ask Curt on Twitter and Facebook why Tears For Fears doesn’t do shows in their town… but I will say that IF you can do it, TRAVEL to see this band, wherever they happen to be. GO GO GO! THIS from a spoiled NYC girl who expects all bands to come to NY when they do shows. 🙂 I flew across the U.S. to see Tears for Fears, and would do it again it a heartbeat. Around the world, whatever! They looked fantastic, and sounded even better. Shoes and jacket off at the San Francisco show, I jumped, swayed, sang and swooned from the first note to the last. I felt like I was floating! I needed a minute to collect myself after it was over, only to do it again in Vegas two nights later. Wonderful to meet Carri, Becky, Becky’s daughter Rihana, Yvette, Andye, Janice, Colleen, and Julian O. in person, and the many others I’ve “met” from other parts of the world via Twitter. (Much love to Margaret for sending me her ticket to the Vegas show!) As I am able, I hope this is the first of many. In the meantime? As Andye says… perching.

Cammie, we appreciate you coming all the way from New York to join us and have a great time. Other New Yorkers include Jeanie P who began her TFF Fan travels last year. We look forward to highlighting all of the fan fun in the weeks to come including a ton of pictures with the band, fan gatherings, mega-tour fan bloopers & funny moments! Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Enjoy this video of Mad World by Jason DeBord, one of our friendly media pals we met on during the Tears For Fears Fan Travel 2012: 

Memories Fade by Nourset who travelled from France 

Happy Birthday, Bonne Anniversaire y Feliz Cumpleanos ila Roland!!

As we wrap up another absolutely phenomenal fan travel season for the TEARS FOR FEARS tour, we will first count down to Rockin’ Roland’s birthday starting right now…we’ll just say he’s 1 more year AWESOME at midnight BST which is in like…less than 30 minutes! If you are not with fellow fans at the moment, just wish him well in your heart, say a prayer for him from your culture & religion and let the universe do the rest…

Cake!!

We have so many great pictures of the majestic, mega-awesome Roland from this tour; professional and amateur. We are looking forward to sharing them all with everyone that subscribes to the blog. We will also credit our new travel fan team members. Most of all, we hope for many more years to come of seeing our beloved Mr. Orzabal on stage with his friends and fellow musicians. Our hope is that he remains in excellent health, that he and the band remain a powerful force in the music industry and that they enjoy being around us and seeing our “excited” smiling faces. Huge thanks to his brothers, particularly Good Captain Julian for his kindness to us all and for just being really beautiful people who have gone above and beyond to make us feel very welcomed in their presence online and in person.

Thanks to all of the fans who journeyed from a far and joined us at each location. Huge thanks to those in Orange County & steamy hot Vegas! We had a blast in the Cabanas. That should be a new song! 😉 Thanks to the stateside TFF fan travel crew for taking care of our 7 fan meet-ups, The Philippines fan team, Manami and Juli in Japan! Thank you Marcio and his family in Brasil! Here’s to many more years celebrating this life-changing, spectacular, globally-conscious, heaven sent band and man! Cheers! 

Tears for Fears San Francisco 2 August *Jason DeBord’s Experience*

We had an incredible time attending this year’s tour. We spent over a week on the West Coast, going from city to city and attending the shows, meetups plus (and certainly a highlight-bonus) spending time with relatives of the band. Most travelling fans went to at least 2 shows. During these travels, we made a new friend, a professional photoragpher and fellow media maniac. His name is Jason DeBord and he shared his experience at the San Francisco show. Enjoy!

Click here for the full review: Jason DeBord 

Brief Summary: Obviously, the duo have reunited and produced new work, and are in the midst of what appears to be a very successful tour. I definitely have my own associations with the music of the band – a lot of great memories to be sure, and some that simply make me laugh today in retrospect (like going to school dances in middle school and standing along the outskirts of the dance floor like the geeks in Sixteen Candles).

In any event, the concert performance by Tears for Fears tonight was amazing.  Also performing with the band was Charlton Pettus (lead guitar), CJ Vanston (keyboards), and Jamie Wollam (drums). It was such an experience to hear all of this wonderful music played live on stage.

I loved the way the full set was played tonight.  I’ve heard some different renditions of some of the songs from other live performances, and I really feel this performance totally nailed all of them, and would love to see a live Blu-Ray of this set and tour produced some day – it was really that spectacular.  Also, Carina Round really added a tremendous amount to the song “Woman In Chains” with her added vocals – truly incredible rendition.

It was really just a fun night, and it was a privilege to have such a great seat from which to enjoy it (the benefit of F5ing Ticketmaster as they went on sale, buying just one ticket, and the front rows being composed of three seats – and a little luck).  The guys were really funny with some comments and stories in-between songs, and the audience was great and enthusiastic and genuine (and a little odd in a funny way – booing when Mr. Orzabal said that they were in Burbank the night before).

Really, I’m not sure what else to say about this one… it was such a thrill and joy to see them, and it’s another one of those shows where you immediately want to see it all again.  I can’t recommend enough catching this tour if you have the chance – just fantastic music by a talented band.  Even if you aren’t familiar with all of their work, it is all great music and framed throughout by their many hits.  Truly a fantastic night.

Enjoy these videos on HD video from the concert. 

Jason, we thank you so much for your kindness and hard work. It is greatly appreciated by fans all over the world. We love this band with so much of our mind, body and soul and can’t imagine life without them. It’s great to share that passion with other media professionals who have the ability to capture it so well. See you next time we trust.

*All pictures are the property of Jason DeBord. Please do not download, copy and repost/retweet without alerting Jason and getting a response. If the ethics&fairness team see his photos reposted you will be contacted and questioned. Thanks for understanding.