Mint Newcastle

Ant and Dec were in the Toon last night. Well, actually they weren’t, but I was told to say that by Tears for Fears when I saw them play at the Utilita Arena. Apparently one half of the duo, Roland, has been compared to Llewellyn Bowen in the past, and more recently as a “well groomed Bill Bailey”, while Curt has been downgraded from a Jimmy Somerville lookalike to a skinny darts player. So they’re trying to change the perception of themselves. Problem is they can’t work out which one is Ant and which is Dec…

I personally thought that Roland was channelling Kenny Rogers, and that Curt looked nothing like Cliff Richard – contrary to what their official tour poster seems to suggest. But that’s all by the by. What’s most important is how they sounded – which was pretty darned good. It’s the first time I’ve seen the band live, so I hadn’t fully appreciated until now how both of them are equally strong, effortless singers. Neither is carrying the other on that front – they harmonise and compliment each other perfectly. And they both really owned their instruments, sounding at times more like a rock band than an eighties electronica one.

Roland was the most charismatic of the two, joking with the audience and sharing what seemed to be a genuine affection for Newcastle and his delight at being here. Curt was more softly spoken and seemed to prefer to just stick to the job in hand. But it was nice to have an act that actually engaged with the audience at times.

The joking was unexpected, as I had always thought of Tears for Fears as a rather sensible duo. One that would never have partaken in the likes of hotel room trashing – they were far too busy trying to bring peace, love and understanding to the world. These are sentiments that have aged well. The beautiful ‘Woman in Chains’ was so moving that it seemed to still the entire audience in a collective hush of reverence. And ‘Sowing the Seeds of love’, in which they sang about the “politics of greed” seemed somewhat apt, given the day’s national events earlier, as did “Everyone wants to rule the world”.

It’s hard now to listen to the original version of ‘Mad World’ without longing for the haunting, slower version featured in ‘Donnie Darko’, but it still sounded lovely in their distinctive poppy way. Head over Heels took on extra resonance thanks to the film too, and had the audience singing along. The songs from the new album ‘Tipping Point’ reminded you that this wasn’t another Eighties band rolled out to play their greatest hits from back in the day. Aside from the the hit single ‘Break the Man’, it was ‘No Small Thing’ that really impressed me. Roland’s voice on it has a deep gravitas and the song has an arresting American feel, like a cross between Springsteen and Country music (maybe the Kenny Rogers look is deliberate). It’s a song that you want to go home to listen to again and again.

That ended up happening later than expected, as the band over-ran for over 20 minutes. But I wasn’t complaining. It demonstrated again that this was a group with a lot more to offer than their backlist. So they’re welcome back to Newcastle any day; and they can keep on making music too – because they’re still very good at it.