Tears For Fears Still Rule At Leeds Arena

It is hard to believe that back in the 1980's Leeds did not have a large enough venue mid sized venue for all the top acts at the time to play.

In the daytime Leeds University's Refectory was just that - a dining hall but by night time the room was transformed into a place where everyone from U2 to James Brown played gigs there as well as Alison Moyet and Tears for Fears.

There possibly could not be anyone more suitable to open up for Tears For Fears on their current tour than Alison Moyet. The former Yazoo singer, now slimmed down and looking trim, still has a powerful voice.

Backed by a percussionist and keyboard player, Moyet seems more at ease on stage theses days than back in the day. All Cried Out is reinvented sounding more current. "I want you to dance like it's 1982" she offers by way of an introduction to Situation. Not that the fans needed any encouragement as they are on their feet and we could be all back at The Warehouse 37 years ago.

Only You, now a timeless ballad, was worth hearing her set just for that song alone, before she performed what is one of the iconic songs of its time, Don't Go. Classic.

Tears For Fears fans are used to having to wait - there was a 4 year gap between their big albums Songs From The Big Chair and Sowing The Seeds of Love - the Leeds gig was scheduled for last year but the tour had to be postponed due to illness. Was it worth the wait to see the band live again?

Opening up with Everybody Wants To Rule The World might sound a brave move by not leaving the track for later - but when you have such a strong back catalogue to choose from, then maybe not. They even slip in Lorde's version too, though in all honesty it is poor compared to the original version.

Sowing The Seeds of Love with its strong Beatles references still sounds great 30 years on - funny how time flies.

Ronald Orzabal thanks the fans for waiting and shares that he was in awe of playing the Leeds Arena after seeing photos backstage of all the big artists who have played there.

It was back to 1983 for Pale Shelter and Change - a fact not lost too on Curt Smith as he recalls the first time the band played in Leeds at the Refectory! His comments about Leeds United and the championship go down well too. The cheers rise again when he informs the fans that "we are not retiring yet."

The duo fell out with each other in the early 90's before re-establishing contact - even now though on stage at times they appeared to be two separate entities.

Suffer The Children benefitted from the soulful vocals of Carina Round though Smith delivered an even more heart filled vocal on Advice For The Young At Heart, which literally made the hairs on my back stand up. The lyric of the song being very apt for the majority of their audience - "soon we will be older, when we're gonna make it work".

Not that all their fans are older - the two young Leeds University students sat next to me could not believe Tears For Fears played there in 1983.

Shout closed a set which had contained some of the best songs you will hear from that period in pop music when Smash Hits was a must and Top of the Pops was an event.

Was it worth the wait? Definitely. Let's hope we do not have to wait so long to see them again - soon we will be much older. Pure class.