Among Universal Music Group's RSD Drop offerings for Record Store Day's two-pronged 2021 celebration include a previously unreleased live double album from Tears for Fears.
Live At Massey Hall captures the British rockers supporting sophomore album Songs from the Big Chair as it starts to take off worldwide. When the group started a four-date stand at the Toronto theatre at the end of May 1985, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was on its way to topping the U.S. charts. ("Shout" would follow later that summer.) Indeed, nearly all of the album is featured in the set, including "Rule the World," "Shout," singles "Head Over Heels," "Mothers Talk" and "I Believe," and favorite album tracks "The Working Hour" and "Broken." The rest of the set features the cream of TFF's 1983 debut The Hurting, including "Mad World," "Pale Shelter" and "Memories Fade."
The expanded concert line-up of the group at Massey - core members Roland Orzabal (vocals/guitar) and Curt Smith (vocals/bass), in-studio sidemen Ian Stanley (keyboards), Manny Elias (drums) and Will Gregory (saxophone), guitarist Andy Sanders and second keyboardist Nicky Holland (a key member of sessions for 1989 follow-up The Seeds of Love) - has been heard on official releases before. Footage from the shows appeared in the Scenes from the Big Chair documentary, and six tracks were included on the Big Chair box set released in 2014. (Four of them had been heard before that, on a Canadian promo disc in 1986.) The material on this set, however, has been newly mixed from recently-located multitrack tapes, offering the first optimized listening experience for a classic Tears for Fears concert.
TFF have had an active year despite the slowdown of the music industry: they gave The Seeds of Love the box set treatment last fall, signed to Irving Azoff's management company, got their last album (2004's Everybody Loves a Happy Ending) digitally available after a lengthy absence, and continue work on their seventh studio album.
Live At Massey Hall is limited to 3,500 copies worldwide and will be sold on the first RSD Drop date (June 12) at all participating retailers. The full track list is below!
Live At Massey Hall (Mercury/UMe, 2021)
LP 1
- Mothers Talk
- Broken
- Head Over Heels/Broken
- Pale Shelter
- Memories Fade
- Start of the Breakdown
- The Prisoner
LP 2
- I Believe
- The Working Hour
- Mad World
- Everybody Wants to Rule the World
- The Hurting
- Shout
All tracks recorded live at Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada - 5/29-6/1/1985
LP 1, Tracks 2-3 and 5 and LP 2, Track 4 possibly previously released on Live At Massey Hall promo - Vertigo (Canada) DJV173, 1986
LP 1, Tracks 2-3 and 5 and LP 2, Tracks 2, 4 and 6 possibly previously released on Songs from the Big Chair box set - Mercury (U.K.) 3794991, 2014
The Second Disc's Guide to Record Store Day 2025: Our Favorite Picks
Every Move He Makes: Sting Plans Multiple Formats of '3.0 LIVE' Album
Record Store Day 2025: The Best of the Rest
They'll Be There for You: 10 Record Store Day Exclusives Getting CD Releases
I'd love to see a limited CD version
Yeah, why all this limited stuff?
We want to hear the music, not have bragging rights about having “ the vinyl”!
I’m getting old and supported them for years.
Saw them in concert twice, once driving five hours to see them.
Release it on cd for those like me who don’t want to mess with standing in line or screwing with vinyl!
You must not be familiar with Record Store Day at all...all titles are very limited and special edition and most vinyl only...very few CD releases at all...
Compact disc is still the preferred format of those purchasing a physical recording.
Yes, monetarily, in the US vinyl outsold cd last year, but cd units still outsold records by a wide margin. The record companies don't care to give out exact numbers, but a top selling new vinyl release will only shift about 30,000 units. The RIAA doesn't award records sold but how many are shipped.
New vinyl copies typically sell in the $20-30 range while the lowly cd sells for $10-15. These are standard issue and not special versions.
Sadly, many new releases don't have a cd companion. It's vinyl or streaming only. Except for sites like Bandcamp, for the most part people are no longer purchasing digital downloads when they can get music from streaming sites for free.
RSD doesn't mean vinyl only sales. It was a well intentioned effort to get people into record stores to buy music.
Good record stores offer music in other formats.
I saw a CD version on the RSD UK list but not sure if that CD is UK only, but it should be on the US list...2 other RSD CD releases I want are the John Prine live album & Ariana Grande live album...
I was at that show - and have a copy of the 4 song promo disc. Great show, great audience. Nice to see it available but wish there were more than 3500 copies.
Just when you think Universal has wrung the TFF catalogue dry...
Enjoy the 'live' experience by flipping/changing records after 3 or four songs.
If they wanted to make this a memorable purchase include a single cd as well.
Oh, wait, then people would gripe cause they only want the cd or vinyl...
RSD has outlived its usefulness. Wasn't it started to help pump life into the few remaining record stores?
In the early days I recall seeing lps AND cds at these events. The majority from bands that were far from mainstream. No special formats, just a way to get people in stores and expose them to music not promoted in traditional outlets.
If you are fortunate enough to get the record you came for lucky you. Seems like for most of us who do venture out on RSD are headed home empty handed. If you really want a particular title we are forced to shop online at greatly exaggerated prices. Sure, you did help a store earn a few more dollars for the sale, but the end result is helping a greedy seller who probably cares nothing about the music they resell.
Give us reasonably priced music that hasn't been reissued countless times since the vinyl surge.
It seems every year the same albums in reconfigured formats, coloured vinyl or 'expanded' as a two record set with no additional content but an etched side four.
Remember when an lp or cd outlived its commercial success and was eventually sold as a discounted item?
Nice Price, Sound Values, ect...even cutouts. Many were sold in stores in bins near the registers. These bins kept me occupied while waiting in long checkout lines.
A cd on RSD (or commercially available after the event) is more appealing to me. I can play it in my car on the way home.
Is this a complete show? Seems strange that they didn't play the singles Change, The Way You Are and Suffer The Children.
They actually did play Suffer the Children and Change - not sure why these are missing. The Way You Are, on the other hand, was disliked by the band shortly after its release, and has never been played live again. (They did play an early arrangement prior to the single release, though.)
I've now asked for information and got the reply that the recordings of those two songs (which were encores live) were missing in one case and unusable in the other.
Thanks for the research & follow up!
I would be in for a CD version.
NEVER going backwards to vinyl.
I'm sure this will go up on streaming services. Not sure Uni know what to do with Tears for Fears. With the low number it's sure to be an instant sellout and become an expensive collectible in short order. Demand for the Seeds of Love box set was underestimated as well. I'm hoping for a CD. There has to be a better way to do things at this point though. Sell CD's on pre-order if there's fear that the title won't sell. Do small runs. License to other outfits like Rubellan Remasters so those of us who want CDs of things the record company isn't interested in taking a change on doing a big run of can get our physical product. RSD is a bust for me now for years. I love record stores, but I really have no use for vinyl.
Getting reissued at a later in 2021 early 2022... Whenever you see a RSD title with the phrase First Release, it means it is coming out again.
Corey, do you have a source? I've heard the same thing from an insider but not really seeing any official confirmation yet.
Seeing how backed up pressing plants are I’m sure we’ll be looking at a spring release so I think by Christmas there should be a street date. No source just going by what other RSD first releases are getting pressed.
You're talking about vinyl though, and I don't think we'll see any more vinyl pressings of this. See here: https://tearsforfears.boards.net/post/606/thread
So as I stated previously when RSD puts a first release on a RSD item that means it will be issued again at a later date. A RSD exclusive means a one and done type deal. I have been doing the RSD thing for a number of years and kinda know how it works. This will be out again!