Tears For Fears will be bringing one heck of a back catalogue to Hong Kong

"Everybody wants to rule the world," sang Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith of Tears For Fears in 1985, and for much of that year they must have felt as though they did. They certainly saw much of it.

Songs from the Big Chair, the album which featured Everybody Wants to Rule the World as well as another three hit singles - including Shout - made the No 1 spot on the US Billboard album chart. It went on to sell more than five million copies in the United States alone, and has recently been rereleased in several different special editions to mark its 30th anniversary.

"We were used to success in the UK, so weren't surprised when Shout did so well on its release, but it was the reaction in the US that really caught us by surprise," Orzabal recalls ahead of Tears for Fears' appearance this coming Saturday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club's annual charity ball at the Convention and Exhibition Centre.

"Keeping Michael Jackson and Sting off the No 1 album spot was quite shocking. But the fact is, there were some very strong singles on Big Chair, which are still played to this day, and sound pretty much as good now as they always did."

Both Smith and Orzabal write, but Orzabal has always been the band's primary songwriter. He and Smith met as teenagers in the 1970s, and had been in bands together before forming Tears For Fears, initially with Smith as the lead vocalist.