RhoDeo 1726 Aetix

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Today's artists were a British music group that formed in April 1977. Initially a new wave group, they switched to a more mainstream pop sound and achieved considerable popularity in the mid-1980s, scoring a string of hits in the United Kingdom, the United States, and around the globe. In 1993, they changed the name to Babble, to reflect their change in music from new wave to dub-influenced chill-out.

The band was named after the two bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson in Hergé's comic strip The Adventures of Tintin. At various stages, the band had up to seven members, but their most known incarnation was as a trio between 1982 and 1986. They became a prominent act in the Second British Invasion, and in 1985, the band performed at Live Aid...]N'Joy

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In 1977, the original Thompson Twins line-up consisted of Tom Bailey (born 18 January 1956, Halifax, Yorkshire) on bass and vocals, Pete Dodd on guitar and vocals, John Roog on guitar, and Jon Podgorski (known as "Pod") on drums. Dodd and Roog first met when they were both 13 years old.

Arriving in London with very little money, they lived as squatters in Lillieshall Road, London. Future Thompson Twins member Alannah Currie (born 20 September 1957, Auckland, New Zealand) lived in another squat in the same street — which is how she met Bailey. It was in this ramshackle and run-down house that they found an illegal way of "borrowing" electricity from the house next door. Bailey described themselves (laughingly) as spongers back then, as they were living on very little and scavenging everything they could lay their hands on. He even said that the only instruments they had were bought, or had been stolen or borrowed. Dodd managed to get a council flat not far away. Their roadie at that time was John Hade, who lived in the same house, and who later became their manager. As Podgorski had decided to stay in the north, the group auditioned for drummers at the Point Studio in Victoria, London. Andrew Edge joined them on drums for less than one year, and went on to join Savage Progress, who later toured with the Thompson Twins as their support act on the 1984 UK tour.

In 1980, the band (now consisting of Bailey, Dodd, Roog and drummer Chris Bell; who had replaced Edge the previous year) released their first single "Squares and Triangles" on their own Dirty Discs label. A follow-up single, "She's In Love With Mystery", was issued later that year. In 1981, the line-up became Bailey, Dodd, Roog, Bell and two new members: former band roadie Joe Leeway on congas and percussion, and Jane Shorter on saxophone. This line-up recorded the first Thompson Twins album A Product of ... (Participation), documented in the film, Listen to London (1981). Currie, who had been associated with the band for a few years, played and sang on the first album, but was not yet a full member.

After the first album, the band's line-up shifted yet again. Saxophonist Jane Shorter left and was replaced by Currie (who also played percussion), and bassist Matthew Seligman, a former member of The Soft Boys and The Fallout Club, joined; leaving Bailey to switch to keyboards; and with Leeway starting to handle vocals on some tracks.The band signed to Arista Records and released the album Set. Thomas Dolby played some keyboards on Set and some live gigs, as Bailey had little experience with synthesizers before then. Set contained the single "In the Name of Love", sung and largely written by Bailey. It became a No. 1 dance club hit in the US, and an album entitled In the Name of Love (consisting mainly of tracks from Set, with two others from A Product Of... (Participation)) was released in the US to capitalize on the song's popularity. It entered the US Billboard 200.

After the success of "In the Name of Love", Bailey, Currie and Leeway, wanting to pursue the single's different sound, toyed with the idea of starting a new band on the side, which they planned to call 'The Bermuda Triangle'. When "In The Name Of Love" (and the parent album Set) failed to make a substantial impact in the UK record charts, this plan was abandoned. However, at the same time, manager Hade convinced Bailey, Leeway and Currie to downsize the Thompson Twins to a core of the three in April 1982. Accordingly, the other four members of the band were notified that the band was breaking up; they were each paid £500 and were allowed to keep their instruments and equipment in exchange for an undertaking not to perform together under the name "Thompson Twins".

The remaining Thompson Twins, who had not in fact "broken up", decided to go abroad to free themselves of any UK influence, as well as to combine the songwriting for their first album as a trio with a long holiday. They first went to Egypt and then to the Bahamas where they recorded at Compass Point Studios in Nassau with the producer Alex Sadkin. Bailey commented on the band's reduction to a trio in a 1983 interview: "When we reformed the band, we were making a statement. We weren't going to be a rock 'n' roll band, we weren't going to have a guitar. We were going to move on. You know, Lou Reed said whenever he played live he ended up going back to heroin music. There are old associations, associations we don't want because they don't reflect the way we feel today. ... Right now, technology is what's important, and that's what our music tries to reflect."

The band broke into the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at the beginning of 1983 with "Lies" and "Love On Your Side", which became the band's first UK Top 10 single. They then released their third album, Quick Step and Side Kick (called simply Side Kicks in the US), which peaked at number 2 in the UK and was later certified platinum. Further singles followed with "We Are Detective" (another Top 10 UK hit) and "Watching" (UK #33). All three bandmembers received songwriting credits, though the band publicly acknowledged Bailey as the songwriter, with Currie contributing lyrics and Leeway focusing on the stage show. During 1983, the band had the opening spot on The Police concert tour in the US.

"Hold Me Now", was released in late 1983. The song was an international chart success, peaking at No. 4 in their native UK  where it became the band's biggest seller earning a gold disc, and reached No. 3 in the US in the spring of 1984 becoming their biggest American hit. The band's new album, Into the Gap, was released in early 1984 and became one of the year's biggest sellers, selling five million copies worldwide. It topped the UK Albums Chart and was later certified double platinum there. Further hit singles from the album followed with "Doctor! Doctor!" (UK No. 3) and "You Take Me Up" (UK No. 2, their highest UK singles chart placing and which earned a silver disc). Other singles included a new version of the album track "Sister of Mercy" (UK No. 11), and "The Gap" (though this was not released in the UK). The band embarked on a world tour in support of the album, which had also made the US top ten.

A brand new single, "Lay Your Hands on Me", was released in the UK in late 1984 and reached No. 13 in the UK charts. Following this, the band parted company with their producer Alex Sadkin and opted to produce their new album, Here's To Future Days, by themselves in Paris. However, in March 1985, while promoting their new single "Roll Over" and the forthcoming album, Bailey collapsed in his London hotel room from nervous exhaustion. The "Roll Over" single was then cancelled at the last minute and the new album postponed. Though the band had chosen to produce themselves, the postponement caused them to rethink the project and producer Nile Rodgers was subsequently called in to rework the album with them. The album was eventually released in September 1985, reaching the UK Top 5 and US Top 20, though failed to come close to the success of Into The Gap. It was preceded by the single "Don't Mess With Doctor Dream" (UK No. 15) and followed by the single "King For A Day", which peaked at No. 22 in the UK, but reached No. 8 on the US chart. Other singles included a new US version of "Lay Your Hands On Me" (US No. 6), and a cover of The Beatles' 1968 hit "Revolution", which failed to make the UK Top 40.

Prior to the album's release, the Thompson Twins performed on the American leg of Live Aid in July 1985
and were joined onstage by Madonna. The planned summer 1985 tour of the UK (and a headlining appearance at the Glastonbury Festival) had to be cancelled due to Bailey's health problems (fans with tickets received a free live album as compensation), though international dates were rescheduled and the latter half of 1985 saw sell out tours for the band in the US and Japan. A second planned tour of the UK in 1985 was also scrapped due to the promoter declaring bankruptcy.

Leeway left the band in 1986, and the remaining duo of Bailey and Currie carried on making music for another seven years The act's first release as a duo was the North America-only single "Nothing In Common", issued in July 1986. It peaked at a modest #54 US, #68 Canada. 1987 saw the release of Close to the Bone and the single "Get That Love", which climbed to No. 31 in the US[8] but failed in the UK. "In the Name of Love" was given a new lease on life in 1988, after a remix by Shep Pettibone made the Top 50 in the UK. 1989 saw the release of another album, Big Trash, and a new recording contract with Warner Bros. Records. The single "Sugar Daddy" peaked at No. 28 in the US and would be their last brush with mainstream chart success. 1991's Queer would be the band's swansong, and was supported by various techno inspired singles under the moniker of Feedback Max (in the UK) to disguise the identity of the band to club DJs. The single "Come Inside" reached No. 7 in the US Dance Chart and No. 1 in the UK Dance Chart. However, once it was discovered that the Thompson Twins were behind the record, sales dropped and the album never had a UK release.

Prior to this, Bailey and Currie (who were now a couple) had their first child together in 1988, and in the following years they spent a lot of time writing material for other artists including the hit single "I Want That Man" for Debbie Harry in 1989. In 1990, Bailey and Currie contributed the song "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" to the Cole Porter tribute album "Red Hot + Blue" produced by the Red Hot Organization. In 1991, Bailey and Currie were married in Las Vegas and the following year moved to New Zealand with their two children. In 1992, the Thompson Twins contributed the song "Play With Me" to the soundtrack of the Ralph Bakshi film Cool World; Bailey alone contributed a second track, "Industry and Seduction". The following year, the duo formally teamed up with engineer Keith Fernley and changed their band name to Babble. They released two albums, in 1993 and 1996.

The Thompson Twins declined to follow the examples of many of their contemporaries and reform to tie-in with a nostalgic rebirth of the 1980s, although Bailey, Currie and Leeway appeared together on the UK Channel 4 show Top Ten Electro Bands in 2001. The Thompson Twins were placed ninth.

After the Twins

Babble released two albums — The Stone (1993) and Ether (1996) — with songs featured in the films Coneheads and With Honors. Three quarters of a third album was recorded, but it remains unreleased. In the mid-1990s, Currie gave up the music business to set up her own glass-casting studio in Auckland. After her sister died of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, Currie founded a group in New Zealand called Mothers Against Genetic-Engineering in Food and the Environment (also known as MADGE), which soon had thousands of members. Currie described this group as a "rapidly growing network of politically non-aligned women who are actively resisting the use of genetically-engineered material in our food and on our land". An advert for this group featuring a young woman with four breasts hooked up to a milking machine became famous after appearing on billboards across New Zealand. Bailey and Currie split up in 2003, and are now divorced. They both left New Zealand to live separately in Britain, but are still close friends. In 2011, Currie married Jimmy Cauty (formerly of The KLF) and as of then was a trained upholsterer known professionally as "Miss Pokeno".

In 1999, Bailey produced and played keyboards on the album Mix by the New Zealand band Stellar*, and won the Producer of the Year Award at the 2000 New Zealand Music Awards. He has also arranged soundtracks and has provided instrumental music for several films. He continues to make music under the moniker International Observer and has released the albums Seen (2001), All Played Out (2005), and Felt (2009). He also performs with the Holiwater group from India. He began performing live again as Thompson Twins' Tom Bailey in 2014 and has since toured the UK, North America and Japan. In 2016 he released his debut solo single, 'Come So Far'. Tom remarried artist Lauren Drescher, and he currently resides in France and London.

After leaving the Thompson Twins in 1986, Leeway briefly dabbled in acting and attempted a solo music career, though neither were successful. As of 2006, he resides in Los Angeles, California, and works in the field of hypnotherapy. He is on the staff at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute (HMI) in Tarzana, California, and is also a certified trainer in neuro-linguistic programming.

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A Product of … (Participation) is the first album by the English pop group Thompson Twins. It was released in June 1981 on the T Records imprint, a label created by the band and distributed through the Fame/EMI label. At the time of its release, the band were a six-piece group that did not include Alannah Currie (although she is thanked in the credits for "playing and singing" on the record). In comparison to the glamour of their later years, the group had a somewhat 'scruffy' image during this period, because they were very poor and living in squats in London. The self-produced album had a post-punk sound that was heavily influenced by African rhythms and chants. The band had already built a strong reputation for themselves due to their live shows, where often members of the audience were encouraged to join the band onstage and pound along with them on makeshift percussion such as hubcaps and pieces of metal. All of the songs on the album were written by the band themselves, except for two ethnic traditionals, both arranged by Tom Bailey. In September 2008, the band's first two albums, A Product of … (Participation) and Set, were released as a double CD. This version included their earliest singles, non-album tracks, and extended remixes.

 Thompson Twins - A Product of ... Participation (flac  526mb)

01 When I See You 3:54
02 Politics 2:25
03 Slave Trade 3:21
04 Could Be Her ... Could Be You 3:50
05 Make Believe (Let's Pretend) 3:29
06 Don't Go Away3:05
07 The Price 4:17
08 Oumma Aularesso (Animal Laugh) 3:03
09 Anything Is Good Enough 2:36
10 A Product Of ... 3:37
11 Perfect Game 4:27
12 Vendredi Saint 3:11
Bonus
13 Squares And Triangles 3:18
14 Could Be Her ... Could Be You (Original Version) 3:36
15 Weather Station (Tom Bailey) 1:09
16 Modern Plumbing (The Blankets) 5:48
17 She's In Love With Mystery 2:48
18 Fast Food 1:59
19 Food Style 2:09
20 Oumma Aularesso (Animal Laugh) (Re-Mixed Version) 4:38
21 A Dub Product 3:17
22 Make Believe (Let´s Pretend) (Extended Version) 4:58
23 Lama Sabach Tani 4:59

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Set is the second album by English pop group Thompson Twins. Released in February 1982, it was the second album they recorded for their own T Records imprint, which was released by Arista Records/Hansa. Compared to their first album, A Product of ... (Participation), Set featured a more polished sound thanks to producer Steve Lillywhite. With their ever-shifting line-up, the Thompson Twins had now swelled to seven members, adding Matthew Seligman on bass guitar to free up Tom Bailey for full frontman duties and keyboards. Former sax player Jane Shorter was replaced by Alannah Currie, who was Bailey's girlfriend at the time (they later married and remained together until 2004). Three of the songs featured on Set do not feature Bailey on lead vocals, but are sung by Joe Leeway, who is also credited as writer or co-writer for five tracks. While not an official member of the band, Thomas Dolby was also on hand to play additional keyboards on three tracks.

While the album was given praise by critics, the band found themselves on the verge of yet another personnel change. The track "In the Name of Love" was written by Bailey simply as album filler, but was ultimately chosen as the lead single from the album. While failing to make the UK pop charts, the single was released in the United States as a club single and went to number one on Billboard magazine's dance chart, where it remained unseated for five weeks (from 22 May – 19 June 1982).
The success of the track opened many doors for the band, who suddenly had the potential to be more than just an underground sensation. Together with the band's manager, John Hade, Bailey then reinvented the band as a trio, keeping Currie and Leeway while firing the others.

Set was also released in the United States on the Arista label as In the Name of Love, which saw three of the album's tracks replaced by two songs from the band's first album, A Product of ... (Participation). In September 2008, Set was re-released  it included early singles, non-album tracks, and extended remixes.

Thompson Twins - Set (flac 540mb)

01 In The Name Of Love 3:53
02 Living In Europe 3:29
03 Bouncing 2:34
04 Tok Tok 2:29
05 Good Gosh 3:08
06 The Rowe 6:30
07 Runaway 3:31
08 Another Fantasy 4:00
09 Fool's Gold 3:22
10 Crazy Dog 3:47
11 Blind 4:53
Bonus
12 In The Name Of Love (12" Dance Extension) 5:39
13 In The Beginning 3:26
14 Coastline 3:40
15 Open Your Eye 3:06
16 Runaway (Extended Remix) 5:29
17 Bouncing (Extended Remix) 4:58
18 In The Name Of Love (Big Value Version / New Super Synthesized Version) 7:07
19 Living In Europe (Live At Hammersmith Palais) 3:21

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Quick Step & Side Kick is the third album by the British synthpop group Thompson Twins. It was released in February 1983, and was their first album to be released as a trio (the band consisted of up to seven members during previous releases). The album reached no. 2 on the UK Albums Chart and was later certified Platinum by the BPI.In the United States and Canada, the album was titled simply as Side Kicks, and was only the second Thompson Twins album to be released there.

The album was the first collaboration between the band and producer Alex Sadkin and was recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas. The singer Grace Jones (who had worked with Sadkin on three of her albums by that time) made a guest appearance on the track "Watching", though her vocals were not included on the track when it was remixed and released as a single in mid-1983. The album has several different versions according to different territories, containing different tracks and different track order. The UK and US cassette versions of the album also contained a whole side of remixes of various album tracks.

In March 2008, Quick Step & Side Kick was reissued as a 2-disc set by Edsel Records and included the bonus remixes that appeared on the original 1983 cassette version of the album. The second disc included most major 12" versions and B-sides, some of which appeared on CD for the first time.

 Thompson Twins - Qucik Step and Side Kick (flac 495mb)

01 Love On Your Side 3:58
02 Lies 3:10
03 If You Were Here 2:55
04 Judy Do 3:47
05 Tears 5:02
06 Watching 3:57
07 We Are Detective 3:02
08 Kamikaze 3:55
09 Love Lies Bleeding 2:49
10 All Fall Out 5:26
The Cassette Remixes
11 Love Lies Fierce (Love Lies Bleeding) 6:57
12 Long Beach Culture (Instrumental) 6:46
13 No Talkin' - Dub (Lies) 6:18
14 Rap Boy Rap (Love On Your Side) 7:25
15 Frozen In Time (Kamikaze) 6:28
16 Fallen Out (All Fall Out) 2:35

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Thompson Twins - Qucik Step and Side Kick bonus (flac  374mb)
 
01 Lies (Single Remix) 3:16
02 Love On Your Back 4:09
03 Lucky Day 3:53
04 Dancersaurus 4:42
05 Lies (Bigger And Better) (12" Version) 6:35
06 Beach Culture 3:59
07 Love On Your Side (No Talkin') (12" Version) 5:49
08 We Are Detective (More Clues) (12" Version) 5:48
09 Lucky Day (Space Mix) 7:02
10 Watching (You Watching Me) (12" Version) 5:51
11 Dancersaurus (Even Large Reptiles Have Emotional Problems) (12" Version) 5:58

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