Thompson Twins' Tom Bailey Talks Co-Headlining Totally Tubular Festival
New wave icon Tom Bailey returns to North America for the first time in six years to co-headline the Totally Tubular Festival this summer. An 80s alternative music lovers' dream, the fest also features co-headliner Thomas Dolby, along with Modern English, Men Without Hats, The Romantics, Bow Wow Wow, Tommy Tutone, and The Plimsouls. Before the North American tour, Tom Bailey celebrated the 40th anniversary of Thompson Twins' multi-platinum album Into the Gap with a tour of the UK in May. Formed in 1977, the original Thompson Twins trimmed down their line-up in 1982 to a three-piece of Bailey, Alannah Currie, and Joe Leeway as they adopted a more electronic synthesizer-based sound. Tom Bailey was the singer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and, along with lyricist Alannah Currie, composed and arranged the Thompson Twins' music. The Thompson Twins had huge hits on both sides of the Atlantic, with songs such as 'Hold Me Now,' 'Doctor! Doctor!,' 'You Take Me Up,' and 'Love On Your Side," which provided the soundtrack for so many people's lives in the mid-eighties. The band also enjoyed big success on the US dance chart with 'Lies,' 'In the Name of Love,' 'Hold Me Now,' and 'In the Name of Love '88,' all reaching #1. In 1985, the band played Live Aid at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, where Madonna introduced them to a crowd of over 100,000 and an estimated global TV audience of 1.9 billion across 150 nations. During their performance, they were later joined on stage by Madonna and Nile Rodgers. The last Thompson Twins show was in Texas in August 1987. Since then, Bailey has worked in many different areas of music, from the experimental electronic Babble and Kolab to the Indo-fusion of the Holiwater Band, the visual astronomy project BSP, and the sound-system dub of International Observer. Bailey released his first-ever solo album, Science Fiction , to critical acclaim in 2018. That same year, he wowed North American audiences with his dynamic live show on a massive summer trek alongside Culture Club and the B-52s. We were lucky to catch up with Bailey before he set out on Totally Tubular to hear all about it, look back on his years with Thompson Twins, and look ahead at what is next for the talented artist. This is a LifeMinute with Tom Bailey.
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00:00Hello this is Tom Bailey from the Thompson Twins and you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:08We always like to tour in America and the way this has come up is a kind of 80s festival with
00:13seven bands. In particular I'm looking forward to playing with Thomas Dalby who I'm co-headlining
00:18this with and we haven't worked together for a long long time although back in the day we played
00:25on records together so yeah it's a kind of homecoming. A lot there to trigger a few
00:30memories from back in the 80s yeah. We'll be playing a lot of songs that people recognize
00:35and remember from that kind of era. Because there are seven bands on it means that everyone can't
00:40play for like an hour and a half so that we'll be limited in a little bit of time but we'll choose
00:46real banging songs to play. All the big hits you know we're going to be playing Hold Me Now,
00:51Dr. Doctor, You Take Me Out, all those hits from the Into The Gap album and then Lay Your
00:58Hands On Me from Future Days, Love On Your Side, In The Name Of Love, you know like a five album
01:06stretch of hits. For me to be touring America is always something I look forward to. It doesn't
01:10happen every year, it seems to be happening every four or so years so we really look forward to it.
01:17I've got an amazing band and we get on very very well together. My band are all female
01:25which is an interesting thing you know we like to break down the assumptions of what a pop band
01:29should look like and it's not just four guys with guitars and we play unusual instruments
01:38and really enjoy it. I have to say some of my musicians weren't born when the songs were written
01:47so there's a kind of young contingent there as well which is very exciting for me
01:51and they're enjoying the experience as well. We just celebrated the 40th anniversary of our
01:59biggest record Into The Gap so all that's kind of come rushing back and when we played those
02:05songs recently in the UK it got a massive response because of course everyone remembers them
02:12and it's a kind of pleasant surprise to think that we can still do it. Well it was one of the
02:17golden ages of songwriting and kind of interesting song recording. We were using synthesizers and drum
02:28machines for the first time you know so it's like a new sound was created and it was a really kind
02:34of catchy and foot-tapping sound so people remember it for that. Also the thing was of course MTV
02:42suddenly bands were visual as well as sonic and so everyone got to see what we looked like and we
02:49acted out our fantasies to the camera. People are always telling me how the music affects them
02:55and I'm the same you know I'm affected by other people's music and to an extent by my own you
03:01know it's partly a physical intellectual thing but it's an emotional thing that we engage with
03:10and that's what I'm looking for you know we know we can play the right notes what I'm looking for
03:14is that emotional connection with the audience so that we leave feeling that we're in a better
03:20condition than we do. Hold Me Now which was a big kind of emotional hit for us but it came out of
03:27an argument that we'd had and then we made friends again and so we wrote about that and how it's
03:32important to get you know to compromise to get off your ego and to make friends again after an
03:38argument it's what people do and so that's what the song is about and it kind of hits
03:44hits a nerve with people in that sense. We grow up and we remember the songs that we fell in love
03:49with literally you know that when we were falling in love as teenagers we we have a soundtrack you
03:55know when we did the naughty things that our parents told us not to do when we were teenagers
04:00there's always music that is in the background and then we remember that everyone remembers that
04:04stuff and for a large number of people in the 80s we you know we happen to be that soundtrack and
04:13so in a way I feel responsible for for making an impression but it's hopefully a good one.
04:21We started The Twins three school friends who'd always kind of strummed guitars together
04:29we never we just did it for fun but never thought of forming a band and performing until
04:34really punk and new wave came along and said you know anyone can do this you don't have to be that
04:40special anymore you know just three chords is enough and that opened the door to bands like
04:45ours to just have a go and enjoy it and the answer to most of these questions is one thing leads to
04:54another you know I could do that let's have a go and the next thing people are coming to your
04:58concerts and saying yeah where can we buy a record oh we haven't got one yet let's make one you know
05:04it goes like that. I left New Zealand maybe four or five weeks ago and just before I left I
05:11caught up with Alana she returned to New Zealand and we had coffee and that was very nice
05:17Joe's in Southern California so I may even see him on this tour. When I want to get a break from
05:22music but still be creative then I like to paint and I like to paint portraits and for some reason
05:30the tasks involved in that like life drawing and stuff are for me a kind of meditation so
05:39I can momentarily forget all the problems of life when I'm concentrating on a picture but I have
05:46lots of other projects I have an Indian classical band I have an electronic dub band and I'm
05:55constantly playing on other people's records as well so very impressed by the Beatles when I was
06:00a young kid and so and especially the kind of experimental phase of the Beatles when they
06:04went all psychedelic and sort of breaking their own rules I thought that was just an amazing thing
06:10you know so that was that if you like is the big example of how to do it you know is to break your
06:17own rules and I've tried to to follow that in some ways but I'm also a big fan of the Baroque and
06:25I listen to experiments in four-part harmony and I do that kind of stuff it's not meant to
06:32be listened to by other people but that's something I do every day I'm always writing
06:35and recording nothing this year because Into the Gap is about to be re-released its 40th anniversary
06:44release and it's been remastered and it's coming out in all these new bangle formats like Dolby Atmos
06:49and stuff I want to get in the way of that so if I release anything it won't be this year
06:55maybe next maybe the year after I don't know I'm taking a little rest now after the UK tour
07:00which is fabulous so I'm really fired up about coming to the States it's going to be great.
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