The origins of this UK synthesizer pop act were much less conventional than their chart material might suggest. Their name derived from the Tin Tin cartoon books of Hergé. Formed in 1977, the line-up featured Tom Bailey (b. 18 January 1956, Halifax, Yorkshire, England; vocals, keyboards, percussion), Peter Dodd (b. 27 October 1953; guitar) and John Roog (guitar, vocals, percussion), who were friends living in Chesterfield when they decided to experiment with music. Several gigs later, they relocated to London where they picked up drummer Chris Bell (later Spear Of Destiny and Gene Loves Jezebel). In 1980, they released their first single, ‘Squares & Triangles’, on their own Dirty Discs label. After sporadic gigs, in 1981 their line-up expanded to include Joe Leeway (b. 15 November 1955, Islington, London, England; percussion, vocals), Alannah Currie (b. 28 September 1958, Auckland, New Zealand; percussion, saxophone), and Matthew Seligman (bass, ex-Soft Boys). This seven-piece became a cult attraction in the capital, where their favourite gimmick involved inviting their audience on stage to beat out a rhythmic backdrop to the songs. Their motivation was similar to that of the punk ethos: ‘We were angry with the world in general - the deceit and the lies’. They signed a contract with Hansa Records in early 1981, which allowed them to set up their own label, T Records. However, when their debut A Product Of... was released it showed a band struggling to make the transition from stage to studio. Producer Steve Lillywhite took them in hand for Set, and the Bailey-penned ‘In The Name Of Love’ saw them achieve their first minor hit in the UK. It did much better in the USA, staying at the top of the Billboard Disco charts for five weeks. Before this news filtered back, four of the band had been jettisoned, leaving just Bailey, Currie and Leeway. The cumbersome bohemian enterprise had evolved into a slick business machine, each member taking responsibility for the music, visuals or production, in a manner not dissimilar to the original Public Image Limited concept.
Reinventing their image as the Snap, Crackle and Pop characters of breakfast cereal fame, the Thompson Twins set about a sustained assault on the upper regions of the UK charts. ‘Love On Your Side’ was their first major hit, preceding Quick Step & Side Kick, their first album as a trio, which rose to number 2 in 1983. Highly commercial singles, ‘We Are Detective’, ‘Hold Me Now’, ‘Doctor! Doctor!’ and ‘You Take Me Up’, put them for a while in the first division of UK pop, and were also highly successful in the US. Further hits followed, most notably ‘Lay Your Hands On Me’, ‘King For A Day’ and the anti-heroin ‘Don’t Mess With Doctor Dream’, and their fourth album, Into The Gap, topped the UK charts. However, when Leeway left at the end of 1986 the Thompson Twins became the duo their name had always implied. Bailey and Currie had been romantically involved since 1980, and had their first child eight years later. Unfortunately, success on the scale of their previous incarnation deserted them for the rest of the 80s, although their songwriting talents earned Deborah Harry a UK Top 20 hit in 1989 with ‘I Want That Man’. After an unsuccessful liaison with Warner Brothers Records, Bailey and Currie formed Babble in 1994.
