In 1977, Tom Bailey (bass), John Roog (guitar) and Pete Dodd (vocals and guitar) formed the Thompson Twins in Sheffield.
In 1980, they released their first single called "Squares And Triangles", and by this time Tom Bailey had taken over from Pete Dodd on lead vocals.
Later on that year, New Zealand born saxophone player Alannah Currie joined the band, although she soon gave up playing the saxophone and instead played percussion in the band as well as writing all the lyrics.
Roadie Joe Leeway also joined the band, playing congas, as they released their first album "A Product Of" in 1981.
In 1982, they released the album "Set" with Matthew Seligman on bass, and Thomas Dolby on synths, and the single "In The Name Of Love", but with musical differences over the increased use of synthesizers, there was a split in the band, and as a three-piece with just Tom, Alannah and Joe, they released the album "Quick Step And Side Kick" in 1983.
In 1984, the Thompson Twins found worldwide fame with hit singles such as "Hold Me Now", "Doctor! Doctor!" and "You Take Me Up" from their album "Into The Gap".
The follow-up album "Here's To Future Days" in 1985, contained hit singles including "Lay Your Hands On Me" and "King For A Day".
After a successful world tour in 1986, Joe Leeway left the band and they continued as a duo, releasing the album "Close To The Bone" in 1987.
AFTER...
In 1988, Tom and Alannah had their first child together and in the following years spent a lot of time writing material for other artists including the hit single "I Want That Man" for Debbie Harry.
The Thompson Twins released the albums "Big Trash" in 1989 and "Queer" in 1991, and under the name Feedback Max, reached number one in the UK dance charts.
In 1991, Tom and Alannah got married in Las Vegas and the following year moved to New Zealand with their two children.
In 1993, The Thompson Twins disbanded, and Tom and Alannah teamed up with engineer Keith Fernley to form a new group called Babble.
Babble have since released two acclaimed albums - "The Stone" in 1993 and "Ether" in 1996, and one of their songs was featured on the film "The Coneheads" with Dan Akroyd.
In 1999, Tom produced and played keyboards on the hit album "Mix" by the New Zealand band Stellar*, and won the "producer of the year" award for this at the New Zealand equivalent of the Grammys. He has also arranged the soundtracks and provided instrumental music for several films.
In the mid-1990s, Alannah gave up the music business set up her own glass-casting studio in Auckland.
After her sister died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Alannah 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. Alannah has 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 milking machine became famous after appearing on billboards across New Zealand.
In 2003, Tom and Alannah split up and are now divorced. They both left New Zealand and live seperately in England.
DO YOU REMEMBER...
Their hair-dos.
DID YOU KNOW...
The Thompson Twins are named after a pair of bumbling detectives in the "Adventures Of Tin Tin" comic book series.
LINKS...
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