Tom Bailey from 80’s legends Thompson Twins has announced an Australian tour for this October and he’ll be playing his band’s classic Into The Gap album in full alongside his many other hits.
Back in the 1980’s Bailey, Alannah Currie and Joe Leeway were one of the biggest bands in the world, scoring a string of hits and playing the iconic Live Aid concert in 1985.
While the band started life as a seven piece in the late ’70s, it was as a trio they scored their biggest hits in the mid 1980s. With their fourth album Into The Gap, which came out in 1984, they topped the charts with hits including Hold Me Now and Doctor, Doctor.
Among the bands other hits are In The Name of Love, Lay Your Hands on Me, Don’t Mess With Doctor Dream, King for a Day, and Lay Your Hands On Me.
The band’s 1985 album Here’s to Future Days was produced by Nile Rodgers, around the same time Rodgers had been working with Madonna on her Like a Virgin album. Thompson Twins, Rodgers and Madonna all performed together at Live Aid, the massive global concert for famine relief.
Leeway left the band in 1986, and married couple Bailey and Currie continued making music as a duo releasing several additional albums. Their final outing was 1991’s album Queer.
While they stopped recording as Thompson Twins, Bailey and Currie continued on making music renaming themselves Babble and releasing several albums of electronic ambient dub music. The couple also penned the song I Want That Man which was a humongous hit for friend Deborah Harry.
The couple later split up both personally and professionally, with Currie going on to work as an acclaimed artist working in glass and upholstery.
Bailey has continued making music under a number of different guises, between 2001 and 2015 he put out several works as International Observer, focusing on the dub/electronica genre. In 2018 he brought out Science Fiction, his first solo album under his own name.
Bailey played a support slot for Culture Club a few years ago, and now he’s excited to be heading back to Australia.
“I’ve been trying to get back to Australia for a couple of years now for this tour so it’s a great thrill to finally have new dates locked in for October. The last time the Thompson Twins headlined a tour in Australia was 1986 so I am looking forward to getting back and performing all the great songs from Into The Gap.” Bailey said.
The tour will kick of on Thursday 20th October in Brisbane with a show at The Tivoli. The tour will then take in Tweed Heads, Sydney, Wollongong, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide before heading west for a final show on Sunday 30th October at Perth’s Astor Theatre.
Graeme Watson, image: Nick Caro.
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