Jeff hangs with Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm Jeff Stevens. Thanks for checkingout my Eighties Show podcast chatting with Tom
Bailey of the Thompson Twins. Great. Hi, Jess, Hi Tom Bailey
from the Thompson Twins. How youdoing, my friend? Pretty good?
Thanks? How are you? I'mdoing great? First of all, congratulations
on forty years since we were hearingHold Me Now and Doctor Doctor, just

(00:21):
blaring out of our radios in thesummer of nineteen eighty four. I know,
it's amazing. Who would have thoughtthat we'd be saying that, But
there you go, forty years laterinto the gap is still being listening to.
Yeah, it really is. Andyou know the funny thing is,
you know, some some songs youknow from a certain time period, and
obviously we're talking about the eighties.Some songs you know, you kind of

(00:43):
hear them later and think, boy, that really sounds dated. And when
I hear your stuff, and thisgoes for holding Me Now and Doctor Doctor,
but also you know, lay yourHands and Lies and you know all
the other various hits that Thompson Twinshad. You guys, those songs it'll
fit on the radio today and theysound awesome. Well, well, thank
you. You think that, butI mean, we put a lot of

(01:07):
hard work into making them sound goodand to giving them a kind of cutting
edge. But it wasn't too stylebound, you know. It was there's
something universal about it as well.So maybe that's why it lasts more than
a couple of years. Absolutely,Oh, it's definitely more than a couple
of years. It's it's pretty awesomethat it's been forty years since we heard
those wonderful songs and now you guysare out with a whole bunch of other

(01:30):
bands. And I always think it'sinteresting, you know, are these bands
that you played with back in theday, are you kind of meeting some
of them for the first time withmodern english Men without hats, the Romantics,
and the list kind of goes on. Did you did you have some
you know, occasions to play withthem back in the eighties. No,
Actually, I'm meeting them all forthe first time and I'm very much looking

(01:52):
forward to that. Wow. Withthe exception of Thomas Thomas Dolby, who
I've known for forty five years.Basically he played on an album of mine
forty three years ago, so we'vebeen friends, but I've never actually been
on the same stage as him.So it's a great opportunity for us to
do that and we're looking forward tothem. Yeah, that's really cool.

(02:13):
I actually had a chance to interviewThomas just a couple of months ago,
and fascinating interview, and you know, he's like a professor now and all
this stuff, but he said,you know how much fun he still has
obviously going out and playing the songs. And he was one of those higher
guns who was playing for bands likeobviously the Thompson Twins, but Foreigner and
all these other acts were hiring himto play keys before we knew. She

(02:37):
blinded me with science. Yeah.Well, oddly enough, I also was
hired to play on a Foreigner record, which the things that links to Thomas
and I together is we both playedon the kind of mega hit power balance
of Foreigners output. So I've beenwaiting for a girl for you, and
I played on I Want to KnowWhat Love Is. No way, I

(03:00):
did not know that. That's amazing. Well, what I mean, that's
like the biggest song of their career. I know. I was lucky to
be asked, I think, butit was a cunning thing they did.
Actually it was because they had abig kind of corporate American rock sound,
but just to make sure that didn'toverwhelm the sound of the record, they
invited these kind of quirky UK symphplayers to get involved as well and gave

(03:24):
it a kind of for cutting edge. Yeah, well, I love it,
and that's that is. I knowa lot of eighties trivia and I
did not know that you played onI Want to Know what Love is,
So that's really cool. But talkingto Tom Bailey of The Thompson Twins celebrating
the Totally Tubular Festival, I'm wonderingif the Thompson Twins may have played back

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there in the eighties. I wouldhave to think when you guys are making
your rounds, you know here fortyyears later, do you get to a
venue and say, oh, Itotally remember this place. This is awesome,
or you think have I been herebefore? We both to be honest,
Yeah, it's not helped by thefact that sometimes the venue is the
same but they changed the name ofit. Oh right, That happens quite

(04:06):
a lot with this kind of sponsornaming of buildings and things, you know.
But anyway, yes, there area few places where we are going
back to the very same venue weplayed in forty years ago. Wow,
that's got to be a big oldde ja vous for sure. And uh
and like I said, it's coolthat you know, you get Thompson Twins
in modern English and Men Without Hats, the Romantics and bow wow wow and

(04:29):
Tommy twotone the plim Souls. Ihaven't heard that one in a while,
so uh, I would have tothink that it's just it's one big hit
after another. But but when Isaw the Thompson Twins with you, tom
a couple of years ago, youcame and played a show, and the
thing I love is watching everybody's facewhen they realize I didn't know they did
that song, or oh I forgotthey did that song, or because you

(04:49):
guys have probably way more hits thanpeople exactly remember and associate with you.
So I love that. You know, when you go to a Thompson Twins
concert, now you're going, okay, there's six or seven or eight songs
that I remember from MTV. That'sright. I think we all have that
experience. You know. I sometimesgo to see someone play thinking I'm a

(05:10):
kind of a moderate fan only andended up singing along to all the songs.
That's somehow they've gotten through to me. Yes, sometimes, yeah,
yes. I actually talked to HowardJones a couple of months ago and he
said the same thing. He said, you know, people think they're coming
out for two songs, and thenthey're they're singing, you know, ten
songs and and but I think that'sawesome and I just love it that you

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guys have kept kept the music alivefor so long because hosting a radio show
every weekend on seventy five iHeartRadio stationsjust called the Eighties Show. I love
playing you guys. Basically every weekend, I'm playing one of your songs,
and again, they just they're timelessclassics and everybody's looking forward to hearing them

(05:53):
played out live on this really reallyfun tour this summer. Fantastic. Well,
thanks for playing and I'm looking forto it like you, you wouldn't
believe awesome. Well, Tom,before we let you go, what other
what other things do you have goingon when you're not still playing with the
Thompson Twins. I know a coupleof years ago you had a very critically
acclaimed album. Do you still areyou still doing some recording? What?

(06:16):
What other things you into? Oh? Yeah, I'm always writing and recording.
Let's that's that's what I do,you know. And I spent half
the year touring and doing concerts andthen half the year in kind of writing
and recording mode. And so there'sall of this new stuff. Yeah.
Well, we'll look forward to keepingan eye on Tom Bailey and the Thompson
Twins, and we look forward tothe Totally Tubular Festival this summer and it

(06:41):
is all across America and it's goingto be a blast. Tom. So
nice to talk to you, man, and you you take care now.