Thompson Twins

Living in squats in an unprepossessing area of London, the Thompson Twins had unpromising beginnings. Unemployed and broke, Tom Bailey got his hands on some instruments and, helped by a variety of other passing musicians, formed the Thompson Twins, taking the name from the characters of two hapless detectives in the comic strip, Herge's Adventures of Tin Tin. Merging post-punk energy with African rhythms, the group had a fluid personnel, releasing their first album A Product Of... in 1981. Their second album Set, released a year later, was produced by Steve Lillywhite and included the minor hit In The Name of Love, after which the band trimmed down to a three-piece of Bailey, Alannah Currie and Joe Leeway intent on pursuing a more commercial direction. This triggered their most successful period with a series of interesting haircuts and slightly offbeat hits like Lies, We Are Detective and Hold Me Now, and the hugely successful album Into The Gap, which sold over 5 million copies and was one of the biggest-selling records of 1984. Leeway left in 1986 and although Bailey and Currie kept the band going for another seven years, they failed to recapture their earlier success.