Tom Bailey (musician)
Tom Bailey |
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Tom Bailey (born 18 January 1954, Halifax, West Yorkshire, England[1]) was the leader of the British band, Thompson Twins.
Career
He grew up in a family associated with the medical profession, was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School and despite training as a classical pianist, initially worked as a music teacher at Brook School, Sheffield. In his late teens and early twenties he travelled the world. He was shot at in the Khyber Pass and nearly died from illness in India.[citation needed]
Bailey formed the Thompson Twins in 1977 with Pete Dodd (guitar/voc), John Roog (guitar), and Jon Podgorski (drums). Podgorski did not want to move to London, so Andrew Edge played drums with them for one year before Chris Bell joined.[2] The group eventually ended up as a trio with Bailey on vocals, guitar, bass, and keyboards, his then girlfriend Alannah Currie (percussion, saxophone, and vocals), and Joe Leeway (percussion and vocals).[2] The Thompson Twins became fixtures on MTV during the 1980s as the videos for "Hold Me Now", "Lay Your Hands on Me" and "King for a Day" were played in heavy rotation.[2] Thompson Twins released their final album, Queer, in 1991. In 1994, Bailey and Currie formed the techno-oriented duo, Babble.[2]
Bailey currently produces the New Zealand band Stellar*, where in 1999 he won Record Producer of the Year for their debut album, Mix.[3] Bailey is also the figurehead for the dub project, International Observer. Recent performances with 'Holiwater', a cinematic fusion of Indian classical music (Sarod- Vikash Maharaj), electronica (keyboards - Bailey) and video (film maker - Andrei Jewell), blur boundaries between art installation and performance. The band was formed in 2002 to highlight issues of water pollution on the Ganges.[citation needed]
He now resides in France with second wife and artist, Lauren Drescher.[4]