Gary SteelFor a while in the mid-1980s, the Thompson Twins were the biggest thing in pop, but when Tom Bailey retired the project in the mid-’90s and moved to New Zealand, all that stopped. Having explored an eclectic range of projects since, in the mid-2000s Tom Bailey eventually bowed to pressure to once again perform the old hits. Witchdoctor talked to Tom about his appearance at the Sounds Series concerts around the country late this month and early next.
Gary Steel – Hi Tom, Can you give our readers a summary of the forthcoming Sounds Series gigs and the part you’re playing?
Tom Bailey – The Sounds Series is a run of three multi-band concerts to be played in the Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington areas at the end of Feb/beginning of March. Along with many artists known for their work in the ’80s, OMD are headlining so I think there will be some high-tech pop skills on display.
Gary – You’ve toured extensively over the past 10 years or so internationally with your band doing both your own gigs and as part of larger ’80s-oriented festivals. Thompson Twins were huge in your adopted home of NZ, so why not before now?
Tom – I must sheepishly admit to feeling that I wanted to keep New Zealand as a place I didn’t work in order to keep it as a place of refuge in my mind. That’s rather selfish of me – and when I dropped in on the Sounds Series last year I was so impressed by the atmosphere that I immediately relented and agreed to get involved.
Gary – What can we expect from your show? Will it be a career-spanning selection of tunes or concentrate on material from Into The Gap, which received a nice deluxe remaster in 2024?
Tom – I think these concerts require a “greatest hits” approach. With so many artists playing, we are limited by the time we’re allowed on stage. But I always try to include some elements of surprise in the arrangements.
Gary – Alannah and Joe aren’t involved as they’ve moved onto non-music careers. Who’s in your current band and what do they do?
Tom – For these concerts the band includes three incredible multi-instrumentalists: Charlotte Raven on keys and electric cello, Paulina Szczepaniak on drums and percussion and Vicky Warwick on bass and keys. I’m playing keys and guitar.
Gary – Which songs do you find receive the most rousing reception from audiences? I still seem to hear ‘Hold Me Now’ every time I go to the supermarket. I guess in the old days that would have been a real “hold up your lighters” song, but what do people do in a post-smoking world?
Tom – The big hits have the recognition factor but, interestingly, that varies from country to country. There are some songs we are obliged to play in one place, but are unknown elsewhere. I will be checking out the local chart history before deciding on a setlist. At the end of a concert, I’d rather have built an emotional response into the experience than have people flicking lighters. And that’s something you can’t so easily put back in your pocket.
Gary – Do you find that audiences at your shows and these ’80s shows are all older, or are there new generations coming along and discovering the music?
Tom – The ’80s audience is alive and kicking for various reasons, but the internet seems to bring people who weren’t there first time around and that is always interesting.
Gary – On the records you had multiple roles; multi-instrumental, singing as well as involved in the production. How do you decide what instruments to play in the current shows?
Tom – Well, we have to balance the requirements of our musical arrangements with the dramatic imperatives of performing on stage. I like to have a technically and musically contemporised performance, but watching people bent over computer screens is ultimately not so interesting as witnessing a more physical engagement with instruments as the music is played.
Gary – You released a wonderful solo album – Science Fiction – in 2018. Do you play any songs from that set, or any other non-TT material?
Tom – Again, it’s a question of time allowed by the schedule. If we’re given a long enough stage time, I’ll slip in something from Science Fiction.
Gary – How do you feel the TTs material sits with the bands you end up playing with at these ’80s shows? Do you find that some bands have dated while others still sound fresh?
Tom – All bands are different. Some are happy to repeat the way they have always done it, others are more inventive. I take the view that, if you just want to hear the record, stay at home and play it.
Gary – In coming back to performing TTs songs after all these years since you retired the band in the early ’90s and went off in amazingly diverse directions on some quite astonishing projects – electronic dub project International Observer, Indo-fusion group Holiwater to name just two – how do you relate to the songs? In other words, do they still feel like “you” and do you feel the same pull of nostalgia that the audiences do?
Tom – That’s a good question. I think the answer is that although there’s nostalgia in the air, it’s important to combine that with a strong sense of the “here and now”. In a way I’m lucky that my band is young – a couple of them weren’t born where some of these songs were written – so they don’t have a nostalgic relationship with the material. It lives in the present for them. That helps me to emphasize the contemporisation of the works and not just trade on the past and I hope that’s something the audience enjoys, too. As for all those other musical projects I’ve been involved with, there’s a lot of free association between them, even if it’s not obvious. And there’s a point in an artist’s life when it makes sense to take a retrospective view and examine what we used to do in the light of what we have learned since. After a long time in music, we become one of our own major influences.
+ Sound Series 2025 features OMD, Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey, Diesel, Jon Stevens and The Narcs with Kim Willoughby.
It takes place at Eventfinda Stadium, Auckland, 27 Feb; Selwyn Sounds, Christchurch, 1 March and Hutt Sounds, Wellington, 2 March.
