Thompson Twins' Tom Bailey releases new video and album

‘What Kind of World’ is the latest single from Tom Bailey (Thompson Twins), taken from his debut solo album ‘Science Fiction’ which is released today, July 13th 2018. In June Tom supported A-HA on their UK tour, and is to perform at the Rewind Festival in August, followed by a UK tour with Culture Club in November.



Speaking with Billboard, Tom remarks that inspiration for the song came from the death of David Bowie and the visions of Elon Musk “[BOWIE] was no stranger to the kind of futuristic ideas I was writing about, and [MUSK’S] plan to send people to Mars to save the Earth, that we have to become a bi-planetary race in order to have a future, is sort of an exciting thing, an optimistic thing. And I agree with him. But, of course, there's a downside, that thing where we think 'Oh, it's all right, science is going to solve it for us,' and so it gets us off the hook emotionally. And I really worry that the idea that Elon's going to send some rich people to Mars means we don't have to save the Earth anymore, and that's a really, really dangerous idea. So I'm debating those arguments in this song.”

The Thompson Twins were widely regarded as one of the iconic electronic bands of the 1980s and one of a select group of British artists who ‘broke’ America with hits such as ‘Hold Me Now’, ‘You Take Me Up’ and ‘Doctor Doctor’.

Bailey’s post-Thompson Twins career has seen him work in several different genres, from the experimental electronic music of Babble and Kolab, to the Indo-fusion of the Holiwater Band, the visual astronomy project BSP and the sound-system dub of International Observer, however this album is his first true pop record in over 20 years

“I so much enjoyed playing concerts around the world over the last couple of years, that I began working behind the scenes on writing, recording and mixing the songs in this collection. I have concentrated on other areas of music for the past couple of decades – but I find it incredibly rewarding to be making pop music again. There’s something so special about the way this kind of music works and, for me, it’s like finding a long lost friend”

Tom headlined no less than 7 major UK festivals in 2015 which earned him the award of ‘Best live show’ in Classic Pop Magazine, ahead of Kylie, Kraftwerk and Duran Duran. He will return to the road this summer as Thompson Twins' Tom Bailey – backed by an all-female band – performing the hits that were an essential part of the soundtrack to the 1980s.

His live set up features Tom Bailey on vocals, keyboards, guitar, harmonica and percussion. His all-female band features Charlotte Raven on vocals/keyboards, Amanda Kramer (The Psychedelic Furs/Information Society) on vocals/keyboards, Alice Offley on vocals/keyboards and Paulina Szczepaniak on electronic drums.