Hold Me Now

Joe Leeway, Alannah Currie, Tom Bailey (1983)

This week's edition of Retro Friday features the band The Thompson Twins, and the song "Hold Me Now."

The Thompson Twins were a British new wave band that formed in April of 1977. The band consisted of Joe Leeway, Alannah Currie, and Tom Bailey. They achieved considerable popularity and success in the United States and the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s. The band was named after the two bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson in Hergé's comic strip, The Adventures of Tintin. The band's sound was predominantly synthpop, however they were joined on stage at Live Aid by Madonna and were at the forefront of the so-called Second British Invasion.

The band achieved success on the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at the beginning of 1983 with the songs "Lies" and "Love On Your Side", the second of which became the band's first UK Top 10 single. At this point they released the album, Quick Step and Side Kick (called simply Side Kicks in the US), which peaked at number 2 in the UK. During 1983, the band also opened for the The Police on their US concert tour.

Near the end of 1983, a new single, "Hold Me Now", was released, and was an international chart success. It peaked at #4 in their native UK, and reached #3 in the US in the spring of 1984 becoming their biggest American hit.

The band released their next album, Into the Gap, in early 1984 and became one of the year's biggest sellers. Hit singles from Into the Gap included "Doctor Doctor" (UK #3) and "You Take Me Up" (UK #2, which was their their highest UK singles chart placement).

The Thompson Twins were a classic retro band. Their synthpop sound is resonant of the 80's. The band, according to Currie, strove to "make something completely different . . . using technology." So many people at the time did not think good music could be made with machines, but The Thompson Twins proved the skeptics wrong. They continued on to become the leading purveyors of synthpop music. They were innovative, combining dance, pop and reggae music with experimental sounds to produce a string of distinctive hit singles.

And here it is, for your listening pleasure ... "Hold Me Now:"

And as a bonus, "Doctor Doctor"




Cheers!