432 Hello The Thompson Twins - Lies

Chart  entered  : 6  November  1982

Chart  peak  : 67

Number  of  hits :  16

Well  here  they  come, the  bad  fairies  of  the  New  Pop. Simon  Reynolds  affords  them  just  a  terse  paragraph  but  in  reality  they  followed  the  exact  same  career  path  as  his  beloved  Scritti  Politti , from  student  squat-land  to  the  charts. I  don't  know  anyone  who  liked  them  but  someone  must  have  been  buying  the  records.

The  Thompson  Twins  were  first  formed  in  South  Yorkshire  in  1977. Tom  Bailey  from  Halifax  was  the  singer  and  bass  player, along  with  Pete  Dodd  on  guitar, John  Roog  as  second  guitarist  and  a  drummer  called  Pod  who  decided  to  stay  in  the  north  when  the  band  relocated  to  London. He  was  replaced  by  Andy  Edge  and  then  Chris  Bell  as  the  band  moved  into  squats  in  Fulham  apart  from  Pete  who  managed  to  blag  a  council  flat  nearby.  In  May  1980  they  released  their  first  single  "Squares  And  Triangles"  , the  only release  on  the  Dirty  Discs  label. It  reveals  the  original  (  as  far  as  recording  went  ) quartet  to  be  an  average  New  Wave  outfit  in  thrall  to  XTC. "She's  In  Love  With  Mystery"  six  months  later  on  the  similarly  transient  Latent  label  is  more  of  the  same  with  a  soupcon  of  The  Cure's  phased  guitar  sound.  They  released  one  more  single  as  a  quartet,  "Perfect  Game" , on  their  on  T  label  which  sounds  like  early  eighties  indie  outfit  the   Comsat  Angels  though  it's  more  recognisably  Tom's  voice  out  front.

After that  failed  the  group  changed  tack  and  started  going  for  a  more  percussion-heavy  sound  and  expanded  the  line  up  to  include   their  roadie , under-employed  actor , Joe  Leeway  on  percussion  and  a  female  saxophonist.  At  gigs  they  would  let  audience  members  get  on  stage  and  bang  along  on  anything  handy  which  started  getting  them  some  good  notices  in  the  music  press   as  did  their  left  wing  politics.  Their  next  single  "Animal  Laugh "  released  in  May  1981  was  an  untranslated  chant  from  Sierra  Leone   with  little  else  but  percussion  noises  and  vocals . It  was  never  going  to  storm  the  charts.

A  month  later  they  released  their  first  album  "A  Product  of  ...( Participation )  recorded  with  reggae  producer  Dennis  Bovell. Tom's  girlfriend  and  fellow  squatter,  Alannah  Currie  from  New  Zealand , featured  on  the  recording  though  she  wasn't  yet  considered  a  member  of  the  group.

Apart  from  the  aforementioned  single  and  near-unlistenable  closer  "Vendredi  Saint"   the  tribal  percussion  thing  isn't  very  evident  on  what  is  a  rather  pallid  post-punk  set . Talking  Heads  are  the  dominant  musical  influence  although  the  guitar  sound  seems  to  have  been  borrowed  from  another  London  squat  band  The  Passions  and  the  lyrical  themes  stray  into  Gang  of  Four  love-is-politics  territory. Add  to  that  Tom's  Numanesque  vocals  and  you  have  a  mildly  interesting  stew  of  influences  that  doesn't  invite  a  repeat  play. A  re-mixed  version  of  the  track  "Make  Believe"  with  a  different  producer  Steve  Rowland  which   added  sitars  but  retained  Tom's  off  key  vocals  was  released  as  a  single  the  following  month.

Further  line  up  changes  occurred. Alannah  joined  as  another  percussionist  as  the  sax  player  departed  and  Matthew  Seligman   joined  on  bass,  fatefully  freeing  Tom  to  take  up  the  keyboards. The  seven  piece  line  up  now  signed   a  distribution  deal  with  Arista  before  recording  their  second  album  "Set" with  yet  another  producer  Steve  Lillywhite. They  also  engaged  Thomas  Dolby  to  add  some  synth  work  and  he  occasionally  played  live  with  them
 during  this  period.

Lillywhite's  skills  and  the  band's  greater  confidence   make  "Set", released  in  February  1982,  an  improvement  on its  predecessor  though  they'd  arrived  at  a   good  sound  rather  than  great  songs. Tom  originally  wrote  "In  The  Name  Of  Love"  on  his  synth  as  a  space  filler  on  the  album   but  Arista  liked  it  and  wanted  it  to  be  the  first  single.  Although  again  heavily  derivative  of  Talking  Heads , apart  from  Tom's  hard  flat  vocal  and  the  simple lyric,  it  made  a  big  impression  in  the  US  clubs  and  got  some  radio  play  over  here. It  helped  the  album  reach  number  48  in  the charts. A  re-mix  of  the  single  was  a  minor  hit  in  1988, the  only  one  to  feature  the  seven-piece  line  up.

Despite  these  encouraging  signs  of  progress   the  band's  manager  Tom  Hade  took  the  view  that  as  a  more  synthesizer-based  sound  seemed  the  way  to  go,  the  band  should  be  down-sized.   In  the  New  Pop  era  a  scruffy, raincoat-clad  septet  didn't  look  too  good  . Obviously  Alannah  would  have  to  stay  and  Joe  too  was  felt  to  be  valuable  despite  limited  talent  as  a  musician. In  the  greatest   "Night  of  the  Long  Knives"  act  in  pop  the  remaining  members  were  paid  off  with  £500  and  their  instruments  in  return  for  agreeing  to  relinquish  rights  to  the  name.  A  second  single  from  "Set " ,  the  loping,  slightly  dreary   reggae  of  "Runaway"  was  released  a month  later  to  no  effect.

The  remaining  Twins  went  over  to  The  Bhamas  for  a  busman's  holiday  with   producer  Alex  Sadkin.  "Lies"  was  the  first  fruit  of  this  new  collaboration . They  returned  to  the  UK  to  face  a  fusillade  of  vitriol  from  their  former  champions  in  the  music  press.  They  were  accused  of  betraying  their  ideals  to  jump  on  the  synth  pop  bandwagon  with  Joe  and  Alannah  only  surviving   the  coup  to  facilitate  a  highly  contrived   image   makeover.

Amidst  all  this  the  merits  or  otherwise  of  the  single  itself  were  little  discussed. "Lies"  is  a  catchy  synth  pop  ditty  which  contains  a  mild  discourse  on  the  use  of  falsehoods , closer  to  The  Police's  De  Do Do  Do  De  Da  Da  Da  than  one  of  Scritti's  diatribes. They'd  obviously  noticed  the  success  of  Japan  over  the  past  year,  and  so  "Lies"  incorporates  little  Oriental  motifs  following  the  gratuitous   mentions  of  Japan  and  Saigon  ( plus  a  little  Egyptian  flavouring   after  Cleopatra  is  referenced ).  It's  a  brazen  assault  on  the  charts  with  precious  little  depth  but  melodically  strong  enough  to  be  appealing. However  it  was  up  against  exceptionally  strong  competition   - Mad  World, Talk Talk, Wishing  (If  I  Had  A  Photograph  Of  You ) , Someone  Somewhere  ( In  Summertime )  to  name  but  a  few -   and  had  to  settle  for  a  lowly  placing.