Thursday, August 06, 2009

Occasional Forgotten Video: The Thompson Twins, "Hold Me Now."

This song will always be bound up in my memories of my senior year of college, in 1984.

The Thompson Twins started out as a trio in 1977, and had various line-ups until Tom Bailey met Alannah Currie, who lived in a "squat" (occupying an abandoned building) down the street from his. They brought in their former roadie Joe Leeway on as a percussionist and conga player, and this was the line-up that would record "Hold Me Now."

The Thompson Twins had UK top ten hits with "Lies" and "Love On Your Side," but did not crack the US charts. "Hold Me Now" was released in late 1983, and rose to #3 in the United States (and #4 in their native Britain).

The band never approached this success again, but played at Live-Aid in 1985, where they were joined onstage by a young singer who'd just had her first couple of hits-- Madonna. Bailey and Currie eventually married, had a couple of kids, moved to New Zealand, -- then divorced in 2003. They both eventually moved back to England. Leeway left the band in 1986, and did some solo work. He now lives in Los Angeles, where he works as a hypnotherapist.

4 comments:

Mnmom said...

I always liked that song! 1984 was my senior college year too, except i ran out of money and stretched it to December 1985!

SkylersDad said...

That was a great song, and I still hear it every now and then on the radio.

Churlita said...

I loved that song. I still have it on my iPod. Thanks for the video.

Erik Donald France said...

Another Proustian moment. Yeahdawg!