Tom Bailey (musician)

Tom Bailey
Bailey of The Thompson Twins – 19 January 1986 in San Bernardino, California
Background information
Birth name	Thomas Alexander Bailey
Born	(1956-01-18) 18 January 1956 (age 61)
Origin	Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Genres	New wave pop post-punk alternative rock rock dance-pop alternative dance funk synthpop electronica indie rock worldbeat house dub indian music
Occupation(s)	singer songwriter multi-instrumentalist record producer
Instruments	Vocals keyboards synthesiser piano guitar bass guitar upright bass harmonica percussion
Years active	1975–present
Labels	Arista Records Warner Bros. Records
Associated acts	Thompson Twins Babble International Observer Bailey-Salgado Project

Thomas Alexander "Tom" Bailey (born 18 January 1956) is an English singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Bailey came to prominence in the early 1980s as the lead vocalist for the new wave band Thompson Twins, which released five singles that entered the top ten charts in the United Kingdom during the 1980s, including Love On Your Side, We Are Detective, Hold Me Now, Doctor! Doctor!, and You Take Me Up. He was the only classic member of the band to have formal musical training. From 1994, Bailey was also a member of its later incarnation, Babble, releasing two unsuccessful studio albums.

He currently works in various musical fields including scoring for film. He records and performs dub music under the name International Observer and Indo-fusion music with the Holiwater Project. His latest collaboration is the Bailey-Salgado Project (BSP), an audiovisual ensemble formed with José Francisco Salgado.

Tom Bailey grew up in a family associated with the medical profession. His father was the Medical Officer of Health for Chesterfield Borough Council, and Bailey was educated at Chesterfield Boys' Grammar School. A "whole school" photograph from April 1969 shows him at age 13 (4th from the extreme left in the second row). Despite training as a classical pianist, Bailey initially worked as a music teacher at Brook School, Sheffield. In his late teens and early twenties, he travelled the world.

Bailey formed the Thompson Twins in 1977 with Pete Dodd (guitar/vocals), John Roog (guitar), and Jon Podgorski (drums). Podgorski did not want to move to London, so Andrew Edge played drums with them for one year before Chris Bell joined. The group eventually ended up as a trio with Bailey on vocals, guitar, bass, and keyboards, his then girlfriend Alannah Currie (percussion, saxophone, and vocals), and Joe Leeway (percussion and vocals). The Thompson Twins became fixtures on MTV during the 1980s as the videos for "Hold Me Now", "Lay Your Hands on Me" and "King for a Day" were played in heavy rotation. Subsequent to the marriage of Bailey and Currie, Thompson Twins released their final album, Queer, in 1991.