Talk:Thompson Twins
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Tom Bailey link on the box on the right points to the wrong Tom Bailey
- Now sorted, thank you. Derek R Bullamore 19:00, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
I don't have the full details necessary (nor the time) to actually attempt a comprehensive rewrite of the article, but I feel the need to point out that the much of it glosses over, or omits, the original, and pertinent, history of the band. Details about the original members (of which Currie was not one) and their interpersonal strife is not documented. Neither is their contentious relationship with Arista that led to a hatred of the industry as a whole. The circumstances that lead to their evolution from a world music-influenced rock band to synthpop, then to ambient and dub are far more interesting than what is presented here.
In the end, the article presents them as "an 80s band" and little more.
I hope someone can recitfy that. --71.247.222.69 10:24, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
Yes, I can, but I´m not sure how much "inside" stuff I should put in. I would really like to put a Trivia section in.
andreasegde 13:19, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
Anyone got any photos?
andreasegde 15:37, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, "VertigoXpress". I couldn´t remember his name... or I wasn´t sure.
andreasegde 20:54, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
No problem. John Hade was actually considered by the three of them to be an unofficial member of the band and he had a lot to do with their commercial success. I'm not sure what the conflict was, but Joe fell out with John Hade and decided to leave the band altogether.I would like to know what happened to Andrew Edge , did he go on to join another band or get a recording contract ?
Also, has anybody read a book by a guy who was claiming to have been a member of the Thompson Twins? I can't remember his name, but I do remember I was shocked when I found a listing for the book. It was called "An 80s Biography" or something, and it was about him briefly being in the band for a couple of months. I found it odd, since I have been interested in the band since 1983 and never heard anything about him. It would be an interesting trivia item for inclusion here.
vertigoxpress 25 May 2006
Never heard of him. Alex Burak (Point studio engineer) played drums with them for just one gig after Edge left, but maybe the person you mention played with them in their ´Bigger´ Thompson Twins phase. Will look...
Got it! Thomas Dolby. Solo artist, but played with Twins on "Set", but maybe live as well. Pete Dodd mentioned a story about him and Dolby which I will put in.
andreasegde 11:46, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
Well yes Thomas Dolby did play with them on "Set", and in the credits for the live tracks on the "Runaway" single, he's credited with playing synths live, so he must have toured with them. But it wasn't Thomas Dolby who wrote the book I was thinking of, it was someone who was otherwise unknown. Thomas Dolby is a celebrity and performer in his own right; this fellow who wrote the book was not a professional musician and had gone on to some field of science or physics, I believe.
vertigoxpress 26 May 2006
Contents |
[edit] Michael White
OK I did some web searching and I found it. The guy's name was Michael White, and he wrote a book called "Thompson Twin: An 80s Memoir". If you do a search for his name and the title on Amazon.com it comes up. The year in question is 1982, which would have been around the time of "Set", and it insinuates that White joined the Thompson Twins with his fiance, Jan. Jan supposedly fell in love with the band's manager, which would have been John Hade.
vertigoxpress 26 May 2006
I am shocked by this. His book is called, "Thompson Twin - Michael White", (with a photo that makes him look very much like Tom Bailey...) I have never heard about him at all.
He apparently went on to write lots of books about science, but I have the feeling that this one is bogus/a scissor-&-paste job. I would love to read it though, albeit from a library...
Maybe he was a "hanger-on" in the ´bigger´ Twins, and his girlfriend fell in love with Hade, but to write a whole book about it? Hmmm... sounds like cashing-in, and revenge on his girlfriend.
Questions: Which instrument did he play? (He could only be a ´member´ if he did.)
I am looking for his homepage... the Cad...
andreasegde 18:25, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
Yes, I find it funny that they very clearly marketed it as if he were Tom Bailey! At least visually, it seems like they tried to pass that off. If you Google his name with the words "Thompson Twins" in the search, a lot comes up about him. Some comments even go so far as to credit him for production and songwriting credits in the band!
vertigoxpress 26 May 2006
Right; I sent an e-mail to his Homepage: http://www.michaelwhite.com.au/
He now lives in Australia, and he still uses the "I was in The Thompson Twins" quote on it. I asked him what his ´musical position´ (instruments etc. ) in the band was.
We will see, if we get a reply...
Oh, he uses this quote: "He has been a science editor of British GQ, a columnist for the Sunday Express in London and, in a previous incarnation, he was a member of the Thompson Twins (1982). " That made me laugh...
andreasegde 19:28, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
He sent me this:
Thanks for your message. I was in the Thompson Twins during 1982 and played keyboards and guitar. I did the Quick Step and Sidekick tour and was around during the recording of that album but I didn't write for the band. For more info see my memoir Thompson Twin: An Eighties Memoir (Little, Brown, 2000).
and this:
I've just taken a look at the page. I guess my role would be in the live band section at the end. After the Thompson Twins I re-formed my earlier band Colour-Me-Pop. In 1982 we had had a hit with Europe In the Year Zero which reached No.3 in the Indie Chart. We had been ear-marked as a support band for the TT world tour, but events conspired so that we broke up CMP and I joined the TT. Afer leaving the TT I reformed CMP (based in Oxford) and we released several singles 1983-6. I then gave up professional music and turned to literature.
It seems a bit vague to me... Whatch´ya think?
212.241.67.98 16:29, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Mr. White V Sherlock Holmes
(I moved this here because you left it on the Lennon/Talk page. It would irritate some Lennon fans, God forbid... laugh...)
A regular Sherlock Holmes, aren't you ! Seriously, a great effort on the Michael White angle. If he was a Thompson Twin, I'm one of The Jackson Five. I think Wikipedia would benefit generally from more detective work on the stories behind bands etc., rather than articles containing simple discographies etc. As long as balance is achieved, and edits can be verified, of course. Keep up the good work. It's as easy as 1-2-3, As simple as do re mi, ABC, 1-2-3, Baby you and me girl. - Doh !?!
Derek R Bullamore 19:58, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
Wonders will never cease! I got my first compliment on a Wiki page and a "thanks" on another! I will now proceed to get blind drunk...laugh... I wish all the editors could be nice to each other now and again. (Ahhh... peace & love - laugh again...) Thank you very much.
Anyway; Mr. White should be included in the "extra musicians" section if we can find some other verification. At the moment I think he´s "being a bit cheeky saying he was a member of the TTs, and making a lot out of nothing" as I read in a review of his book on the Web. Being a ´member´ is totally different from playing with them as a session musician. It looks like he has written some high-brow books, so why should he keep mentioning it? It´s not as if the TTs are still greatly loved anymore, although they truly were.
We still need more photos. There is one of Tom DJing at "The Fridge" in London from a few months ago (and with Allanah together in another photo at the same place) but he has put on a bit of weight and is wearing thick-rimmed glasses. (He doesn´t look too bad, though.) I don´t know how to put the photos on, because I´m lazy and have a learning difficulty, which is hampered by beer occasionally...
Have fun.
andreasegde 17:58, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
Nice one, Starkin! More photos, please.....
andreasegde 12:44, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Edits
Sorry that I didn´t sign in and changed something. Sometimes I have the urge to change something, and I can´t see if I am logged-in or not. It´s frustrating for me, as well the others, but I will try to amend my lazy behaviour, as well as my impetuous editing...
Have fun.
P.S. Why does the typeface on the page suddenly seem larger than before? Am I going blind?...
andreasegde 16:32, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Name
Far too often throughout the article the band are called "The Thompson Twins". I'm not sure about their early days (though none of my 1980-82 releases have "The") but there is no "The" in the name. This seems to be a common mistake in other music literature, including Simon Reynolds' latest book.
You´re right, but they were called "The Thompson Twins", in the beginning, but maybe because of copyright problems it was shortened to Thompson Twins.
Here´s another problem: Tom Bailey referred/refers to them as the "Thompsons". Is that "The Thompsons", or the "Thompsons"? What do we do about that? (Laugh...)
I have tried to make the definite article (the) small, as in, the "Thompson Twins". Nobody would say, "I like Thompson Twins". I´ll go with the concensus, as they say...
andreasegde 19:31, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
I think any fan would say "I like the Thompson Twins...", but notice the lower case 'the', not "I like The Thompson Twins". It's a very minor point, but important I think. Tom Bailey's reference would definitely be "the Thompsons..." as a mere abbreviation.
[edit] Album pages
Now that we have a nice 'foundation' article for the band, I think we should start beefing up the separate album pages. For example, Depeche Mode (among many others) have these pages, with review links, sleeve pictures, full track listings etc.
I already added album entries for the first two albums, plus "In the Name of Love". I wasn't able, however, to add images to these. Plus if anybody has additional information to add to the articles, like annotations to album reviews or anything like that, please edit the entries.
VertigoXpress 16:52, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the photo on the Thompson Twins page, Starkin! andreasegde 08:58, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
Thank you again! It´s beginning to look good, at last... andreasegde 17:40, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] e-mail references
What do I do about references that I have received from the people themselves? Is that original research? How do I put a note in to say that it was an e-mail and not from a book? help...
andreasegde 09:24, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Bleeps and farts
do we really need to read about every bleep and fart theyve ever had? this article is way too complicated for a band that wasnt hugely succesfull.Curefreak 17:27, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Excuse me, "Curefreak", but do you know that they sold millions of albums worldwide? It was - unbelievably - roughly 50 million. They´re not my favourite band, but putting in the stuff that can not be found on other pages is what makes Wikipedia special, don´t you think?
I don´t think how many times they bleeped or farted is in the article, by the way. (Laugh...)
andreasegde 13:18, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
That's unbelievable, alright. No freakin' way have they sold 50 million albums, I'm sorry.
[edit] Publishing contract
Source of their publishing terms was from Pete Dodd, and Rupert Merton (who was their publisher.) andreasegde 14:59, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Genre
Can we agree on the genre? The opening paragraph say's they were New Wave and the box say's Synthpop. We need to add more genres or stick to one. I'm not even sure they were "synthpop" since they used multiple instruments (guitars, piano) and real percussion instruments. Synthpop to me is Erasure, Depeche Mode and the like. Mostly late 80's bands that 99% of the time wrote all their music for synthezisers. Snowbound
- I've always known them to be categorized as being "neo-romantic". I did a search of "neo-romantic" "thompson twins" on the web and got lots of links. Perhaps we should consider this genre too. Lyverbe 11:41, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
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- They were definitely "Power-pop" in the beginning, but later used a lot of synths when they were famous. --andreasegde 20:01, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
