Thompson Twins “Side Kicks” 1983. Today, January 18th, is Thompson Twins’ singer/synthesiser-er Tom Bailey’s birthday (b. 1956). Side Kicks (released as Quick Steps and Side Kick in the UK) was new wave synth band Thompson Twins’ third studio LP and their first as a trio. It spawned their first successful singles: “Lies,” “Love On Your Side,” “We Are Detective,” and “Watching” (the last has a heavy dose of funk and operatic vocals veering it into the decidedly weird category), helping to propel the album to #2 on the UK charts. One of my favorite tracks is the sweet synth pop ballad “If You Were Here” which appears at the end of the quintessential 80′s film Sixteen Candles.

I had an affinity toward Thompson Twins not just because of my love of British new wave in the early 80′s but also because I was a huge fan of Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin. My childhood best friend had spent a year in England in the late 70′s while her father, a professor at Lawrence University, did a year’s sabbatical. She came back with a stack of Tintin books (and her last name happens to be Thompson) and we both gobbled up the cute comic boy’s travels to Nepal, South America and points beyond. The Thompson Twins are, of course, named for the two bumbling detectives in the comic series, Thomson and Thompson; they were not actually twins but looked identical, except for the shape of their mustaches.