Ok, deep dark secret time … When I was about 12 or 13, I not only wanted to BE Tom Bailey, I looked like his kid brother. I had a copy of the Thompson Twins Into The Gap in my Sony Walkman for nearly two straight years and even had a six-inch rat-tail. Tom Bailey was, honestly, the only famous red-head I knew aside from Howdy Doody and that peckerwood Ralph from Happy Days. Granted, this was right before I had the blue mohawk phase at 14 (kept it one summer, had to cut it before school started), but I was an UberFan.

As an aside, my parents were just divorcing at the time when the Thompson Twins came through town. The concert was on a Sunday and my mother wouldn’t let me go. Between having to give up my dog, and not see this concert, it’s a wonder she and I speak at all. Pathetically serious about this, too.

So, out of England, this band went through so many phases that it’s hard to place when their fame really hit, but, in the US, it was the incarnation of Tom Bailey, Alannah Currie, and Joe Leeway.

So, I can’t even say that my FanBoy behavior about the Thompson Twins had any impact on me whatsoever musically. I play Folk/Blues/Bluegrass guitar and I sing a lot like a less talented Eddie Vedder. But, whenever I catch a Thompson Twins song on the radio, I catch myself grinning and singing along. Always, I guess, a prepubescent super FanBoy.

*Tomorrow, JC Carter is going to be hosting Afternoon’s Tunes. I have no idea what he’s going to be playing, but, as he’s a libertarian, it’ll probably be a seminar on why all government is bad or a couple of Sex Pistols songs. Who knows. All I know is: I have to break out of this 80’s New Wave head trip I’m on, and get back to some louder stuff.