‘Into The Gap’, initially released in February 1984, was the fourth album by Thompson Twins. It was a multi-platinum album on both sides of the Atlantic, staying at number one in the UK for three weeks and being top ten in the US. The album produced four massive hit singles: ‘Hold Me Now’, a top-five smash in the UK and the US, ‘Doctor Doctor’, ‘You Take Me Up’, and ‘Sister Of Mercy’.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of ‘Into The Gap’, the album has been remastered at Abbey Road by Frank Arkwright and will be reissued as a comprehensive 3-CD set featuring new sleevenotes with interviews with all three band members, a limited edition red vinyl LP, a digital deluxe version and Dolby Atmos digital and Blu-ray exclusive to superdeluxeedition.com. David Kosten mixed the Dolby Atmos version.
In the 40 years since their commercial peak, Thompson Twins have finally been recognised as quiet visionaries. The band was multi-gender and multiracial, taking on Middle Eastern and Jamaican influences and melding them with cutting-edge technology alongside producer Alex Sadkin (Grace Jones, Robert Palmer, Bob Marley And The Wailers) at the famous Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas.
After an early seven-piece version of the band dissolved, the remaining threesome, Tom Bailey, Alannah Currie and Joe Leeway, recorded the groundbreaking ‘Quick Step & Side Kick’ album, which broke the top 40 in the US and reached number 2 in the UK. Remarking on the time Tom Bailey remembers “We were no longer a band, Instead, we were designers of pop music. We divided ourselves so that Alannah wrote our lyrics, I wrote our music and Joe, who had come from the theatre, was in charge of our live side, working with Alannah on how we presented ourselves visually.”
The shift to a trio also meant a change in sound, looking back Alannah says ‘The whole reason we were able to make those tracks was because we discovered the synthesiser and drum machine so suddenly we were able to make big sounding records with only three of us in the studio. Marrying traditional instruments and percussion with big synth sounds to get the human warmth with cool machines was what we aimed for. We were constantly accused of it not being ‘real music’, especially in America, because we rejected the who concept of rock and roll and guitars in favour of synthesisers and percussion.”
Tom notes that Alannah’s lyrics were key in making the music resonate “Alannah writing the lyrics was a gift for making our music universal. The words had to mean something to me, but they also had to mean something to the person you don’t know who’s dancing on a Saturday night. Alannah’s lyrics fitted how she was thinking and how I performed. I was able to fully inhabit her ideas.” Joe Leeway also recognises Alannah’s trailblazing spirit “Things are done differently now. All the way up to Doja Cat, women have their own audiences and their own authority. Generations now don’t remember how different it was. I learned a lot from Alannah, who brought a lot about respect for women in a male-dominated world. Alannah writing our lyrics was part of that.”
Once the album was completed, Thompson Twins took to the road In support of the album. The band toured the US extensively, playing their own shows and massive stadiums in support of The Police. All of the trio’s hard work paid off in the USA in 1984 when ‘Into The Gap’ entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #10, and the band, including two future members of The Cure, played a 50-date tour, including sold-out shows at New York’s Radio City Music Hall and The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
There would be further highs in the band’s career, including having Madonna and Nile Rodgers perform with them at Live Aid and the underrated ‘Here’s To Future Days’ album, but ‘Into The Gap’ was the moment that Thompson Twins captured the Zeitgeist on two continents. It was a very long way from the squat in Clapham, London, where the band had formed just seven years earlier. To bring the album full circle, Tom Bailey has recently toured the world playing the album in full to rapturous audiences eager to hear these classic songs live once more.
The LP format and Dolby Atmos versions of ‘Into The Gap’ are the classic 9-track album; the 3CD, digital deluxe and SDE Blu-ray have the below tracklist:
THOMPSON TWINS
‘INTO THE GAP’
3-CD DELUXE EDITION
CD1 2024 REMASTER & B-SIDES
Doctor! Doctor!
You Take Me Up
Day After Day
Sister of Mercy
No Peace for the Wicked
The Gap
Hold Me Now
Storm on the Sea
Who Can Stop the Rain
Let Loving Start
Nurse Shark (Instrumental)
Out of The Gap
Passion Planet
You Take Me Up (Instrumental Remix)
Doctor! Doctor! (Phil Thornalley Mix)
CD2 CASSETTE MIXES & EDITS
Leopard Ray
Doctor! Doctor!
Panic Station (Day After Day)
Down Tools
Hold Me Now
Funeral Dance (No Peace For The Wicked)
Compass Points (The Gap)
Still Water (Storm On The Sea) (Edit)
Hold Me Now (Pete Hammond Mix)
Sister of Mercy (Pete Hammond Mix)
Doctor! Doctor! (Single Edit)
Doctor! Doctor! (Edit)
Sister Of Mercy (Single Mix)
You Take Me Up (Single Edit)
The Gap (AOR Mix)
CD3 EXTENDED & 12” VERSIONS
Hold Me Now (Phil Thornalley Extended Mix)
Hold Me Now (Pete Hammond Extended Mix)
Let Loving Start (12” Version)
Out Of The Gap (Megamix Extended Version)
Sister Of Mercy (12” Version)
Sister of Mercy (Pete Hammond Extended Mix)
The Gap (Club Remix Version)
You Take Me Up (Machines Take Me Over – 12” Version)
You Take Me Up (High Plains Mixer – US 12” Remix)
THOMPSON TWINS
‘INTO THE GAP’
LIMITED EDITION RED VINYL LP
SIDE ONE
Doctor! Doctor!
You Take Me Up
Day After Day
Sister of Mercy
No Peace for the Wicked
SIDE TWO
The Gap
Hold Me Now
Storm on the Sea
Who Can Stop the Rain
THOMPSON TWINS
‘INTO THE GAP’
DOLBY ATMOS BLU-RAY*
Dolby Atmos, 5.1 Surround & 2024 Remaster Stereo Mixes
Mixed by David Kosten
Doctor! Doctor!
You Take Me Up
Day After Day
Sister of Mercy
No Peace for the Wicked
The Gap
Hold Me Now
Storm on the Sea
Who Can Stop the Rain
*Available exclusively via superdeluxedition.com
