Definitive, career-spanning collection covers their post-punk roots, the electronic experimentation of Babble, and all the huge Trans-Atlantic hits
Industry & Seduction is the definitive career-spanning collection from Thompson Twins.
Charting their journey from post-punk outsiders to global synth-pop icons, and into the experimental electronic world of Babble.
Over the course of their career, the Thompson Twins scored seven US Top 40 hits and were at the forefront of the ‘Second US invasion’ of British artists in the US, which also included The Police, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Culture Club, and Eurythmics. The band also had 10 UK Top 40 singles, making them one of the few British acts of the era to consistently have hits on both sides of the Atlantic.
Initially formed in Sheffield in 1977 and shaped by the South London squat scene, Thompson Twins were always more eclectic than their “new wave” label suggested, and their black/white, male/female line-up was closer in spirit to Prince & The Revolution or Sly & The Family Stone than to their peers.
The world knows their hits, Hold Me Now, Doctor! Doctor!, Love On Your Side, Lay Your Hands On Me, but fewer know the range of their catalogue, from early albums A Product of… Participation and Set to later lost classics like Come Inside and Strange Jane. Across three distinct line-ups, they shifted from eccentric art-pop to streamlined chart-toppers and finally to Babble’s mystical electronica.
Industry & Seduction is the first Thompson Twins compilation curated by the band themselves. It unites every era of Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie’s music, the hits, key album tracks, rare B-sides, and the first official CD release of their Into The Gap tour recording, when the trio pioneered the theatrical pop spectacle before 20,000 fans in California.
Exciting Retrospective
Tom and Alannah see the set as long overdue. “It’s exciting to finally have a retrospective from beginning to end,” says Currie. Bailey adds, “People want the hits, but on a 3CD package, it’s nice to also have the weird stuff and a live disc. I think everyone will be happy.” The title itself reflects their ethos: “Industry is the machine/digital element, seduction the lyrical/human strand.”
Their breakthrough came with In The Name of Love (1982), a U.S. dance smash that bridged their old sound with their future and set the stage for Quick Step & Side Kick and their partnership with producer Alex Sadkin, who had worked with Bob Marley, Grace Jones, Talking Heads, Robert Palmer and would go on to work with Duran Duran & Arcadia. The change in sound and producer also ushered in a change in look, and the band quickly became MTV-era icons, fully embracing the decade’s new medium with a striking, multi-racial, male & female image that made them instantly recognisable and central to the visual culture of the decade.
With hits like Hold Me Now and 1984’s global success of Into The Gap, the band conquered the world while balancing glossy pop with darker themes such as domestic abuse in Sister of Mercy. Hold Me Now remains an era-defining ballad that has become a radio and streaming staple worldwide, cementing its place in pop history alongside songs like Doctor! Doctor! and Love on Your Side, which are still finding new audiences on streaming platforms and playlists and keeping the band’s classic era music alive.
A Wider Context
The follow-up to Into The Gap, Here’s To Future Days, saw the band working with the legendary producer Nile Rodgers and performing at Live Aid with Madonna and Nile to an audience of nearly 2 billion. Later albums, Close to the Bone, Big Trash, and Queer, saw them evolve through upheavals to produce some of their most underrated work before reinventing themselves as Babble in the 1990s with dreamlike, electronic explorations.
Looking back, Bailey reflects: “With a pop group like Thompson Twins, you only get so much time where everyone listens. We let our reputation wither, but this compilation helps reclaim some of that.” Currie adds: “Beyond the shiny hits, much of what we did was experimental, funny, dark, and unresolved. I hope people listen and understand the wider context of who we were.”
Industry & Seduction is available as a coloured vinyl 2LP and 1CD formats include 20 of the band’s most prominent and best-loved singles, all newly remastered at Abbey Road Studios by Frank Arkwright a well as a 3CD deluxe edition features a 40-track anthology with hits, deep cuts, rarities, key Babble tracks, and the first ever CD release of Into The Gap Live, capturing the band at their commercial and theatrical peak. All sets are packaged with stunning new artwork directed by Alannah Currie, along with extensive liner notes based on new interviews with Currie and Bailey by Classic Pop’s John Earls.
INDUSTRY & SEDUCTION: A THOMPSON TWINS COLLECTION
TRACKLISTINGS:
1CD
1 Hold Me Now (2024 Remaster)
2 If You Were Here (2025 Remaster)
3 Doctor! Doctor! (2024 Remaster)
4 Lies (2025 Remaster)
5 Lay Your Hands 7″ Version (2025 Remaster)
6 King For A Day (2025 Remaster)
7 You Take Me Up (2024 Remaster)
8 Love On Your Side (2025 Remaster)
9 Sister of Mercy (2024 Remaster)
10 The Gap (2024 Remaster)
11 We Are Detective (2025 Remaster)
12 In The Name of Love (2025 Remaster)
13 Future Days (2025 Remaster)
14 No Peace For The Wicked (2024 Remaster)
15 Roll Over (2025 Remaster)
16 Kamikaze (2025 Remaster)
17 Don’t Mess With Doctor Dream (7″ Version – 2025 Remaster)
18 Revolution (7″ Version – 2025 Remaster)
19 Nothing In Common (7″ Version – 2025 Remaster)
20 Breakaway (2025 Remaster)
3CD DELUXE
Disc 1 – The Hits Remastered
1 Hold Me Now (2024 Remaster)
2 If You Were Here (2025 Remaster)
3 Doctor! Doctor! (2024 Remaster)
4 Lies (2025 Remaster)
5 Lay Your Hands 7″ Version (2025 Remaster)
6 King For A Day (2025 Remaster)
7 You Take Me Up (2024 Remaster)
8 Love On Your Side (2025 Remaster)
9 Sister of Mercy (2024 Remaster)
10 The Gap (2024 Remaster)
11 We Are Detective (2025 Remaster)
12 In The Name of Love (2025 Remaster)
13 Future Days (2025 Remaster)
14 No Peace For The Wicked (2024 Remaster)
15 Roll Over (2025 Remaster)
16 Kamikaze (2025 Remaster)
17 Don’t Mess With Doctor Dream 7″ Version (2025 Remaster)
18 Revolution 7″ Version (2025 Remaster)
19 Nothing In Common 7″ Version (2025 Remaster)
20 Breakaway (2025 Remaster)
Disc 2 – Deep Cuts and Babble
1 Politics
2 Squares and Triangles
3 Oumma Aularesso (Animal Laugh)
4 Come Inside (Feedback Max Remix)
5 She’s In Love With Mystery
6 Passion Planet
7 Beach Culture
8 Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
9 Take Me Away
10 The Downward Pull of Heaven’s Force
11 Tribe
12 Beautiful
13 Strange Jane
14 Queer
15 You Kill Me
16 Just Like You
17 Shake It Down
18 Queen of the USA
19 Sugar Daddy
Disc 3 – Into The Gap Live
1 Intro (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
2 The Gap (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
3 Day After Day (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
4 Judy Do (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
5 Watching (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
6 You Take Me Up (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
7 Hold Me Now (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
8 No Peace For The Wicked (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
9 Sister Of Mercy (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
10 In The Name Of Love (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
11 Lies (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
12 Doctor! Doctor! (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
13 Kamikaze (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
14 Love On Your Side (Live at the Del Mar Race Track, USA, 1984)
DOUBLE LP
Side A
1 Hold Me Now (2024 Remaster)
2 If You Were Here (2025 Remaster)
3 Doctor! Doctor! (2024 Remaster)
4 Lies (2025 Remaster)
5 Lay Your Hands 7″ Version (2025 Remaster)
Side B
1 King For A Day (2025 Remaster)
2 You Take Me Up (2024 Remaster)
3 Love On Your Side (2025 Remaster)
4 Sister of Mercy (2024 Remaster)
5 The Gap (2024 Remaster)
Side C
1 We Are Detective (2025 Remaster)
2 In The Name of Love (2025 Remaster)
3 Future Days (2025 Remaster)
4 No Peace For The Wicked (2024 Remaster)
5 Roll Over (2025 Remaster)
Side D
1 Kamikaze (2025 Remaster)
2 Don’t Mess With Doctor Dream (7″ Version – 2025 Remaster)
3 Revolution (7″ Version – 2025 Remaster)
4 Nothing In Common (7″ Version – 2025 Remaster)
5 Breakaway (2025 Remaster)
Released 31 October 2025, pre-order here
Read More: Thompson Twins / Tom Bailey – album by album
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