Tom Bailey

"For ages we used the OBXa because I accidentally found this brilliant bass patch on it. We used it on the Sidekicks album and I kept on getting phone calls to come and play bass on other albums."

Tom Bailey refers to the OB-Xa as his workhorse synth. He ​first acquired it in 1981 during the Set sessions, and used it on the underground Thompson Twins hit "In The Name of Love". Eventually it became a prominent feature of their music when they were at the peak of their popularity, on albums Quick Step & Side Kick, Into The Gap and Here's To Future Days.

According to Keyboard magazine August 1984 issue, 95% of the synthesizer sounds (including bass lines) on Quick Step and Into The Gap were played on an OB-Xa. The other 5% of synths were played on a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (by Joe Leeway) and a Pro One (by Tom Bailey). Plus, on Here's To Future Days, basslines were done on the OB-Xa and Nile Rodgers' Casio CZ-5000.

Effects-wise, the Oberheim is connected to an AMS reverb and a Roland Dimension D.

Live, Tom's OB-Xa was played by keyboardist Carrie Both on the Into The Gap tour.

This article published in Electronics & Music Maker January mentions Tom Bailey using a Casio CZ-5000. According to Micke on Vintage Synth forums, Tom Bailey used Nile Rodgers' Casio CZ-5000 on the Here's To Future Days album for the basslines.

This article mentions the Thompson Twins using a prototype MCS Mimic sampler.

Tom plays a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 in this video.

From 1:25-1:59, Tom is playing a Sequential Circuits Pro One. The Pro One was used for the bassline in "Doctor Doctor".

In this photo of Tom Bailey working at Studio Marcadet in early 1985 during the Here's To Future Days sessions, with a Yamaha DX7 in the background. Photo courtesy of Stephen Dewey.

"At the moment, though, we've got quite a massive library of chips for the Movement, and recently we parallel triggered an SDS7 Simmons set-up. Plus we have a Fairlight as well to do drums if we really want to."

"At the moment, though, we've got quite a massive library of chips for the Movement, and recently we parallel triggered an SDS7 Simmons set-up. Plus we have a Fairlight as well to do drums if we really want to."

According to this fact file, the Thompson Twins had a Movement MCS drum computer Mk.1 on hire in late 1982, with the MCS-2 on order.

In this photo from the early days of the Thompson Twins (i.e. the late 1970s), Tom Bailey can be seen playing a Fender Jazz bass.

This Fender Jazz bass (modified by luthier John Birch, according to roadie Stephen Dewey) was later used in the studio to add occasional bass slaps on top of Oberheim OB-Xa basslines on the Quick Step & Side Kick and Into The Gap albums.

As per this article:

'Loves Lies Bleeding' was a combination of three Oberheim basses and one real Fender for the slapping and tickling. The three Oberheims are doing different parts of the same line, accumulated as ideas: I thought the bassline should be like this, or like this, no, like this; what do they sound like all together? And then some slaps on the Fender on top as well.

This article published in Electronics & Music Maker January mentions Tom Bailey using a Casio CZ-101.

"I take the OBXa, Prophet 5, Roland RS09 strings and a Micro Moog on tour. All the keyboards are direct injected both on stage and in the studio."

"I take the OBXa, Prophet 5, Roland RS09 strings and a Micro Moog on tour. All the keyboards are direct injected both on stage and in the studio."

Tom Bailey is credited with contrabass in the liner notes for Here's to Future Days.

In this 1983 article, Tom Bailey mentions the Oberheim OB-Xa is rarely disconnected to an AMS reverb and Roland Dimension D.

In this 1983 article, Tom Bailey mentions the Oberheim OB-Xa is rarely disconnected to an AMS reverb and Roland Dimension D.

"I've recently made two fantastic discoveries - the AMS Digital Delay/Reverb, which is made in Burnley somewhere, and Roland's Dimension D, which both help to keep the keyboard sounds clear and separate. Almost anything you do with them sounds great. Also I use the Roland Chorus Echo and the Yamaha 1010 signal processor live."

"I've recently made two fantastic discoveries - the AMS Digital Delay/Reverb, which is made in Burnley somewhere, and Roland's Dimension D, which both help to keep the keyboard sounds clear and separate. Almost anything you do with them sounds great. Also I use the Roland Chorus Echo and the Yamaha 1010 signal processor live."

"I use the Oberheim DSX quite a lot, but when we were at Compass Point Studio I had trouble getting it to synchronise; in the end it wasn't worth the effort and I played everything by hand."

Tom Bailey is seen with a Movement MCS Drum Computer Mk. II model in this photo from the Compass Point sessions for Into The Gap, courtesy of roadie Stephen Dewey. Previously they hired a Mk. I movement.

Tom had this to say about the Movement drum machine in an interview with One Two Testing:

"I really like the Movement. I suppose there's an extent to which you like what you know, because you can get the best out of it. To be honest it's like a fancy Linndrum, except that it's got that element of visual interaction. Everything's clearly laid out... the song's built up in a very visual way and becomes like a visual pattern."