#164: You Take Me Up by Thompson Twins

City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CHUM
Peak Month: October 1984
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #5
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #44
YouTube: “You Take Me Up”
Lyrics: “You Take Me Up”

The Thompson Twins formed in the UK in Sheffield in 1977. The band’s name was based on the two bumbling detectives Thompson and Thompson (who are close doubles, not twins) in the English-language version of The Adventures of Tintin (Les aventures de Tintin). At various stages the Thompson Twins had up to seven members. However, their best known line-up was as a trio from 1982 to 1986. The band became a prominent act in the US during the Second British Invasion, and in 1985 performed at Live Aid in Philadelphia, where they were joined on stage by Madonna. The band was founded by Tom Bailey who was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire. He studied classical piano and before forming the band, he worked as a music teacher. When the band had six members in 1981, they released the debut album A Product of… (Participation). The album was not a commercial success. However, the second member of the classic Thompson Twins lineup, Joe Leeway, was now part of the band.

Joseph “Joe” Leeway was born in 1955 in Islington, London, to an Irish mother and Nigerian father. At college he studied English and Drama, then began teaching English, which is how he met Tom Bailey. He joined a theatre group in Cardiff after failing to establish his own company. He spent a year with the Young Vic theatre before working with Thompson Twins as a roadie at Bailey’s invitation. Leeway played congas and percussion, and added vocals in the studio. He was in the studio for the second Thompson Twins album, Set, in 1982.

Also in the recording studio for Set was new bandmate Alannah Currie. She was born in Auckland, New Zealand. She trained as a journalist and moved to the UK in 1977. She was with a band called the Unfuckables who performed a single concert. After Set was released, Tom Bailey fired most of the bandmates, leaving just Alannah Currie and Tom Leeway and Bailey to form a trio.

In 1982, the Thompson Twins had a number-one Billboard Dance/Club Play Chart hit for five weeks in May-June titled “In the Name of Love”. The song was included in the soundtrack for the 1984 movie Ghostbusters. The band had another number-one dance hit in early 1983 with “Lies”. It was knocked off the top spot after two weeks by Michael Jackson’s Thriller. “Lies” also reached #6 in New Zealand’s pop chart, and #9 in Ottawa. In 1983, the Thompson Twins cracked the Top Ten in both New Zealand and the UK with “Love on Your Side” peaking in each country at #9. The single also reached #16 in Belgium. Another track from the album Quick Step & Side Kick was “We Are Detective”. It peaked at #7 in the UK.

In early 1984, the Thompson Twins released the album Into the Gap. The debut single, “Hold Me Now” topped the pop chart in Paraguay and the Billboard Dance/Club Play chart. It climbed to #3 in Australia, Canada and the Billboard Hot 100. It reached #4 in New Zealand and the UK, #7 in West Germany, #8 in South Africa, #9 in Ireland, and #18 in Switzerland. The song was later included in the 1998 movie soundtrack for The Wedding Singer. As well, “Hold Me Now” appeared in the 1999 movie 10 Things I Hate About You, and in 2018 the psychological thriller Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. 

A second single from Into the Gap, “Doctor! Doctor!” reached #3 in the UK, and #5 in Ireland. It was a Top 20 hit in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, the USA and West Germany.

The third single release from Into the Gap was “You Take Me Up”.

“You Take Me Up” is a song that features harmonica and melodica solos. The Songfacts website notes “This song is an odd contradiction: With music based on African American spirituals, it tells the story of a factory worker in desperate financial condition, but it also has a fun, quirky feel that belies the message. It’s almost like the Seven Dwarfs singing “Heigh Ho” as they go into the mines.” Tom Bailey stated in an interview, “On the face of it is very kind of fun-oriented. It’s kind of a novelty song. It’s almost forgettable in a certain sense, but behind it, the subject matter is really important.” He added, “It takes its musical form partly from Negro spiritual songs that slaves would sing in the cotton fields,” he said. “We reimagined that as a contemporary reality for people working in factories and sweatshops and places like that. The modern forms of slavery, if you like.” The line “I know what it means to work hard on machines” drives home the message. In the music video, workers in construction are seen digging in the ground. As well, the lyrics refer to someone working the nightshift: “I believe in today. It’s better that way when you work through the night.”

The opening lines frame the life of those in the working class: “I work on the front line. I work to survive. I sleep in a fever, so this is my life. I cry in my sleep. It just makes me weep, how I try, how I try…” The workers’ condition is contrast with a chance at romance: “Should I ask you to dance? If I promised romance would you come for the ride?…. Do you believe in love that lasts for all time?” The romance takes the worker to a new height, out of the drudgery of their toil: “You take me up to the higher ground. You take me up so high. Now I never want to come back down.”

“You Take Me Up” reached #5 in Toronto, #10 in Boston, and Cleveland, and #12 in Montreal. Internationally, it peaked at #2 in the UK, #5 in Ireland, and #14 across Europe. However, in North America it stalled in Canada at #28 and #44 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A fourth single from Into the Gap, “Sister of Mercy” – a song about domestic abuse – charted to #11 in the UK. Later in 1984, the Thomson Twins song “If You Were Here” appeared in the teen coming-of-age film Sixteen Candles. 

In late 1984, the Thompson Twins released the album Here’s to Future Days. From the album came “Lay Your Hands On Me”. It climbed to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, #8 in Canada, #13 in the UK, and #17 in New Zealand. The song was included in the 1985 film Perfect starring John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis. The Thompson Twins next released an anti-drug song warning of the dangers of drug addiction. It was titled “Don’t Mess with Doctor Dream”. The single climbed to #5 in Sweden, #12 in New Zealand, #13 in Italy, #15 in the UK, and #17 in Australia. Another track from Here’s to Future Days was “King for a Day”. It topped the pop charts in both New Zealand and Sweden. Elsewhere, it reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, #12 in Canada, and #20 in Australia. The song was later included in the film Lucas, a coming-of-age romantic sports comedy-drama.

After the release of Here’s to Future Days, John Leeway left the band. After leaving the Thompson Twins, Leeway dabbled in solo work. He recorded a demo tape of original material, but ultimately an album never materialized. He appeared in the 1989 James Ivory film Slaves of New York as musician Johnny Jalouse. Subsequently, Leeway has worked in sound design for films, and in commercials including Nike and Pepsi. As of 2026, Joe Leeway is living and working in Los Angeles. He was on the staff at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute (HMI) and is a certified trainer in neuro-linguistic programming.

Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie carried on as a duo. In 1986, the Bailey and Currie wrote the theme song for the comedy film Nothing in Common. The single was a minor hit that stalled at #54 on the Hot 100. In 1987, the album Close to the Bone was released. The single “Get That Love” reached #10 in France. In 1988, a re-mix of “In The Name of Love” topped the Billboard Dance/Club Play chart for the second time. In 1989, the single from the album Big Trash titled “Sugar Daddy” peaked at #2 on the Billboard Dance/Club Play chart.

In 1991, the Thompson Twins released their eighth and final studio album titled Queer. “Come Inside” was a Top Ten hit on the Dance/Club Play chart in the USA. Meanwhile, the Thompson Twins were invited to contribute a track for the soundtrack of the animated film Cool World. The single “Play With Me” was a Top Ten dance hit in both the UK and USA in 1992.

In 1993, Bailey and Currie formed a duo they called Babble. They released two albums and also cracked the Top Ten on the US dance charts twice in the mid-90s. The pair had been in a relationship since the early 80s. Bailey and Currie got married in 1991 and had two children, Indie and Jackson. They moved to New Zealand, but they divorced in 2003. In a 2008 Guardian interview, Currie explained: “Tom and I were together for 23 years. Somewhere along the way, we had become good friends rather than lovers. Then, in 2004, I fell crazily in love with Jimmy [Cauty, formerly one half of the KLF] and took the plunge by moving back to England. It was the beginning of some sort of freedom for me.”

While in New Zealand, Alannah Currie worked primarily as a glass artist and environmental activist. She was the founder of the women’s anti-genetic engineering movement Mothers Against Genetic Engineering in Food and the Environment (MAdGE). In 2003 she designed a series of protest billboards that caused controversy in New Zealand and won several international art and science awards.

In 2004 she returned to London where she works under the name Miss Pokeno and makes art that fuses “joyful dissent” with disruptive and uncomfortable narratives. Her practice plays on the boundary between the humorous and threatening, as with the (semi-) mythological militant feminists The Sisters of Perpetual Resistance and the Armchair Destructivists.

From 2014 onwards, Bailey has lived in France with his second wife, artist Lauren Drescher. He has homes in New Zealand, France, and London. Bailey is a vegan and has said he does not drink alcohol nor use recreational drugs.

September 30, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
“To die for,” Guardian, April 26, 2008.
Stephanie Stephens, “Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey: Gives ‘100 Percent’ to New Music, New Tour,” Parade, July 17, 2018.
“Joe Leeway,” Wikipedia.org.

Toronto’s Top Singles CHUM 1050-AM Toronto (ON) | October 27, 1984