Die Thompson Twins formierten sich im April 1977 in Sheffield, ursprünglich aus den Bandmitgliedern Tom Bailey (Bass/Gesang), Pete Dodd (Gitarre und Gesang), John Roog (Gitarre), und Jon "Pod" Podgorski (Schlagzeug). Sie bestritten zwei Jahre lang hauptsächlich Liveauftritte, dann zogen sie nach London und bekamen hier Kontakt zur Hausbesetzer-Szene. Sie wurden dort ein Teil einer „linken Bewegung“. Der Name Thompson Twins wurde nach den zwei bekannten Detektiven Schulze und Schultze (im Englischen „Thomson und Thompson“) aus der Comicserie Tim und Struppi von Hergé gewählt. Remastered and pressed on 180g vinyl this special edition has initial pressings on NEON YELLOW vinyl. With a newly designed inner bag this is the first of our Thompson Twins re-issues. Originally released in February 1983, Quick Step & Side Kick was the bands first album as a trimmed down trio of Tom Bailey, Alannah Cur-rie and Joe Leeway. Produced by Alex Sadkin the album was recorded at Island Records Chris Blackwells Compass point Studio's in the Bahamas. Grace Jones a frequent user of the studios makes a guest appearance on the track 'Watching', though her vocals were not in the final mix used as the single version. The album was released in numerous versions across the World and the cassette version of the UK Editions featured a host of extra 12inch mixes. Many of these will feature in our 2LP deluxe edition due out in 2016 which will contain brand new sleeve notes by Tom Bailey. The album contains four singles' 'Lies' a No1 USA Dance hit and the two Top 10 UK hits 'Love On Your Side' and 'We Are Detective'. "Watching' the final single from the album reached 33 in the UK chart. The band took their name from two characters in Belgian cartoonist Herge's comic strip 'The Adventures of Tintin'. Thomson and Thomp-son were two incompetent detectives who though not related looked identical save for different shaped moustaches. With a fluid line up which at times reached upto 7 members on stage, a change in musical direction took Tom Bailey, Alannah Curry and Joe Leway in a more mainstream direction than those of the early days of the first two albums; A Product of...(Participation) and Set which where were far more experimental, than Quick Step or anything that followed. Chart success in the UK and Europe and in the USA soon followed and set the band on what proved to be their most successful global selling period.