Thomas Dolby Retrospective

A couple weeks back, I finally got to see Thomas Dolby in his element. The last time I saw Thomas was in 2001 – and it was a bit of an awkward goodbye, as I was leaving his company Beatnik for my new job at Korg.

We had worked in the same office for a couple years, but never really spent much time together as I was in the engineering/software team, working mostly remote. On my last day, I visited him in his office – and with some trepidation, told him how influential his music had been for me, especially Golden Age Of Wireless – and that his songwriting and storytelling had always inspired me. I’m not sure what response I was expecting – but perhaps admitting I was a fan was a bit of a miscalculation. He was silent. I asked if I had made him uncomfortable and he answered me no, but that he was just wondering what all that had to do with the work we had been doing at Beatnik. In hindsight, I could see that he was compartmentalizing the “famous musician” part of his life, as he was trying to accomplish something completely different in a new field. And perhaps it sounded to him like I was saying “maybe you should try getting back to that other thing you were so good at” – which certainly wasn’t my intention. Beatnik did eventually dissolve when the dot com bubble burst, but not before significantly contributing to the musicification of cell phones everywhere.

Fast forward nearly 25 years to Thomas Dolby’s sold out show at Bimbo’s 365 – his “Iconic 80’s Recollections Tour”.

I didn’t try reaching out to Thomas to get on a guest list – I’m not sure he’d recognize or even remember me. It was with very low expectations that I approached the evening, never having had a chance to see him perform back in the day. Turns out, he put on an amazing production. One of the best live synth performances I’ve ever seen, up there with the 1984 Howard Jones solo show that changed my life – but that’s a story for another day.  

Thomas’ genius for melody and storytelling were on full display. He opened the set with a cover of Blue Monday, singing through a vocoder and playing a handheld Roli keyboard with light-up keys – instantly evoking his mad scientist image of yore. He then proceeded to run through the highlights of his musical career, interleaving the music with stories filled with both humor and pathos, and projecting videos and photos up on the screen. All of the songs were somewhat reinterpreted – but all masterfully produced and performed. One Of Our Submarines was particularly amazing, accompanied by photos and video commemorating his uncle’s service as a submarine captain in WW2. 

He shared an amusing anecdote about recording Magnus Pyke (“SCIENCE!”) before launching into his biggest hit, poking some fun at himself with clips of various famous people saying the song’s tagline. One of the highlights of the night was an incredibly moving tribute to David Bowie featuring his performance of Heroes with Bowie at Live Aid 1985. He closed out the night with a beautiful minimalist version of Airwaves. 

He was driving the show from a MacBook Pro running Logic, playing a couple MIDI controller keyboards from Roland and M Audio and triggering samples from an Akai pad controller. Alas, no Korg gear in sight!  A fun moment for music nerds was when he projected his laptop onto the big screen as he pieced together a live looping session of Hyperactive – the notes appearing on screen as he laid down each track to build up the full groove. 

It was an added bonus when half way through the set, he invited out Jakko Jakszyk from King Crimson to accompany him on guitar. Wasn’t expecting that pairing! Thomas explained that King Crimson’s tour was just cancelled due to visa issues, but Jakko had just flown in, his visa being in good order- and Thomas invited him to join him that night without any rehearsal. Jakko was a professional, with interesting and tasteful contributions throughout, all performed with a gorgeous PRS guitar and a Helix Floor.

Thomas complained that he was a bit under the weather, and I later heard that he had to cancel some dates due to sickness. So I felt very fortunate to have been there, and to (mostly) supersede the memory of that last awkward conversation with the experience of Thomas’ exceptional performance.