Ex-Thompson Twins leader Tom Bailey is glad to acknowledge he was part of a golden age of synthesizer pop. “You have to admit that every era has its little golden age, it’s partly a demographic thing. Everybody’s interested in the music they heard growing up. But there was also a revolution in technology, and that brought new developments in songwriting. So you got people like us, Gary Numan, Eurythmics and Duran Duran. And I think you can objectively say that it’s all stood the test of time.”

It doesn’t get more ‘80s than the “Totally Tubular” tour, which hits the MGM on the Fenway Wednesday. Bailey, who is now solo, will co-headline with a set of Thompson Twins hits; also on the bill are Thomas Dolby, the Romantics, Bow Wow Wow , Modern English, Men Without Hats and a new lineup of the Plimsouls.

Bailey says that the one artist on the tour he previously knew was Dolby, who inadvertently changed the Thompson Twins’ musical direction. Initially they were a six-piece, guitar-driven band; then Dolby came to the studio and brought his synthesizer. “He played a few parts on our second album, and then I was dying to get my hands on one. As it turned out we needed another track for the album so I said ‘Give me the synthesizer and I’ll come up with something.’ And that was ‘In the Name of Love’ which became the big track — almost to the embarrassment of the band because I had done it on my own.”

That group broke up soon afterward, and the Thompson Twins found their most famous lineup with singer/visual artist Alannah Currie and percussionist/dancer Joe Leeway; with Bailey largely taking charge of the musical side. “We had three different departments, my job was the music. Alannah wrote lyrics but was most interested in the visual side. And Joe who had a theater background, pursued the design of the live show. That was an unusual setup but somehow it worked.”

Bailey and Currie’s being a couple wound up leading to their greatest hit. “We had a terrible argument, then made up and became friends again, and then wrote ‘Hold Me Now’ — that wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t been a couple. We knew we were onto something really good with that song, it came out of the real experience. That’s why it has a powerful authenticity and an emotional payload. So we released that as a single before we finished the album.” But it didn’t lead to a string of ballad hits for the Thompson Twins, who got deeper into dance music instead. “There’s always  the pressure to do ‘Hold Me Now Part 2,’ that can lead you down an interesting pathway, but you might not want to go there. We were always  interested in dance remixes and were one of the first to do it. The idea that there was not one version of a song but several — That anticipates the postmodern, deconstructionist idea.”

Bailey and Currie formed another group, Babble after the Thompson Twins disbanded, but they’ve since divorced and gone separate ways. Bailey got into film music and didn’t play his old hits for 27 years. But he was finally booked into the UK’s 80s-themed Rewind Festival in 2014 and has been going strong ever since.

“Sometimes it’s nice to have that background of pop success that gives you the opportunity to indulge in less commercial areas. I left the pop music mainstream and to be honest, I thought I was never coming back. It was a case of dipping my toe back into the water, and it’s been a blast.”

The Thompson Twins’ Alannah Currie, left, and Tom Bailey perform during the 1985 Live Aid concert for famine relief at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/George Widman)