The Tourists were a British rock and pop band. They achieved brief success in the late 1970s before the band split in 1980. Two of its members, singer Annie Lennox and guitarist Dave Stewart, went on to international success as Eurythmics.
Early history
Guitarists Peet Coombes and Dave Stewart were members of the folk rock band Longdancer, They moved to London, where they met Scottish singer Annie Lennox, who had dropped out of a course at the Royal Academy of Music to pursue her ambitions in pop music. and "So Good to Be Back Home Again" (1980), both of which reached the top 10 in the UK. The group disbanded in late 1980. but this met with little success, and Coombes, despite originally being the main artistic force behind The Tourists, drifted out of the music business after the disbanding.
Lennox and Stewart soon split as a couple, but decided to continue working as an experimental musical partnership, under the name Eurythmics.
They retained their RCA recording contract and links with Conny Plank, who produced their first album In the Garden in 1981.
Coombes' death in March 1997 acted as a catalyst for Lennox and Stewart to revive their friendship and musical partnership, after they had previously disbanded Eurythmics in 1990.
Drummer Jim Toomey (no longer using his "Do It" nickname) published the book We Were Tourists in 2018, describing the band's career.
Bassist Eddie Chin died in 2023.
Members
- Peet Coombes – vocals, guitar
- David A. Stewart – guitar, backing vocals
- Annie Lennox – vocals, keyboards
- Eddie Chin – bass guitar
- Jim "Do It" Toomey<!-- This is how he is billed on all Tourists releases. Do not change this. --> – drums
Discography
Albums
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Title
!UK<br>
!AUS<br>
!SWE<br>
! scope="col" style="width:12em;"| Certifications
|-
| rowspan="2" |1979
|The Tourists
|align="center"|72
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|Reality Effect
|align="center"|23
|align="center"|62
|align="center"|45
|
|-
|1980
|Luminous Basement
|align="center"|75
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|1984
|Should Have Been Greatest Hits
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|1997
|Greatest Hits
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|colspan="8" style="font-size:80%" align="center" | "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.
|-
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Title
!UK<br>
!USA<br>
! scope="col" style="width:12em;"| Certifications
!Album
|-
|rowspan="3"|1979
|"Blind Among the Flowers"
|align="center"|52
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|
|rowspan="2"|The Tourists
|-
|"The Loneliest Man in the World"
|align="center"|32
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|"I Only Want to Be with You"
|align="center"|4
|align="center"|6
|align="center"|50
|align="center"|13
|align="center"|83
|
- UK: Gold
|rowspan="2"|Reality Effect
|-
|rowspan="3"|1980
|"So Good to Be Back Home Again"
|align="center"|8
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|9
|align="center"|—
|
|-
|"Don't Say I Told You So"
|align="center"|40
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|
|Luminous Basement
|-
|"From the Middle Room"
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|
|Promo single
|-
|colspan="9" style="font-size:80%" align="center" | "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.
|-
|}