We Were Tourists

By Jim Toomey

Jim Toomey was already a successful drummer when he became a part of a new group, The Tourists, in the late seventies. He formed the group with Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart, Peet Coombes and Eddie Chin.
From their early beginnings in London, finding their sound and their voice, through their success, their recordings, TV appearances, and their tours across the world, this is the story of The Tourists, told by the man sitting behind the drums.
In a series of anecdotes and tales of the band’s journey, we gain insight into the inner workings of a successful band; the fun and success, but also the work, the creativity, the pressures of seemingly endless tours, the good and the bad sides of the business, and the all too familiar trajectory of a band which sowed the seeds of music which endure 40 years later.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781528909099

Jim Toomey

Jim Toomey is an advisory board member of the Blue Frontier Campaign and the cartoonist of Sherman's Lagoon, a widely popular comic strip now appearing in more than 250 newspapers. He is also the author of A Day at the Beach. Toomey lives in Maryland.

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Index

About the Author

Having spent his entire life touring and travelling the world, Jim Toomey has finally settled down in Brisbane, Australia where he now lives with his young family.

Still playing occasional gigs in a jazz and blues trio, Jim has recently turned to writing and does some acting work, appearing as an extra in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Turning professional in 1965 at the height of the beat boom in England, he survived the hippie revolution and highs and lows of life as a rock musician in a variety of bands. Jim was a founder member and drummer in The Tourists from day one.

Dedication

To Tomoko Oka

Copyright Information ©

Jim Toomey (2018)

The right of Jim Toomey to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Every effort has been made to trace other copyright holders. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful to be notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of the book.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781786935526 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781786935533 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781786935540 (E-Book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2018)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5LQ

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge:

The late Peter Coombes – the writer of nearly all the songs we ever played.

Eddie Chinn – one of the nicest people on the planet and bass man through and through.

Dave Stewart – the most eccentric and crazy person I ever met, one of the best guitarists, songwriters and producers in the world.

And of course the amazing Annie Lennox – the singer and writer of beautiful songs, the weaver of dreams, the world peace advocate.

Also, the many friends that helped the band in the early days. David Wernham, Alistair Crawford, Olaf Wyper, Jeff Hannington, Lloyd Beiny, Dave Wright.

Celia Shafron, Nassim Khalifa, Paul Jacobs, Ms Penny Blue, Katherine Wilkins De Francis, Ralph Denyer.Chris Howell.

The production team at my publishing company Austin Macauley. With special thanks to Connor Browne for his belief in my story and help with my incoherent scribbles. Also the staff at XIX Entertainment and Steve Gayler at The Ultimate Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart Fan Club. Also, Pavel Jary for his help and input. Lastly I would like to acknowledge my wife Tomoko Oka for putting up with me and for her invaluable help and support.

Foreword

By Dave Stewart

I first met up with Jim Toomey when I stumbled into a studio in Tin Pan Alley in London high on Psilocybin Mushrooms mixed with amphetamines and a handful of Moroccan hashish as a calming agent. I’d been up all night and feeling a little worse for wear, but as always I managed somehow to appear relatively straight – or so I thought!

Annie and I were inseparable and had just come from the squat we were living in North London above our mate’s record shop (which was also a squat). I already knew that Annie and I were going to do something magical together but this wasn’t the time or place, we had to work hard, pay our dues and patiently wait.

Jim was and still is a very upbeat positive person, he’s been round the block a few times but he was a very professional drummer and later I found out he also knew how to make mushroom tea and hash cookies!

Jim also knew how to use a lighting system and often operated the spotlight for his girlfriend Penny Blue, a legendary London striptease artist, which I found highly impressive.

Annie and I traveling around the world performing as The Tourists probably had a completely different experience to the others (Peet Coombes, Jim Toomey and Eddie Chin) because we were a couple and did everything together. Annie was the only girl and we were often crammed in a van driving overnight, zig-zagging around the USA, Europe and Australia trying to keep sane and stay alive! Our relationship as a couple was put through the most insane tests of endurance yet somehow we got through it, even surviving drunken pilot flights in the Caribbean, plane wings catching fire in Australia, but most of all surviving the crazy journey of being a Tourist.

The music business sucked – it still does – there were and are sharks everywhere, at least back in those days you could see them. Now they are hidden behind giant corporate walls using tiny robots to do their dirty work.

I’m so glad Jim is alive happy and has a family. He’s still playing drums in Brisbane, as enthusiastic as ever (you should go watch him). Positivity is the best youth serum for sure and Jim has plenty of it!

What Jim will reveal in this book is a drummer’s eyewitness account. Sometimes his view may have been blurred by the cymbals and a few shots of neat alcohol or maybe a knife blade full of cocaine, but he kept whacking those things night after night and I’m grateful for it. I learned so much playing countless gigs with Jim in The Tourists, from tiny clubs to major concert halls; he nailed it every time. Annie and I are thankfully still alive and well. I leave you with this quote:

That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Preface

Andy Warhol once famously said, In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes Well it was our turn I guess, although Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox seem determined to prove him wrong!

We Were Tourists is a classic rags to riches story.

I was lucky enough to be the band’s drummer from day one. We were together for 3 years, selling well over 500,000 singles and over 100,000 albums. Yes I have my gold and silver discs on my wall, frozen in time, like Warhol’s ducks in flight.

The following story is totally as it happened, or as close to it as I can remember.

The Magic Bus

Dolly Parton’s bus was a bit like a motel.

The only difference being of course it moved.

We had TV – Video – Mega sound system – Lounge – Kitchen – Sleeping bunks, and our very own southern gentleman bus driver complete with CB radio and racist attitude. The tour of America had been going forever. Starting in New York we did well in the clubs and pulled off a good recording which was broadcast as a live gig. Reviews were good but we were immediately wrongly described as one of the new English punk bands. The Pretenders and The Police who were also slogging round the clubs at that time suffered the same fate. We went upstate and did well in places like Boston playing mostly to university kids but as we moved further away from the east coast the crowd’s attitude seemed to change. The Midwest was not ready for punk bands it seemed. We played some tough places on that tour, but we soldiered on. Annie was amazing and completely took over the stage some nights becoming almost aggressive in her attitude, turning the negative energy back on the crowds.

So now here we were in Texas. The distance between gigs was so great the road crew and band had to travel at night to keep to the schedule. Hence Ms. Parton’s bus. We would come off stage and pile into the bus to travel through the night to the next gig, this madness had been going on for a week or so. One particular night it was Peet’s birthday and Annie had decorated the bus with balloons and streamers. I think by then we were in Colorado. We pulled away from the gig and travelled and partied through the night. I can remember all of us singing the old pub song ‘Show Me the Way to Go Home’ and Dave and I speaking