The Tourists - Reality Effect

The 1980 North American version of Reality Effect (for this is what’s on offer this evening) messed about with the running order and included three songs previously released only in the U.K.; the British singles "Blind Among The Flowers", "The Loneliest Man In The World" and the album track "Fool's Paradise" yet removed two songs “Something In The Air Tonight” and “Summers Night” which were released on the U.K. version of the album, released the autumn of 1979. The new songs found the group rocking harder for the most part and incorporating such influences as Jefferson Airplane, with lead singers Annie Lennox and Pete Coombes playing the parts of Grace Slick and Marty Balin. Producer Tom Allom took the band to new heights after a slightly spotty debut. He saddled this album with production gimmicks aplenty, without overdoing it - and with generally better material from Coombes, "Reality Effect" became a classic power pop album. But the standout track was Lennox's reading of Dusty Springfield's 1964 hit "I Only Want To Be With You," which made the U.K. and U.S. singles chart. Also included was the U.K. Top Ten follow-up, the Coombes/Lennox duet "So Good To Be Back Home Again." Actually the singles seem like the least interesting songs offered here, because they're the most commercial.

The Tourists - The Tourists

Although in retrospect, the Tourists are seen almost entirely as the band Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox were in before they formed Eurythmics, the group was in fact more of a showcase for singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter Peet Coombes, who had first worked with Stewart in the folk rock band Longdancer, which was on Elton John's Rocket Records label. They moved to London, where they met Stewart's girlfriend Lennox, who had dropped out of a course at the Royal Academy of Music to pursue her ambitions in pop music, on vocals and occasional keyboards. The new trio dubbed themselves Catch and released one single, "Black Blood," on the Logo label in 1977. Adding bassist Eddie Chin and drummer Jim Toomey, the group re-christened themselves the Tourists and released their first album, The Tourists, in 1978.
The Tourists were a typical British post-punk power-pop group by the evidence of their debut album. Chiming guitars, quickstep martial beats (sometimes borrowing from Bo Diddley or the Ronettes), and the odd rude or belligerent remark ("Nothing means nothing to me," snarled in the first single, "Blind Among the Flowers") placed them in the era of punk hangover when suddenly everybody wanted to sound like the Who, circa 1965. Songwriter and co-lead singer Peet Coombes had a pinched nasal tenor that fit the slightly sour sentiments of songs like "Another English Day" and "Don't Get Left Behind," but, already, the Tourists' secret weapon was Annie Lennox, who tended to overpower Coombes on their duets and helped make the overtly pop "The Loneliest Man in the World" the group's first Top 40 hit.