Eurythmics
Pop / New Wave
The pair had first worked together as members of The Tourists. During this time, they were also romantic partners. This band achieved modest commercial success, but the experience was reportedly an unhappy one. Personal and musical tensions existed within the group (whose main songwriter was Pete Coombes), the band often received very negative critical press in the UK, there were legal wranglings with the band's management, publishers and record labels. Lennox and Stewart felt the fixed band line-up was not a good vehicle to explore their experimental creative leanings.
Lennox and Stewart decided their next project should be much more flexible and free from artistic compromise. They were interested in creating 'pop music', but wanted freedom to experiment with electronics and the avant-garde as well. Calling themselves "Eurythmics" (a re-spelling on a classical dance technique Lennox had encountered as a child), they decided to keep themselves as the only permanent members and songwriters, and involve others in the collaboration as they saw fit "on the basis of mutual compatibility and availability". RCA Records decided to retain the pair from their Tourists recording contract. Wanting to concentrate on their musical relationship, Lennox and Stewart decided to discontinue their romantic liaison in 1980.
|