Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox, prior to forming Eurythmics, were members of 1970s power pop group The Tourists, who scored a big hit in Australia in 1979 with I Only Want to Be with You.
During their tour of Australia in 1980, The Tourists split, and while in a Wagga Wagga hotel room, Stewart and Lennox started playing around with a mini-synthesiser, and writing songs that would lead to the formation of Eurythmics.
“What happened was The Tourist guitarist Peet Coombes, who wrote all the songs for the group, got sick, and he had to go back to England,” Dave Stewart said of that career-changing moment.
“Annie and I were in the hotel room and I brought in my suitcase, which had this tiny little miniature sort of plastic synthesiser, and we started messing around with it.
“And from that, we kind of vaguely had this idea that if just the two of us were writing songs, it could be quite good.”
Eurythmics went on to have hit after hit during the ’80s before the duo decided to take a break in 1990, before returning in the late ’90s.
Lennox later retired from touring to focus on other projects.
Last year, Stewart brought Australia’s own Vanessa Amorosi in to fill Lennox’s place, and Eurythmics returned to performing live again.
“Vanessa and I had been messing around playing and writing songs just as friends since she first came to Los Angeles,” Dave said.
“Now we’ve done now something like 60 to 70 gigs, playing all the Eurythmics songs.
“She’s incredible, and one of the greatest voices I’ve ever recorded.”
Dave recently also released a Bob Dylan covers album titled Dave Does Dylan, which pays homage to one of his musical heroes.
“When I was a kid, I had two Bob Dylan albums, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and Another Side of Bob Dylan,” he said.
“And I was just fascinated with the lyrics.
“So, I used to sing these songs when I was 16 in folk clubs in my home town of Sunderland in England.”
The album was recorded in between shows and while in hotel rooms, using just an acoustic guitar, a mic and an iPhone.
“I just started doing this album for fun while I was on tour,” he said.
“So, it’s just live takes, pure and unedited.”
Will we see Eurythmics heading down under in the near future?
“Yes,” Dave said.
Music news
Pop-punk group All Time Low will release their tenth album, Everyone’s Talking!, on October 17.
The group have sold more than 3.5 million albums in the US alone and have earned over five billion streams worldwide to date.
After 24 years since their last tour of Australia, Scottish alternative rock band Travis have announced their return to Australian shores in January 2026 with The Man Who in Concert.
The tour will see the group perform their classic album The Man Who in full, along with other fan favourites from their storied career.
During Garbage’s current run of dates through the US, lead singer Shirley Manson announced the group would be quitting touring due to “the thievery of the record industry”.
Former Spice Girl Melanie C has revealed she has a new solo album on the way and a tour in the works.
Thrash metal pioneers Megadeth have announced they will be releasing their final studio album and embarking on a farewell tour in 2026.
This week in music history
In 1985, Money For Nothing by Dire Straits hit the No.1 spot in the US where it stayed for three weeks.
In 1993, Nirvana scored their first No.1 album in the UK with In Utero, which was the band’s third and final studio album. It also went to No.1 in the US.
In 2011, alt-rock band R.E.M. announced they were calling it a day after more than 30 years together as a band.
The view from here
I was reading an article the other day that stated MP3 players were undergoing a resurgence.
I know I’ve discussed the resurgence of vinyl in one of my past columns, but reading this latest article just affirmed further the long-held theory there is a cyclic pattern of 20 years where, in particular, music and fashion all undergo a resurgence and a kind of reinvention of what was popular 20 years earlier.
Our desire for nostalgia seems to be one of the key ingredients that drives this cycle.
MP3 players were popular in the early 2000s before the onset of smartphones and streaming platforms such as Spotify put an end to the MP3 player.
So, what could be driving this newfound interest in such as obsolete unit? It must be more than just a nostalgic trip?
Is it a reaction against the algorithms that seem to influence our lives so heavily today?
When it comes to our listening habits, is returning to that little MP3 player allowing us to regain the control over what we choose to listen to rather than being influenced by some computer algorithm?
I’ll be curious to hear from readers as to what their views are on this subject.
Is there something you’d like to see make a comeback?
This week’s global music charts
The No.1 single this week in Australia, the US and the UK is Golden by HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna & REI AMI.
Fun fact
The short bass solo heard on Paul Simon’s 1986 hit You Can Call Me Al is actually a two-bar phrase where the first bar is played forward and then for the second bar, what you hear is the same bar backwards, which was achieved by putting the recording tape in the studio in reverse.
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