We Were Tourists, Jim Toomey’s upcoming autobiography will be released on Monday 5th March

Feb 21, 2018

Jim Twoomey We Were Tourists Ultimate Eurythmics

An autobiography by the drummer of one of the UK’s most successful post-punk bands, The Tourists, is due for release in early March 2018.

We Were Tourists by Jim Toomey reflects on the history of the group, who the author joined in 1976, and who also featured Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, who later formed Eurythmics.

I have been privileged in helping Jim source some of the photographs and memorabilia featured in the book, and I look forward to bringing you an interview with Jim next month.

“My book is the story of the three years I spent on the road,” the author explains; “It’s a love story – Annie and Dave became lovers at the time – and it’s also a tragedy, with the untimely passing of Peet Coombes [in 1997], who was the group’s main songwriter.”

Always a keen diarist, Toomey has written his ‘rags-to-riches’ story to share his experiences of being part of what he describes as ‘the ups-and-down of the music industry’.

 

Pre-Order on Amazon

“The band went from being broke and on the dole in London, to find amazing success and travelling the world, recording three albums, the last of which was recorded in the Caribbean at George Martin’s studios,” he adds. “When the band took off in such a big way, I kept all my diaries. When the dust finally settled, I moved to Australia and started writing short stories, which ended up into one long story – so the book wrote itself really.”

The book, which features a foreword by his former bandmate Dave Stewart, also examines Toomey’s performing career before joining The Tourists, which included playing alongside Mick Ronson (the Spiders from Mars) and Colin Blunstone (The Zombies), as well as performing at the legendary Star Club in Hamburg on becoming a professional musician.

We Were Tourists by Jim Toomey is published by Austin Macauley, London on Monday 5th March 2018, and can be pre-ordered via amazon.com and while you wait for it to be come out, enjoy this video of The Tourists on The Old Grey Whistle Test, which is sure to be mentioned on their 3 hour special later this week with Dave Stewart.

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