| Peet Coombes | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1952 |
| Origin | Sunderland |
| Died | 1997 |
| Years active | 1970s–1997 |
| Associated acts | the Tourists, The Catch, Longdancer |
Peet Coombes (1952–1997) was the guitarist and vocalist with Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart in the two pre-Eurythmics bands, The Catch, who only released one single, "Borderline/Black Blood" (1977, Logo) and the Tourists, who had quite a few UK hits in the late '70s. Many of The Tourists' songs were written by Peet.
Born in Bradford but spent most of his early life in Sunderland, Coombes befriended Stewart prior to the latter's romance with Lennox. Although the Tourists were moderately successful in 1978-9, by the release of their third album, artistic differences were emerging between Stewart and Coombes, particularly as the former wanted to go more in the direction of the synth-pop sound that the early Eurythmics would prefer.
Coombes and Singapore-born bassist Eddie Chin decided to form a group called 'Acid Drops' but it was not successful. Coombes lived in poverty during most of the 1980s and was effectively retired from the music scene. Lennox and Stewart were reunited at his funeral in 1997, following a premature death from years of alcohol and drug problems. Coombes left two sons Joey and Robin Coombes who formed the hip hop group Task Force.
He spent 1992-1995 working in Cornwall with amateur producer and bassist Andy Brown and his wife Cathy with Dave Farghally as drummer. The band was known as Diminished Responsibility and some of his finest work was recorded during this period, tapes of which exist still but were never commercially exploited due to his illness.