Peet Coombes
| Peet Coombes | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1952 |
| Origin | Sunderland |
| Died | 1997 |
| Associated acts |
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Peet Coombes (1952–1997) was a British musician, guitarist and vocalist
Musical history, The Catch and The Tourists
Coombes was born in Bradford, England, but spent most of his early life in Sunderland, where he befriended Dave Stewart and a young singer named Annie Lennox. The three formed a post-disco band called The Catch, but only released one single, "Borderline/Black Blood" (1977) before morphing into another band titled The Tourists, who had several UK hits in the late 1970s as the new wave sound was just beginning in Europe. Many of The Tourists' songs were written by Coombes, as he was the strongest writer of the group. Lennox and Stewart also began dating during this period.
By the release of their third album in 1980, artistic differences were emerging between Stewart and Coombes, particularly as Stewart wanted to go more in the direction of the new synthpop sound, and even though Lennox and Stewart had broken up by this point, they still presented a united front, so Coombes left and together they formed as a duo under the name, Eurythmics.
Post-Tourists
Coombes and Singapore-born bassist Eddie Chin decided to form a group called Acid Drops but it was not successful. Coombes then moved to London and during most of the 1980s did not perform anywhere, effectively retiring from the music scene. However, from the years 1992 to 1995 with a renewed spirit he ended up in Cornwall with amateur producer and bassist Andy Brown and his wife Cathy with Dave Farghally as drummer, naming the band Diminished Responsibility, and though tapes exist of their work, it was never commercially released, as by late 1996 Coombes became ill and could no longer perform.
He died almost indigent in 1997 following years of alcohol and drug problems, and has never been credited as an initial driving force in the careers of Stewart and Lennox; they were not present at his funeral. He was only 45.
Coombes left two sons Joey and Robin Coombes who formed the hip hop group Task Force.
External links
- Peet Coombes discography at Discogs