Before David A. Stewart became so famous with Eurythmics that he could appear with French teenage sensation Vanessa Paradis (shorty after her making a record with the iconic Serge Gainsbourg in her songwriting team) he had been in New Wave pop group The Tourists, scoring some minor hits on Logo records until a cover of Dusty Springfield’s I Only Want To Be With You made it to No.4 on the UK chart in 1979.  This was followed by So Good To Be Back Home Again reaching No.8 but by 1980 they had broken up – Annie Lennox and Stewart going on to huge international success with Eurythmics for the next 10 years.

The Tourists had released one single on Logo as The Catch before they changed their name but in the early seventies Stewart was a member of Folk Rock group Longdancer making two albums for Elton John’s Rocket Records – If It Was So Simple in 1973 and Trailer For A Good Life in 1974 – Too Much Too Soon comes from the first album. The band was like an English Crosby Stills And Nash formed by Stewart and Brian Harrison and adding additional singer/guitarists Steve Sproxton and Kai Olsson. (The clip shows the band as a three piece, the picture a four piece with Stewart playing bass). Olsson left before the second album replaced by Matt Irving on keyboards  and Charlie Smith on drums. Despite their harmonies and their enjoyable songs it simply didn’t happen for Longdancer and they disbanded after the second album.

After Longdancer split Olsson made a solo album, Harrisson and Smith played with folkies Robin and Barry Dransfield before Smith joined Blue with former Marmalade member Hugh Nicholson. Irving recorded with Ex Winkie Philip Rambow (Eno’s short lived backing band around Here Come The Warm Jets) before joining Lords Of The New Church. When you see Stewart as a boy in this classic archival footage, he could never have dreamed that he could rise from the streets of Sunderland to fame and fortune, so famous that he found himself on the television singing a Lou Reed song with a French starlet.

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/longdancer-mn0001009168

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Stewart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tourists

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurythmics