Eurythmics - Richard Johnson

The Eurythmics seemed to be consigned to technopop history when they split up in 1990. Then Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox went and won the Lifetime Achievement Award at The Brits in February, and performed a medley of their greatest hits. "Annie came out with this nice quote" says Stewart. "She was asked if the Eurythmics were a revival band. She said 'No, we're a survival band'. We never officially broke up as a duo. We just took a long time off. We got asked to play a couple of times and tumbled into the idea of writing." The result of that writing is Peace - the first original Eurythmics album since We Too Are One.

Time apart has done them good. Lennox released the successful solo albums Diva and Medusa, while Stewart went off to record with Vegas and the Spiritual Cowboys. "Now Annie has done separate things" says Stewart, "she's got more a lot more confidence. So the balance of the Eurythmics has become more equal. The time off was good for my confidence too. It was great when Brian Eno said 'You're my favourite guitar player' - and I'm 'What?' I'm there just noodling about. And I played with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. They're going 'I've never heard anybody get that sound from a guitar'. It was all nice to hear."

Sitting in The Church [the recording studio Stewart has owned since 1982] Lennox sips raw ginger in hot water to relax her throat. Like Stewart, she's a confirmed vegan. The pair don't seem 'technopop' any more. "We used to play everything from a battery-operated synthesizer to a guitar from Woolworths" says Stewart. In contrast, the new album feels pleasingly under-produced. From the Burt Bacharach feel of I Saved The World Today to the jangling guitar sound on I Want It All, Peace lets the songs really breathe. "And lyrically" says Stewart, "there's a theme. Out of bleakness there is hope. Or vice versa. Life is never Disneyland. Peace is about that, crystallised."

The Church is a converted chapel in a leafy suburb of north London. The ornate stained-glass windows around us are still intact, but the studio is state-of-the-art. Stewart has installed four ISDN lines for playing directly onto the web. And new video monitors allow him to write music to accompany moving images - he recently completed the score for the Robert Altman movie, Cookie's Fortune. In the corner sits a huge statue of Buddha. Lennox is a Buddhist, and the idea for the album title came from her meeting with the Dalai Lama. "He said the one thing we're all looking for is peace" she says. "It's the one thing that connects everybody. It seems appropriate."

Stewart and Lennox seem to have found their inner peace. In the song 17 Again, Lennox talks about the journey that they have both made to get there - wandering through what she calls "the valley of stars". "On the way you see things you can't imagine" says Stewart. "I've been at a party in Texas where they were handing out cocaine on silver trays. I've seen Sam [from Sam and Dave] get up on stage in LA to sing with Annie. And I've seen Bob Dylan, with all his mastiffs jumping up, pick up my little boy Django with the sun streaming through his hair. That is walking through the valley of stars. That's exactly what we've done to get here today."



		Eurythmics The Eurythmics seemed to be consigned to technopop history when they split up in 1990. Then Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox went and won the Lifetime Achievement Award at The Brits in February, and performed a medley of their greatest hits. "Annie came out with this nice quote" says Stewart. "She was asked if the Eurythmics were a revival band. She said 'No, we're a survival band'. We never officially broke up as a duo. We just took a long time off. We got asked to play a couple of times and tumbled into the idea of writing." The result of that writing is Peace - the first original Eurythmics album since We Too Are One. Time apart has done them good. Lennox released the successful solo albums Diva and Medusa, while Stewart went off to record with Vegas and the Spiritual Cowboys. "Now Annie has done separate things" says Stewart, "she's got more a lot more confidence. So the balance of the Eurythmics has become more equal. The time off was good for my confidence too. It was great when Brian Eno said 'You're my favourite guitar player' - and I'm 'What?' I'm there just noodling about. And I played with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. They're going 'I've never heard anybody get that sound from a guitar'. It was all nice to hear." Sitting in The Church [the recording studio Stewart has owned since 1982] Lennox sips raw ginger in hot water to relax her throat. Like Stewart, she's a confirmed vegan. The pair don't seem 'technopop' any more. "We used to play everything from a battery-operated synthesizer to a guitar from Woolworths" says Stewart. In contrast, the new album feels pleasingly under-produced. From the Burt Bacharach feel of I Saved The World Today to the jangling guitar sound on I Want It All, Peace lets the songs really breathe. "And lyrically" says Stewart, "there's a theme. Out of bleakness there is hope. Or vice versa. Life is never Disneyland. Peace is about that, crystallised." The Church is a converted chapel in a leafy suburb of north London. The ornate stained-glass windows around us are still intact, but the studio is state-of-the-art. Stewart has installed four ISDN lines for playing directly onto the web. And new video monitors allow him to write music to accompany moving images - he recently completed the score for the Robert Altman movie, Cookie's Fortune. In the corner sits a huge statue of Buddha. Lennox is a Buddhist, and the idea for the album title came from her meeting with the Dalai Lama. "He said the one thing we're all looking for is peace" she says. "It's the one thing that connects everybody. It seems appropriate." Stewart and Lennox seem to have found their inner peace. In the song 17 Again, Lennox talks about the journey that they have both made to get there - wandering through what she calls "the valley of stars". "On the way you see things you can't imagine" says Stewart. "I've been at a party in Texas where they were handing out cocaine on silver trays. I've seen Sam [from Sam and Dave] get up on stage in LA to sing with Annie. And I've seen Bob Dylan, with all his mastiffs jumping up, pick up my little boy Django with the sun streaming through his hair. That is walking through the valley of stars. That's exactly what we've done to get here today."

		© Richard Johnson 2000 - 2009