Career
Many of The Tourists" songs were written by Coombes. Born in Bradford, but spending 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 1978-1979, 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 synthpop sound that the early Eurythmics would go on to have success with.
Coombes and Singapore-born bassist Eddie Chinese decided to form a group called Acid Drops but it was not successful.
Coombes lived in London during most of the 1980s and was effectively retired from the music scene. The band was known as Diminished Responsibility, and though tapes exist of their work, it was never commercially exploited due to his illness.
He died in 1997 following years of alcohol and drug problems. Lennox and Stewart were not present at his funeral.
Coombes left two sons Joey and Robin Coombes who formed the hip hop group Task Force.