Tours

In 1979, there was a buzz about Tours that made them one of the hottest properties in the music industry. John Peel played the self-released "Language School" single for 50 consecutive nights on Radio 1, declaring it at the time his second favourite 45 of all time behind the Undertones "Teenage Kicks". The band were tracked down to Poole, Dorset by labels including Virgin, Polydor/Fiction, EMI, Sire and others -and a feeding frenzy ensued. Signed personally to Virgin by Richard Branson on a £225,000 six-album deal, the dual singer-songwriter attack of Ronnie Mayor (rhythm guitar/vocals) and Richard Mazda (lead guitar/vocals) led Virgin CEO Simon Draper to describe the pair as "the Punk Lennon-McCartney". 

1980 should have been Tours’ year. Boasting a killer live show and incredible strength in depth, they had a seemingly endless collection of two-minute pop classics. Yet the band were doomed never to make it to 1980, torn apart by a conflict of egos and by a deep mistrust of industry dabbling with the band’s line-up and sound. Only one single on Virgin was ever released -the mighty "Tourist Information". Having sold 13,000 copies of "Language School" under their own steam, it seemed obvious that a company like Virgin would do better. In the event, their efforts to promote "Tourist Information" were pathetic. The unreleased songs were lost -the band mythologised on countless compilations and, more recently, the internet Power Pop scene- until 2009. Derek Hammond spent 18 months sourcing the the long-lost Tours tapes and getting the album into production. [SOURCE: RETRO MAN BLOG]