Annie Lennox by Bryony Sutherland

Author:Bryony Sutherland [Ellis, Bryony Sutherland and Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-85712-114-1
Publisher: Music Sales Limited
Published: 1988-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

On December 2, 1983 the British leg of the Touch Tour climaxed with an extra date at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, which was recorded by BBC Radio London and transmitted over the Christmas period. By this point Touch had exceeded all hopeful expectations, shifting over 300,000 copies and remaining in the British charts for six weeks. Riding on the back of its success, Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) made a further appearance at the lower end of the charts and continued to sell steadily, also reaching the 300,000 mark during the year. Around this time Eurythmics won the category for Best New Songwriters Of The Year at the 1983 Ivor Novello Awards.

In spite of the celebrations, Annie could no longer ignore the pain in her throat. “She was continually singing, interviewing and so on for three or four years up to that point, it was just completely manic, you know, the whole schedule,” says Dean. “People around her had got nodes from singing wrongly, and forcing certain things and continual abuse and I think she became quite concerned that she would screw her voice up.”

The situation worsened and Dave was obliged to announce her predicament in interviews, as by then Annie was not allowed to speak. “She seems to have nodules on her throat, which is fairly serious, so she has to rest her voice when she’s not actually on stage,” he told No 1. “Actually, it’s quite serious and two specialists have told us that she must have an operation—but two other specialists have said, ‘No, that’s the worst thing she could do!’ It’s ludicrous.” With Annie’s operation set for Christmas time, the whole crew were horrified to learn that she would be taken out of action for three months of recuperation. For a while it seemed that overseas dates would have to be postponed indefinitely, but then a Swiss specialist with a miracle cure came to the group’s attention.

“He places electric vibration pads on the throat for days on end, and eventually they get rid of the nodules without the need for any surgery,” explained Dave. “I think Annie will be going over to Switzerland to talk with him about it when we finish our current tour.”

On December 8 the singer flew out to Vienna to meet the throat specialist. He confirmed the presence of nodules and set Annie on a course of his electric vibration pads. As if by magic the treatment worked, Annie was given the all-clear (though still advised to rest her throat as much as possible) and surgery was avoided.

With the aid of her occasional voice coach, Tona de Brett, the star embraced a new way of living. Whenever she was appearing in concert and the pain flared up, Annie would cease talking completely, communicating only in sign language and hastily written notes on scraps of paper. Dave would take over the vast majority of the interviews required of the band, while Annie looked on in silence. For someone prone to bouts of depression, ill health was at first extremely difficult to cope with.

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