[Dave Stewart, Eurythmics]

Dave Stewart: Annie and I were in a band called the Tourists before Eurythmics. And neither of us wrote songs for that band and I was the guitar player. She played the keyboard and sang sometimes. And we were very much into the fame of the singer, Peter Coombes, who wrote all the songs.

And when the Tourists broke up and Annie and I wanted to do something together, I went away and I thought about it everything and all the stuff we’ve through, and I came up with a kind of music that was a kind of cold electronic, but it had a kind of a soulfulness in it which is a very strange hybrid and nobody had been doing it. And I put down the guitar because I played the guitar and I brought a keyboard into play, which I don’t play much, and I learned sequences and stuff like that.

And then I said to Annie, “Why don’t we start writing these songs where you have this icy cold feeling in a soulful vocal.” And we did many experiments. And then I suggested that – I was very influenced by a lot of these British artists, particularly one called Gilbert and George. And Gilbert and George were two guys who’d live together since they were twenty-one, wore the same suits everyday and they made sculptures and paintings. And they’re now one of the most successful artists in Britain, in every museum around the world. And we got suits the same as them.

And the next stage was, “Well, Annie, interesting to maybe crop your hair.” And then we just carried on making it a little bit stage by stage, more and more, of what we wanted it to be. But from the outside looking in, it was looking more and more extreme. So when we did “Sweet Dreams” the video, and I’d been reading a lot and watching a lot of stuff like Salvador Dali, and based the whole film video on this kind of very surrealist filmmaking.

And so I wrote a script and I drew the little cartoons that Annie would be at the end of a table, dressed in a suit, with a sort of baton, and behind here the globe was spinning. And I’d be sat with a computer, but then we would make it so suddenly we were in a field of cows outside. And the cows would be coming into the boardroom. And then we were back in the boardroom, but there was cows with us. And it was all about absurdity and how the world is absurd and yet we’re singing “Sweet dreams are made of this.” It’s an ironic statement. It’s kind of saying, “Is this what the world’s come to, like people just desperate for power and greed?”

And so we didn’t realize the impact it was gonna have. And I don’t think a lot of people understood it, but a lot of people did. But what it do for the people who didn’t understand it, they just thought it was riveting to watch like, “What is going on?” ‘Cause other videos with people miming and maybe there’s a few shimmering video effects and that was it.

And the people who did get on a kind of metaphorical and intellectual sense were like, “Wow. That is a very strange group.” And then that was it. It launched our whole career.