In 1988, Eddi Reader said goodbye to Gang Of Four and hit the pop jackpot as front woman of soulful pop newcomers Fairground Attraction. The band’s debut single Perfect grabbed the four-piece an unlikely but memorable number one, propelled by Reader’s distinctive vocals and the songwriting of Mark Nevin. Sadly the band chemistry turned out to be far from perfect, and less than two years later Fairground Attraction called it a day amid relentless intra-band warfare. Reader was the only musical survivor of any profile, returning to her roots with a series of outstanding modernizations of Scottish folk traditions.
Before the number one or the folk came along, though, Reader made a cameo appearance in a revolutionary punk band. “Gang of Four were my first employers”, Reader recalls. “I spent a year busking in Europe, learning songs and having a great time. It was the height of punk so it was good to be away, as Britain had abandoned its folky roots and I’d started out in folk clubs. I came home feeling a wee bit unwashed. I was a bit burnt out with singing on the street. Music to me has no boundaries or genres. I used my vocals to impersonate things as well as sing. I loved the rawness of punk, as it was like me. I answered the Gang Of Four advert, convinced them to give me a rendition, and they sent me demos. I learnt harmonies and percussion, as well as vocals I had to sing like shattered glass. I love playing acoustically at heart as it’s the most freeform way of presenting what you do, but I enjoyed painting with my vocal chords. It was great.”
Fairground Attraction though were to prove a different prospect; more instantly accessible, as that number one proved, but things quickly turned sour, leaving a bitter taste in Reader’s mouth. “I was in a band I thought were my friends, and it turned out they weren’t”, she recalls. “The material was really important to me, so I ignored all the other things. We got an album of material I really love. I was very naive, and it worked well in a lot of areas. I found Mark Nevin, amongst other people. Most of the pop material was pretty superficial in the 80’s, so having something to get my teeth into was important to me. But after we were successful Nevin didn’t want me involved, he didn’t want my songs involved. Our partnership was what made it work. I tried it, I let him tell me what to do for a while, but it didn’t work. So that was it. I realized that this group of people weren’t on my side. The material was what I loved about Fairground Attraction, but I made a big mistake signing a record contract with Mark Nevin. All I was trying to do was make him great. After the first album, his songs were affected by the influence of success on him. I didn’t like them.”
The record company, though, had Reader locked in. “I was contracted for ten years at this point”, she remembers. “I went back to the songs I played busking in the south of France. The record company wanted another ‘Perfect’, and I gave them songs from old folk clubs and my busking days. They were instinctive and free flowing, and not what the label wanted. They dropped me. I wasn’t too upset, and the material became the album ‘Mirmana’, which got me signed again. Since then, my career’s been a lot about not going back and remaking ‘Perfect’, about having the confidence to say ‘fuck off, I’ll do it my way’”
Perhaps Reader’s greatest success since those days came in the form of ‘The Songs Of Robert Burns’, a nod to the true folk nature that had become her standard. “I didn’t mean to make a Robert Burns album”, she explains, “but I discovered all the songs I loved from my folk club days were by him. When the 200th anniversary came around, I was in a place to play with the orchestra and make a big event of it. The next stage for me is orchestration and getting a bit more of that jazz thing in.” To us, the next stage seems compellingly open.
With such an array of music to pick from, Reader’s live setup is notoriously unpredictable. In fact, she rarely writes a setlist, and draws her content from the best part of three decades of impressive musical backdrop. “I go instinctively with the songs that fit. I tried taking requests but I couldn’t hear what anyone wanted amongst the shouts. I’m a creature of instinct, from the days of making money busking. I pick songs that I really love, and it works for me. Live, not even Nevin could touch me. I was free as a bird live, he couldn’t exactly come up to me and say ‘we’re not doing that one’. Part of the damage was the controlling element that came in when we went off stage. I didn’t understand it, and I was better off without it, even without big hit records.”
Reader’s moments as a pop star are a thing of the past, then, so much so that she’s already turned down a recent reunion possibility, though not before those intra-band issues popped up again. “Five months ago I was called up by the boys about a reunion gig. I said ‘sure, but when I signed your publishing deal instead of my own, I was pushed to accept 12.5% of everything I sung. That was the agreement’. They stopped paying me in 1982. I got an audience out of it, but I told them I’d come back when I got my 12.5%. They ran away. Financially I’m getting by. I look to tours to pay the mortgage, but if it comes down to it I can always sell the house. I don’t want to, but things seem to work out. I always think God is my manager; as long as I trust my instincts things seem to come good.” That might not mean number one hits these days, but even with those financial issues, that’s okay. Eddi’s clearly settled into a place that’s far closer to her heart.
Eddi Reader plays Whelan’s, Dublin, on the 20th of February 2013.