Celebrity Interview – Fairground Attraction
by Steve Orme
Thirty-five years after splitting up, the four original members of the group Fairground Attraction are back together – and they reckon they’ve still got their unique sound which propelled them to the top of the charts.
The band had a stratospheric rise to fame in the late 1980s. Their first single Perfect became a UK number one and won best single at the 1989 Brit Awards. Their debut studio album, The First of a Million Kisses, got to number two and picked up best album at the same awards ceremony.
They don’t agree on why they went their separate ways. There were reportedly arguments before the band’s guitarist and producer Mark Nevin abandoned a recording session for their second LP.
But now Mark, singer Eddi Reader, Simon Edwards who plays guitarrón – a Mexican acoustic bass guitar – and drummer Roy Dodds are preparing to release a new album which they will be promoting on a UK tour which will stop off in Nottingham.
Eddi and Mark took time out to tell me they had no regrets about splitting up, their hopes for the band’s future and why their music is still popular.
Born in Glasgow, Eddi who is 65 and has had a successful solo career since leaving Fairground explained why the group split up around 1990.
“It was definitely ‘this isn’t working. We’re not aligning together.’ There was no way either of us had the skills to figure it out.
“The music was the most important thing, so honouring that while you’re young is really difficult. It’s great now because we can honour what it was and look at what’s new about it too.
“I’m noticing that the old songs, when we play them, they’re just timeless pieces of work .”
Mark who appears to be the driving force behind Fairground Attraction and writes most of their material puts their music into perspective.
“We were very conscious when we made the (first) record to make sure we didn’t use any sound that would date. So there are no synthesisers, there’s nothing that was of the era. Everything was classic in the sense that it was acoustic. There were natural instruments, Eddi’s amazing voice and songs with proper, traditional values. We really did prove ourselves correct in that decision because it is timeless.”
Another reason Fairground Attraction were successful was that they wouldn’t put up with any interference from their record company RCA.
“They wanted to provide us with producers,” says Eddi “but we’re actually pig-headed in our artistry. Both of us.”
“We said if it’s not pure, forget it,” adds Mark. “Their producer would have made us sound modern. We had to fight them.
“We played the music and recorded it as purely as possible. The song Perfect is us playing live. The actual record is just the second take.”
Two years ago the four members of Fairground got together in Mark’s kitchen and they soon rekindled the spark that had made the band such an attraction.
“We just played together and suddenly it was there,” says Mark. “It’s got a unique sound. It was like when you pour some hot water into a Cup A Soup and it comes to life.”
Eddi experienced a difference in that session: “Something unconsciously happened to my physical approach which was nothing to do with my head. It was like someone had turned a key inside me. Everybody in that kitchen changed my physiology.”
All the songs on the new album Beautiful Happening have been penned by Mark apart from two which he co-wrote. So where does he get his songs from?
“I find them in the garden like mushrooms. There are songs floating around everywhere. For some reason early on I didn’t know how to catch them. “In a way I’m like a radio receiver. I turn it on to the right frequency and music comes. It’s not from me – I’m just the receiver.”
The music business has changed considerably since Fairground released their first LP. They’ve been able to record their new album without a record company behind them – but it’s meant so much work for Mark.
“You have to become a full-time executive, manager and all these things, so you’re doing about 40 people’s jobs. It’s very hard work day in day out to make this a reality and get the things done in time.”
Eddi has had a varied career since leaving Fairground. At one stage she recorded an album of material by Robert Burns with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She was awarded an MBE for services to singing in 2006.
She has had a strained relationship with record companies and cites an example of a festival she played in Australia.
“There were 5,000 people in front of me and every one wanted to buy a record. But the distributor had only sent 20 copies which soon sold out! That’s what we as artists had to deal with for years. They didn’t have any love for what you were doing.”
Mark called in a few favours to make new videos of the band because they didn’t have a budget. One of the videos was made by John Sorapure, director of photography on blockbuster films including Paddington and Barbie. “He happens to be an old friend of mine who lives around the corner. So he did that video of us for nothing.”
Eddi jumps in with her assessment of the band’s current standing: “We’re doing this off our own back but we’ve also got this heritage. We’ve got a foot in the door.
“I’ve been touring for 35 years and a lot of people who come to my (solo) shows will come to see the band. There’ll be extra people that’ll come who remember just the Fairground Attraction album.
“There’ll be people coming back with their daughters and sisters and friends. And then there’ll be people who are older than us. My mother’s coming to the Glasgow gig.”
The re-formed band have already toured Japan where their decision to get back together was vindicated.
“Because it was the first time we actually walked on stage together in all that time, it was a very weird and great experience for us as individuals and as a band,” says Mark. “It was an extraordinary event, very emotional for everyone.”
He points out that ticket sales for the UK tour are going well and the band’s future is secure.
“The goal is to play together and be friends. As long as that happens it’s a success. We’re confident that the tour will sell out and we’ll do a really great show.”
After the tour Eddi will join Scottish folk legend Phil Cunningham, as she has done for the past ten years, to tour Scotland in December with Phil Cunningham’s Christmas Songbook. Next year she will go on a tour of Ireland and Northern Ireland. But she’s determined to make Fairground Attraction work into 2025.
As for Mark, he’s been so busy with the new Fairground album that he’s not had time to think about next year: “This has been so full-on. We’ve done so much stuff in such a short amount of time. It’s been non-stop every single day. It’s just impossible to know what will happen.”
Will there be more material from Fairground Attraction? “I always think I’m never going to make another record. Every time I’ve made one I’ve gone ‘that’s it. This is definitely the last time. I’m never doing this again!’ It drives me mad. Then a few months later a song will turn up, another mushroom will turn up in the garden. And then I’m back on the thing again. I can’t help it.”
Looking to the future, Eddi says the band’s dream is not necessarily to have another best-selling album.
“The number one objective is to make good work, look after each other and make sure that by the end of this life we can look back and say ‘we did all right’.”
That sounds like the perfect recipe for success.
Fairground Attraction will play Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall on Friday 4th October
