Eddi Reader comes to St Mary in the Castle

Eddi Reader singing the line ‘It’s got to be perfect’ from Fairgound Attraction’s hit single Perfect had a profound impact on my life in 1989, when it was the UK number one single, writes HOT’s Zelly Restorick. I was engaged to be married – and the song seemed to highlight how things between my fiancé and me were anything but perfect; I ended the engagement and have subsequently  experienced no regret. Much like my relationship, Fairground Attraction hit the heights and then dissolved, but singing, song-writing and musical collaboration have continued to be a central theme in Eddi Reader’s life. 

I understand that you started your musical career as a busker in Scotland and later travelled throughout Europe with circus and street performers. What was that experience like? 

I actually started much earlier than that… From five to 11 years old, I became a singer… singing while growing up. Obsessing about songs. Feeling the effect they were having on me emotionally. Endorphin rush and weeping spontaneously when I sang something. As a child, I didn’t know why that happened, but I felt the energy  in school or near my home (a flat in a shared building) calm as people listened to me sing.

So, I learned early the power of that on myself and others. My first ‘performance’ was at the after-school knitting class; the teacher, Mrs McDonald, in her black Amy Winehouse hairdo, was a young woman and liked her class to entertain her. She had her favourites; I wasn’t one of them. All the popular girls did little turns, a country dance, a poem, a song. I wasn’t brave enough to ask if I could, but when I was around 10 years old, I put my arm up in the air and asked if I could sing. There were some giggles – I was an awkward lanky thing with uncool shoes/socks and my breakfast spilled on my clothes most days. Not popular.

Mrs Macdonald was surprised, but let me sing. I’d got my Dad the night before to scrawl out the words of Love Me Tender, the Elvis Presley song. He was puzzled when I asked him for them, just in from his hard labour as a welder and covered in grease.

So this is what I sang. When I finished, my eyes watering, I opened them to see shocked faces in front of me and big applause after a quiet few seconds. After that, my career started. I went where the music demanded: charity concert parties. The Glasgow 800 celebrations in May 1975 gave me a big stage, when I auditioned to sing, I was 15 and by that time I was committed at 17 folk clubs… Then the street singing, circus street art and travel through Europe. Paris for six months. South of France for a year or more, various backing vocal improvisation work, some jingles, then touring with famous bands and forming Fairground Attraction, number ones, awards, having babies, 10-11 albums later…

I’ve never treated it as a ‘job’ or a ‘business’.  I’m still here, trying always to recreate that first Love Me Tender moment.

You write your own songs, as well as collaborating with a wide spectrum of other musicians. How do the songs arrive for you? 

Inspired by people, events, memories. Life to me is a giant, never-ending movie with millions of sub-plots and side stories. Learning to accept all the brilliance of the moments and the inspiration it brings, that’s where I start when writing. 


Have you ever lost connection with your musical Muse – and if so, what do you do to reconnect?

All the time. All it takes is a video game or a bit of DIY and my creative energy is diverted…So much to distract, but I love communicating, so eventually the urge demands me to wake up. It’s like my old goldfish; I’ve had her swimming in a tank with me since 1994. If I forget to feed her, she’ll slap her tail in the water as I pass. One time, she soaked my top entirely. That’s what the urge to write is like.

You perform with a group of musicians with whom you have developed a very close bond. How does that feel?

Like home and family.

Would you share some of your musical career highlights with us?

Too many to pinpoint.

I have read that you were born in Glasgow and you lived there and in Irvine in your early life – and that you have now returned to live in Glasgow. How does that feel?

Certain myths about home are just myths.  I came home because those older ones in my family seemed to be passing and I didn’t want to miss time with them. But I’ve found more laughs and a more relaxed atmosphere here. The humour and the beauty of the environment and the light has made me very content to be here now.


I know that you created an album called Songs of Robert Burns, which was released in 2003 to huge international acclaim. What is your connection with Robert Burns?

I ADORE his words; he brought Scotland back to me.

Eddi Reader performs at St Mary in the Castle, 12 October 2014, 7.30pm. Tickets £23.50/£19.50. Book via telephone 01323 841414 or here.

You can find out more about Eddi Reader here.

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