She may be forever associated with the west of Scotland, but Eddi Reader lovingly describes Fife as her “spiritual home”.
The Fairground Attraction legend, who’s set to bring her solo band to Dunfermline’s Alhambra, is clearly proud of her strong familial and artistic ties to the kingdom.
“My great, great-grandfather, who was from Prussia, travelled to Edinburgh and his descendants and my distant cousins are still in St Andrews.
“He moved into the iron industry in Glasgow in 1870, so there was at the turn of the last century a kind of start of my family as it became.
“There always seemed to be lots of visitors from Fife to my grandfather’s house and I never understood why, but now I know.”
Fife ‘queen of folk’ inspired Eddi Reader
One of Dunfermline’s most revered daughters, of course, is the singer Eddi calls “the queen of folk” – Barbara Dickson.
“She is one of my big heroes,” says the three-time Brit Award winner.
“She was one of the only women that inspired me back in the day. Folk music in 1978 was full of men that were getting a bit drunk and there was only a few women.
“A lot of them were just taking tickets at the door and clearing the tables at folk clubs, so Barbara Dickson at that point was a big star of the scene who had gone on to bigger things.
“By the time I was going to folk clubs in North Ayrshire the tales of Barbara partying all night and singing till the early hours of the morning at the Irvine Marymass were legion.
“Playing the guitar the way she does, she’s a genius. Her, Bonnie Raitt, Kiki Dee – these were women that were pioneers for us girls back in the day.”
Reunion reflections with Fairground Attraction
Eddi’s just returned home to Glasgow from a short tour of Japan with Fairground Attraction, where the recently reformed four-piece played their last gig before splitting up in 1989.
The band, whose 1988 classic Perfect topped the charts, are due to release a comeback album in September, with their latest single Beautiful Happening out now.
Reflecting on the reunion, Eddi says she’s happy that she’s patched up her relationship with main songwriter Mark Nevin.
“We didn’t ever not get along, it was just we had this different idea of what a group is,” the welder’s daughter explains.
“I just thought I’d rather not dwell on the past so that before I go off this planet, whenever that’ll be, I’ll have un-Velcroed myself from any old grievance.
“I thought that the music spoke so much louder than any individuals in the band. We had a lovely little sound that was quite unusual back in the day – it was kind of acoustic when everything else was being very synthetic and I was very proud of it.
“Now I’m donating my own time with Mark’s songs and ideas, whereas with my own thing I’m living in the moment and spreading a bit of good feeling in the room and hoping that whatever I’m inspired to sing comes out.”
Eddi Reader: I identify with ‘vagabond’
Underlining the sense of spontaneity that anyone going along to tonight’s show can expect, the 64-year-old says she’s constantly guided by one Fife forebear in particular.
“Sometimes I don’t do anything from any record that I’m on, but there will be lots of songs from Vagabond because I’m noticing that when I go on stage a lot of things from that album seem to call to me,” says Eddi, who sang on Dunfermline icons Big Country’s 1999 single Fragile Thing.
“I think it’s because I identify with the word ‘vagabond’ and – from my three times great-grandfather from Germany who played music in the streets of Leith – I find myself caught up in the DNA of being a minstrel that travels around like a vagabond.
“That’s kind of where I feel I’m most alive – when I’m playing to strangers or people that have come back to see me a lot of times. And I have no commitment to any career, I really don’t.
“I don’t know many people that would just sing for nothing till four in the morning at parties like I do. I am that kind of singing thing and when I was that thing full-blown it was a sight to behold and I loved being that.
“Now I’m older I’m more settled about what I do because I’m not chasing any big glittering prize.”
Eddi Reader will play the Alhambra Theatre in Dunfermline on July 19 2024. Tickets are available from the venue’s website or by calling 01383 733666.
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