Music Interview: Fairground Attraction

Sadly, Fairground Attraction was short-lived – the band split in 1990, but Scottish vocalist, Eddi Reader, and Welsh guitarist / songwriter, Mark Nevin, have both enjoyed successful solo careers.

Now the band’s original line-up: Reader, Nevin, Simon Edwards (guitarrón – a Mexican acoustic bass) and Roy Dodds (drums) is back together, alongside guest musicians Roger Beaujolais (vibraphone) and Graham Henderson (accordion), who both played with the group the first time round, and they’ve released the follow up to The First Of A Million Kisses – a brand-new studio album called Beautiful Happening.

It’s a strong, hopeful and joyous record that soaks up influences including country, pop, folk, jazz, Southern soul, gospel and Tex-Mex.

hi-fi+ talked to Reader and Nevin, who, until last year, hadn’t spoken to each other since 1990, to find out why they decided to let bygones be bygones, get back in the studio and head out on tour.

As a lyric from the title track of the new album says, ‘Something beautiful is going on…’

SH: So, it’s been 35 years between Fairground Attraction’s debut album, The First of A Million Kisses, and the follow up, this year’s Beautiful Happening. That must be some kind of record… How was it making the ‘difficult second album?’

MN: Actually, making the record was a case of putting the pieces back together and it felt incredibly natural and easy. It all fell into place. 

You’ve just come back from playing some concerts in Japan – they were your first gigs as a band since you split up in 1990. How was that?

MN: It was very strange – up until the last minute, it was, ‘Will we do it?’ The guitarrón and the accordion couldn’t get on the same flight as us – everything went wrong.

ER: It was like an Ealing comedy… 

MN: So, when we finally all turned up and arrived on the stage it was a relief and a great moment for us, and for the audience… 

Am I right in thinking that you two hadn’t spoken to each other since the band broke up? What brought you back together?

ER: Me and Mark played together in West Hampstead [in June 2023] – us reconciling was just a beautiful healing moment. Life’s too short – that’s basically been the theme since COVID.

I wanted to reconnect, and I realised that time was going past fast – Mark had told me that Roy wasn’t well, and Mark had also had some run-ins with the hospital… I thought, ‘This is bullshit – these guys are really important to me on a level that’s not even to do with music…’ 

So, I wanted to reconcile with them in some way, and it was as easy as just picking up the phone and saying, ‘Let’s go for a wee bite to eat’, and it was great. Mark was as shining as he always is.

It’s a great record… You made it at Master Chord Studio, in North London, earlier this year – how was it recording with each other again?

MN: The first day that we were in Master Chord, it was the four us and Roger Beaujolais and Graham Henderson – that was the first time the six of us had been in a room together since we’d all been on stage together 35 years before. It was a very emotional experience and we recorded ‘A Hundred Years of Heartache’, which was very relevant to the occasion… Thirty five years of heartache was over in that moment that we played together again, and it was incredibly powerful.

‘A Hundred Years of Heartache’ was the first song we recorded when we got in the studio because it felt so significant. When I first played it to Eddi, she said: ‘If I sing it, I just might die of crying.’

In Japan, we opened the set with that song – it was a statement. 

So, how did you approach the album? Mark – I know that you’d written some new songs ahead of the sessions, and you also revisited some that you’d had for a while. What kind of record did you want to make?

MN: We had an ethos that was about joy – ultimately, that was the bottom line – the currency we deal in. The most important thing we do with our music is to create joy and hope. We don’t want to bring people down or moan about stuff – there are plenty of other people doing that. We’ve always had that from the start – a song like ‘Perfect’ is an incredibly positive song. 

I’ve listened to so-called great songwriters who are just wallowing around in misery. Anyone can do that. 

A great songwriter is one who can make you feel a bit more hopeful about life, and Eddi has this incredible capacity for joy as a human being, and in her voice, so when you put those two ingredients together, you get this thing that’s bigger than the sum of the parts. 

We’re grateful to have somehow stumbled upon each other and have this chemistry that enables us to do it. Once we get in a room together, with the songs, Eddi’s voice and the guys, the rest of it just takes care of itself. 

So, you’re pleased with the new album?

MN: I’m delighted. It was important that we came back and did something that felt confident and good, and I’m confident we’ve done that. It was hard to get it together so quickly to go to Japan – the weeks leading up to that were hectic, getting it mixed and mastered. 

When I heard it through the headphones for the first time, it was quite a strange moment – I’d missed a flight to Venice and found myself in Pisa, so I was listening to it while walking around the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which was totally random. It was in beautiful sunshine. and I just felt so happy. For me, the Leaning Tower of Pisa will always be associated with that glorious moment.

Eddi – where did you first hear the finished record?

ER: I was crossing Killermont Street at the Buchanan Street Bus Station [in Glasgow]. It was a sunny day and it was lovely, but not as sunny as Pisa… There were leaning buildings…

MN: But they weren’t meant to be leaning…

The first single from the new album was ‘What’s Wrong With The World?’, which was released in March this year. Since it came out, there’s a lot more wrong with the world…

MN: Every day there is… 

As well as addressing the state of the world, the song also tackles personal issues – Eddi sings, ‘What’s wrong with the world? Maybe it’s me…’ The track revisits familiar Fairground Attraction territory musically – it’s a laidback country shuffle… 

MN: It’s funny – when we first played it, we thought, ‘It sort of sounds like ‘Perfect…’ It’s not ‘Perfect’ but it’s weird how that happened – it was quite amusing, and we were like an audience to our own performance… We were laughing and enjoying it – it just came together in that way. 

It resonates with the past but, at the same time, it’s very relevant to the moment we’re living in. But it’s not saying (moans): ‘Oh, what’s wrong with the world? Isn’t it awful? What can we do?’ 

It’s saying that at the end of the day, we’ve only got ourselves and all we can do is to be the best versions of ourselves. 

The title track of the album, ‘Beautiful Happening’, was released as the second single – it’s a beautiful song and, Eddi, your voice sounds great on it… It’s one of my favourite songs on the record and it’s hopeful and positive – about something wonderful coming out of dark and sad times… 

ER: That was why I was attracted to it – Mark has always been the musical director of Fairground Attraction. When he writes a song and I get it, it works. Whenever I get to fly, it’s usually because I’m supported by quality musicianship and quality songwriting that’s not trite. 

When you hear a new song that’s kind of a modern classic… I think Amy Winehouse’s ‘Love Is A Losing Game’ is a modern classic and so is Mark’s ‘Allelujah’ [by Fairground Attraction] – there are writers who aren’t really appreciated when we’re living in this generation. I’m sorry, Mark – you’re not going to get the appreciation until you’re dead! That’s the world we live in – it’s always been that way and it always will be. 

Mark – was the song ‘Beautiful Happening’  inspired by Andrea Bocelli?

MN: Yeah – well, during lockdown, there was a moment when Andrea Bocelli sung hymns in an empty cathedral in Milan [on YouTube]. I don’t know if you saw it? It was absolutely beautiful, and his voice was echoing around an empty square. 

There were also shots of an empty New York, Paris, Sydney – all over the world. It was bizarre – all these cities were completely empty because people were in their homes. It was terrifying – the end of the world – but I had this feeling that something great could come out the other side of it, or let’s hope it could…

ER: Thank God you were able to write something like that… I think it’s a big message that needs to be said in a very simple way – the song says that even though you’re going through challenges, it will expand you… That’s the way that spiritual thinking has been for centuries and it’s all in that song. 

Mark – the track ‘Sing Anyway’, which is on the new record – originally appeared on your solo album, My Unfashionable Opinion…

MN: That’s right – it has a very similar sentiment. It’s about getting up and carrying on – ultimately, it’s about faith. Without faith, you’re doomed.

‘Sun and Moon’ is a soulful, jaunty and celebratory song about a relationship, and it has the Kick Horns session guys playing on it…

ER: That’s Mark – he has great taste, and he pulls it together. 

MN: We’ve known the guys from Kick Horns for a long time – they’re great blokes and brilliant musicians and it felt very familiar having them around. 

We thought it would be nice to have horns on it – it felt like that kind of song – and while they were there, they played on a few other ones, which helped to enhance the record and give it something different. 

We wanted it to resonate with The First Of A Million Kisses, as it’s obviously the same group, but we didn’t want it to be an identical record – it had to have different elements.

Kick Horns are also on ‘Last Night (Was A Sweet One)’, which has a jazzy feel and a Mexican flavour…

MN: You might say it’s Tex Mex – that partly came about because of the guitarrón that Simon plays. It was an accident – years ago, he was looking for a bass and he saw one for sale in the paper for £90. So, he bought this obscure Mexican bass and when he brought it to Eddi’s prefab, and got it out of his black plastic bag, and played it, it had such a beautiful, sad sound, and when it came together with my guitar and Eddi’s voice, we thought, ‘Wow – we sound like something that’s unique.’

‘Gatecrashing Heaven’ has a soul-gospel feel – the chord sequence reminds me of classic Stax, like an Otis Redding ballad. I like the lyric, ‘All access denied to a sinner like me…’ Who out of you two has a better chance of going to heaven rather than hell?

ER: I think we’re all in heaven – or hell – all the time. 

MN: We’re already there, Sean, and you can come as well. 

Beautiful Happening is out now (Raresong Recordings)

www.fairground-attraction.co.uk

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