“I’m not complaining, lockdown has actually been good for me. I’ve enjoyed the rest,” she says.
“I’m sitting in the garden watching the kitten chase a bee, I’ve been playing games, reading books.”
She’s also been busy crocheting tiny little hexagons (the only thing she claims to know how to do) to create a massive blanket using pieces of wool she has collected from all over the world on her travels.
“It’s already about seven foot by seven foot and it’s just getting bigger,” she laughs. “God knows what I’m going to do with it.”
Although the young, flame haired Eddi came to our attention in 1988 as the lead singer of Fairground Attraction, that was just a tiny part of her career and the band split shortly afterwards despite a great follow up single, Find My Love, and the triple platinum and BRIT winning album First of a Million Kisses.
Eddi wasn’t completely new to the industry when Fairground Attraction hit the big time. She first began singing to audiences as a teenager and very soon had left her family home in Scotland and was busking along the rivers of France. Her CV lists her as joining the circus, but Eddi describes it more as being part of a travelling entourage of artists and performers, singing alongside fire eaters and jugglers at festivals and events in Avignon and Nimes.
“I was only 19 and don’t think I ever told my parents what I was doing. I couldn’t imagine allowing my own boys to go off and do something like that, but I survived unscathed and really started to learn my craft there. When you can street sing, you really learn to understand your range.”
After her stint in France she returned to Scotland having decided she wanted to take her singing seriously. Whilst working in a factory she was also performing in folk clubs and answering adverts in the musical press. One of these adverts led to a job as a backing singer in a post punk outfit called Gang of Four and her first gig was in LA in front of a crowd of 60,000.
“I knew then I had to up my game,” she recalls. “Not just my singing, everything - I needed some new clothes.”
Other jobs then followed, including singing for top 80s bands The Waterboys and The Eurythmics, famously harmonising on Sweet Dreams with Annie Lennox.
“I was living in this free house in Lambeth in the 80s and became known as the person who’d turn up and do things. Annie Lennox sent Dave Stewart to find me as some friends had seen me sing on set. I was honing my craft and skills in the studio and getting paid for it. It also gave me an inner confidence and understanding of the industry.
“When Fairground Attraction came along this really helped as I felt I could stand up in front of the record company bosses and speak up for myself. I also felt I could sing in a very authentic way.”
Sadly the band didn’t last but Eddi has since gone on to forge a hugely successful solo career.
Her recording is prolific with a dozen studio albums, embracing many musical genres, to her name, including the acclaimed Songs
LIVE24-SEVEN.COM
of Robbie Burns, an album she recorded after returning to Glasgow from London and subsequently toured all over the world.
As well as a clutch of BRIT awards, she has been granted four honorary degrees and in 2006 was awarded the MBE for services to singing – not bad for someone who started out busking! Much of her singing embraces story-telling and for her strong lyrics are what it’s all about.
“I really enjoy the story-telling aspect of singing. If you get great lyric writers they nail it and I’m always overjoyed if I manage that, even if it’s just one line.”
Whilst Eddi is looking forward to her gig in Lichfield (not just for the great acoustics but the spirituality she believes the venue brings to a performance), her show will have no set list.
“I like to feel what the audience want and just go with the flow and as a result no two shows are the same. It’s a journey for us all and we are all there as equals. I get lots of great feedback, which always surprises me, so it works. We create magic in the moment.
“I need to get back into vocal shape after this long break but I’ll be doing some stretches and exercises beforehand and it will be joyous.”
As part of her tour, she will also be appearing as a guest singer with Jools Holland as part of his tour, a working collaboration which starts a few years ago. Jools describes her as ‘one of my favourite singers of all time’ and the feeling is mutual so she’s delighted to incorporate his dates as part of her tour.
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“Jools has been so good to me in my life and has given me some great gigs so I’m thrilled to be joining him.”
Locally, if you miss the Lichfield gig, her tour also brings her back to the Midlands later in the year when she plays at The Core Theatre in Solihull on September 19.
Tickets for Eddi Reader at Lichfield Cathedral on Friday, July 9 from 7.30-9.30pm, are priced from £12, available from
www.lichfieldfestival.org
ENTERTAINMENT L ICHF I E LD F E S T IVAL
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