Eddi Reader

Sadenia "Eddi" Reader MBE (born 29 August 1959) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, known for her work as the lead vocalist of the folk and soft rock band Fairground Attraction, and for an enduring solo career.

She is the recipient of three Brit Awards.

Living at first in the district of Anderston, in a tenement slum demolished in 1965, the young Reader family moved to a two-bedroomed flat in the estate of Arden.

In 1976, due to overcrowding, the family was re-housed 25 miles from Glasgow, in a council development in Irvine, North Ayrshire.

However, Reader returned to Glasgow (where she lived with her grandmother in Pollok) to finish her compulsory schooling.

She began playing the guitar at the age of ten, and started her musical career busking, first in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street, then in the early 1980s in London and around Europe (where she also worked with circus and performance artists).

Back in Scotland, while finding factory work in Irvine and working part-time in Sirocco Recording Studio in Kilmarnock, she answered an advert in the music press and travelled to London to audition and join the post-punk band Gang of Four, who needed a backing vocalist for their appearance on British television music show The Old Grey Whistle Test and for their UK tour.

This led to her first US tour with the band.

After returning to the UK and leaving the band, she started working as a session vocalist in London, picking up work singing jingles for radio advertisements and singing with such acts as Eurythmics, The Waterboys, Billy Mackenzie of the Associates, John Foxx of Ultravox and Alison Moyet.

In 1984, Reader returned to the UK from Paris, where she had been working as a singer for the Romanian composer Vladimir Cosma.

Through her contact with the brass section session musicians Kick Horns in London, she signed a recording contract with EMI, and recorded two singles with the disco group Outbar Squeek.

Around the same time, she met and asked Mark E. Nevin, a guitarist and songwriter from the band Jane Aire and the Belvederes to write for her and they recorded two songs as 'The Academy of Fine Popular Music'.

They subsequently formed Fairground Attraction, together with Simon Edwards (guitarrón – a Mexican acoustic bass guitar) and Roy Dodds (drums and percussion).

In 1988, the band signed to the RCA and BMG labels and released their first single, "Perfect", which became a UK number one, winning best single at the 1989 Brit Awards.

Their debut studio album, The First of a Million Kisses, was also a success, reaching number two in the UK Albums Chart, and winning best album at the 1989 Brits.

This success was short-lived, however.

In November 1989, after a break, during which Reader had her first child, Charlie, with her French-Algerian partner Milou, arguments arose within the group, and Nevin abandoned a recording session for their second studio album, which eventually led to the break-up of the band.

A makeshift second album, a collection of B-sides and live tracks, Ay Fond Kiss, was rushed out the following year.

Reader returned to Scotland, but before she embarked on her solo career she took a temporary detour into acting.

She played Jolene Jowett, a singer and accordionist, in John Byrne's Your Cheatin' Heart, a comedy-drama series for BBC Television, set in the country music scene in Scotland.

This became her debut solo studio album, recorded for RCA Records: 1992's Mirmama.

She met Geoff Travis who signed her to Warner Bros. subsidiary label, Blanco y Negro.

In 1993, Reader was the presenter of BBC Scotland's No Stilettos, a music performance programme recorded in Glasgow.

Her other acting credits include playing the part of Joy 3 from the Michael Boyd (artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company) production of Janice Galloway's The Trick Is to Keep Breathing.

The managing director Rob Dickens executively produced her second solo studio album Eddi Reader (1994), which won her the "Best Female Singer" Brit Award that year, followed by Candyfloss and Medicine (1996), and Angels & Electricity (1998).

This was a BBC Radio 4 production in 1996 and also a Tron Theatre production the same year.

Returning to London, Reader worked on new material with a backing band calling itself the Patron Saints of Imperfection (made up of Roy Dodds, Neill and Calum MacColl, and Phil Steriopoulos).

She parted ways with Warner Bros. and continued her work on Geoff Travis' Rough Trade label when she recorded Simple Soul (2001) and Driftwood (2002) – a "homegrown" release of songs recorded during the Simple Soul sessions.

During this time, Reader also recorded the song "Ocean Love" for the soundtrack of the animated Danish film Help! I'm a Fish (2001).

Reader also contributed backing vocals to one of Big Country's final singles before Stuart Adamson's death, "Fragile Thing".

Reader continued to tour (England, Scotland, Japan, Australia, Spain, the United States, and Ireland).

In 2003, she showcased the works of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns.

Reader was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of a welder, and the eldest of seven children; her brother Francis is vocalist with the band Trashcan Sinatras, and her grandmother Sadie Smith was a leading Scottish footballer.

She was nicknamed Edna by her parents.

In 2003, she recorded her album of material by Robert Burns, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, leading to good reviews and an international resurgence in interest in Scotland's "bard".

In 2004, Reader sang at the re-opening of the new Scottish Parliament building, where she was presented to Queen Elizabeth II.

She has described the experience: "I was honoured to sing at the opening of the parliament although I almost didn’t get to. I wanted to sing ‘Auld Lang Syne' as I thought that would have been perfect for the politicians with everyone shaking hands but they wanted me to sing it in 'F’ key and that wasn't the key for me so I told them I wasn't doing it. It was only at the last minute that I eventually agreed."

She spent April 2006 touring Australia with Boo Hewerdine and Alan Kelly, following the release of St Clare's Night Out: Live at The Basement, with Australian acts such as David Hosking invited to open the concerts.

Reader's eighth studio album, Peacetime, was released in 2007 on the Rough Trade record label.

Produced by fellow Scottish folk musician, John McCusker, the album features a few Burns composed songs, alongside original material with long-time collaborator Boo Hewerdine and the Trash Can Sinatras' John Douglas.