Eddi Reader

I first interviewed Eddi years ago when she was in Japan for some solo shows. Back then, she came across as the chatty lady-next-door who loves to talk and I was pleased to find that she hasn’t changed a bit.   

 

Q: The Fairground Attraction reunion…

 

ER: Yeah, I was offered it by the Japanese promoters, SMASH, as I’ve known them for all this time. I go there every so often, every four years maybe, so I’ve seen them all grow up, from boys who were young runners to now running the company so it’s lovely to have that relationship. They asked if I would come and do a few gigs and from April to August in 2023, I was doing the Brokeback Mountain play in London. The year before, I had invited Roy, Fairground’s drummer, to one of my gigs and he said he was in a hospital, ill. Then I heard another one of us was in hospital with covid or something and I realised that life was too short. So I phoned them up and said ‘Listen, he’s in hospital, let’s go, we have to go and see him.’ We went through something amazing together back then and everything else is just propaganda as it says in Saturday Night Sunday Morning. Also, in the play, there was all these 25 – 30-year-olds and I could see me, in London back then. I could see – and I’m not insulting them by saying this – how important the non-important stuff was for them, how depressed they got and how worried about the future. I felt a bit like the crone (laughs), you know, saying, it’s going to be all right just do whatever you do and things will find their way too you. That whole Jesus thing, ‘as much as the birds and the bees are looked after, so shall you be,’ these aphorisms are all around us. I actually went down to the embankment and I had all the young actors with me. Lucas Hedges, Emily Fairn who is now in Responder, and I got them to stand by the Albert Bridge with all the lights on the embankment, got my guitar out and sang too them in the middle of the night. They loved it, especially Lucas who was like ‘Are you kidding me? This is like a Mary Poppins film!’ (laughs) It felt magical and this is what it was back then so when I invited Roy to my gig and he was in hospital, I just felt I should reach out to them and be mates. It felt natural and then when Japan offered me to play this year and one of my usual band members couldn’t do the long haul, I just woke up one morning and thought ‘Fairground should do it’. I was so proud to be able to stand back and offer them whatever it is I’ve gathered over the last thirty-five years.

 

Q: That’s marvellous and a lovely gesture on your part. I know a lot of singers that wouldn’t do that.

 

ER: Oh, I don’t know. I’m a lone wolf and always will be but I’ve never known a lack of generosity to pay back anything.

 

Q: So what’s the plan?

 

ER: We did the five dates in Japan and we did an EP for Sony Japan. We just wanted to say thank you because Japan was the last gig we did thirty-five years ago so I thought we were just depressing the pause button to start again. Not that there was any big record deal or commitment, we were doing it all ourselves and asking each other as friends. So we did an album, Mark (Nevin) had a few contacts and John McCusker told me a great studio in London that wasn’t so expensive but had good stuff and I just said to Mark, go ahead and do your dream whereas back in the day, I would have probably fought him all the way. This time I wanted to know what he wanted. Then with the tour, I went to the agent and asked him what he thought. ‘Would people be interested?’ as it was thirty-five years ago and people have died or three years old when we were No.1 then. She came back with fourteen dates but I’m sure some people will think we are a tribute band because it’s difficult in the day and age to say ‘No! It’s us! Come on!’ (laughs)

 

Q: I remember watching Top of the Pops when you hit that No.1 spot and I don’t think there was a happier lady on the planet.

 

ER: (smiling) Joy is the key as Mary Margret O’Hara says. For me, before that, my Mum and Dad didn’t pressurise me to go to university or anything. I had this ability and it seem to thrill me and anybody else who was listening. It was lovely. I got invited to parties, I got fed I watered, invited to busk around the world…I had a great time and there is no way it wasn’t dangerous. You could look at it that way and go ‘Wait a minute!’ You’re out on your own in the world and certainly Mum and Dad didn’t know the half of it. Hitchhiking down to the Cambridge Folk Festival was the first time. I went with two guys, we got a Woolworths tent with five tops from Woolworths packets and 50p or something…it’s experience and trying to be open to that experience. I plan a little bit but not much.

 

Q: I have followed your career through your solo albums; Cavalier was wonderful…

 

ER: Thank you.

 

Q: Will you continue your solo career alongside Fairground?

 

ER: No, after the tour I’ll go back to doing it because my band are very loyal to me and I want to be able to sing anything I want to sing. This project is Fairground Attraction and as much as they are beautiful, I would miss Dragonflies, A Fond Kiss, Patience Of Angels. Unfortunately, for anybody who is working with me who sees me in one way, it’s not possible because I am not happy when I am limited. This whole thing with Fairground now is like me being a new me; this person, with all that experience, bringing it to the boys. Mark works in analysis now, Simon and Roy do work with Jazz bands and the Yiddish Twist Orchestra but they are very London centric and I’m not, in any way. I got out of London twenty-three years ago and I enjoy visiting it but it’s not for me now.

 

Q: Finally, a bit of an oddball question, what’s your favourite audio format?

 

ER: (laughs) You’ll be surprised…I go to Oxfam shops and I find 78s and I have a wind-up 78 machine. If I go and find a Louis Armstrong Hot Five or an Al Jolson (sings ‘Way down yonder in New Orleans’), I know they are all in the same room and they are all playing that song into one microphone. The drummer is way in the back and I adore the feeling of those records but you have to find them. I did find a Comedian Harmonists, they were in-between the wars and they were like The Beatles in Germany. Three were Jewish and three were not and they got banned by the nazis in the lead up to the Second World War. They were absolutely fantastic; they used their voices as instruments like The Mills Brothers. They played in America but disappeared from our memories because they had to split up because of the war; the war was like a big Domestos wiping out of everything. I was in Australia when I discovered them and there is a movie about them. First of all, they were young boys and they had this love for making noises with their voices. They were cheeky, singing songs about asparagus sprouting up in the springtime as a euphamism (laughs) and all the women in their Flapper gear loved them and screamed after them and even the nazi big guns were asking them for autographs but they were banned because of the Jewish element. Somebody has to have a look at that story; the film is all right but it’s not brilliant. Anyway, I found one of their records in a shop in Australia and brought it back. Gingerly packed in bubble wrap, not very economically, I got it home and took it out of its sleeve, brown paper with the circle missing, wound up the player, put a fresh needle in, put it on and it sang too me. It had never been played before, it looked pristine, a Christmas song, one of those rare finds selling on ebay for three grand or something. I took it off the turntable, put it back in the brown sleeve and it fell right through and smashed on my floor. (laughs) That’s just the way it goes with me and financial gain. (smiles) That’s ok, I don’t care but I was sorry that I couldn’t listen to it again.

 

Q: Eddi, I hope you can find another one, one day.

 

ER: Thank you and please say thank you to Japan for me. Arigatou!

 

There’s only one person outside the press office who I can ask to take a photo of Eddi and me together so rather cheekily, I ask Jill Furmanovsky if she will do the honours with my camera. She smiles, does, and I thank her, promising her a photo credit. My attention is then caught by Zac strolling towards me, beer in hand, a big smile on his face and wearing a Rory Gallagher cap.

 

Zac Schulze

The Zac Schulze Gang debut album, released last month, was in my CD player for a week, I couldn’t stop playing it and a couple of hours ago I watched them tear up the stage.

 

Q: Hell of a show Zac.

 

ZS: Thank you.

 

Q: I haven’t seen a band tear up a stage like that since Rory or the Feelgoods.

 

ZS: Thank you, I appreciate it.

 

Q: I grew up seeing that stuff and I know why I love it; what is it about it that appeals to you, your generation?

 

ZS: We’ve been heavily influenced by the Pub Rock bands, Dr Feelgood, Nine Below Zero and Rory Gallagher, etc and I think for us, it’s good music to perform live and we love playing live. That kind of music, gives us the opportunity to showcase our talents. That’s what the band is; a hard hitting Blues-Rock but more Rock ’n’ Roll.

 

Q: Your version of The Blockheads Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick was killer.

ZS: We were backstage trying to decide to do Sex and Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll or Rhythm Stick and we decided on Rhythm Stick. Ian’s band, when Norman Watt-Roy was playing with him, was such a tight unit and again, they heavily influenced what we do now. We have great respect for those bands were going out playing pubs and clubs seven nights a week.

 

Q: I know you’d go well in Japan. Wilko is still loved there and the last time I saw him he had Norman on bass.

 

ZC: Oh we’d love to go to Japan. Norman plays with a mate of mine at the moment, The James Oliver Band, a good friend and player and it’s great to see Norman do his thing.

 

Q: Your debut album, Live and Loud, a live album straight out of the traps.

 

ZS: Yeah, that all came about when we did a gig supporting The Commoners – another great band – and the drummer recorded it. We listened back to it and said ‘Great – let’s do it.’ The thing with this album is seven or eight tracks and it’s all of the stuff we are known for: She Does It Right, Messin’ With The Kid and all that. It’s a sort of a teaser in that if you come and watch us at a gig, you can buy it and take it home with you or put it in the car. It’s what we sound like live.

 

Q: It certainly has captured you live. The feel reminds me all the classic live albums form the seventies, Stupidity, Rory of course, that Live At Reading album is one of my favourites.

 

ZS: I always preferred Rory’s live stuff because it changes so much. He wouldn’t play the same thing every night. There would be a different start or a different ending, no rules and that’s what I love about him. If you came and saw us tomorrow night, there would be different stuff, especially with the solos and the stops and starts. We try to do it on the fly because we like to be a band that we are who we are and we play what we play. We change it up as much as we can and it keeps us pushing and level in our heads. Each of us is constantly practicing to get better and that’s all we want to do.

 

Q: Not on the album but I love your version of Framed. Did you base that on anyone’s version in particular or did you work it up yourselves?

 

ZS: That was Ant, our bass player. I think it was Jerry Reed. Either that or Cheech & Chong.

 

Q: Do you write a set list?

ZS: No. We have a rough idea of what we are going to do and like today, we’ll decide beforehand what to put in or pull out but the majority of the time we just go on.

 

Q: How spontaneous can you be onstage? Throwing in a few extra bars, changing the set list around, adding or dropping songs as you see fit?

 

ZS: Pretty much, yes. The thing with us is that we play all the time. We are doing about four or five a week at the moment and have done for the past three years which makes us quite tight as a unit so if anyone calls something, we can go that way. Most of the time, that’s me saying we need to do this or that.

 

Q: Based on audience reaction.

 

ZS: Yeah, even like today. Playing in front of a massive crowd, I still try to think like we are playing in a pub.

 

Q: Just back from the USA, supporting Samantha Fish. How did it go?

 

ZS: That was great! We went down really well and it was an incredible opportunity just to be able to be asked to do it. We are working with her management at the moment and it was a learning curve as well, watching them every night and how they play. They couldn’t have been nicer too us, so accommodating. It was crazy for us because you know, the first night we go on and we wonder how we are going to go down but we opened up with Rory’s Laundromat and people recognised it and liked it. It was wild and seeing the country as well was something else. Cropredy is our first one back in the UK – mental.

 

Q: There are many musicians who create on computers these days and it’s not my thing but there is obviously a market for it. You obviously jam a lot. Do you think that the apprenticeship of buying an instrument, practicing in your mate’s garage and learning to jam is a dying element of Rock?

 

ZS: I’ll tell you what I think about that. I think the people that are making their music on their computers are doing that online but the people that are with their mates in the garages and basements are not seeing that because that’s not the music they are portraying. Where we are, in Medway, we have a bunch of young kids that are really coming on well. They are all forming bands and the Medway music scene is super good at the moment. The thing is, venues are so important to have young bands and bands that have just started. That is so crucial and we have lost loads over the past few years. I go to anyone where we go and say start putting on gigs yourself, however you can do it. My brother Ben puts on gigs at The Ship Inn in Gillingham and they get young kids and older guys that just like doing it. There is a lot of computer-made music and a lot of it I quite like, I am into some of that but the actual real band thing, I still feel there is enough coming through but maybe not in the genres that you are familiar with. It is a weird time we are in though and it has to be that kids still want to pick up a guitar, play the drums and sing in front of people and there’s not a computer that will do that in the world that can do that.

 

Q: Is AI a threat to Rock and music in general? Could it write one of your solos?

 

ZS: (laughs) I’d like to hear it actually to see how close it could get. A.I. is a tool and I can appreciate that. Is it taking away from us? Absolutely! How far does it go? Well, that’s up to everyone isn’t it? The greatest bands and the greatest music, in my opinion, have come before what is happening now so there’s no need for it.

 

Q: What’s your favourite audio format for listening Zac?

 

ZS: It’s nice now that vinyl has had a resurgence. I don’t know what it is, whether it’s something in your head or something else but there is something that makes it sound different but there is that thing of putting the vinyl on to listen to the vinyl. The good thing about it is that you do listen to full albums rather than just one song. I do use Spotify and I’m constantly listening to one song here, one song there but when you listen to a full album, you get the whole picture. Collecting vinyl as well is nice. It’s a great physical thing to get into.

 

Q: A pleasure to talk to Zak, go and get another beer.

ZS: (laughs) I will. Thanks ever so much.