Fairground Attraction History
Fairground Attraction started when Eddi Reader (singer/songwriter) who had worked with Alison Moyet and Eurythmics as a backing vocalist, called and requested her pal Mark E. Nevin (songwriter/guitar) who was then travelling across the US, to write songs for her. Then came Roy Dodds (drums/percussion) and Simon Edwards (guitaron) and Fairground Attraction came to life.
They played in small clubs and pubs, and gradually gained reputation. They were signed to RCA in '87 and released their debut single Perfect in April of '88. This rockabilly-style pop tune turned out to be an instant hit and rocketed to number one (two weeks) on the UK singles chart.
Their debut album, The First of A Million Kisses, very well displayed their musical abilities. It was a collection of songs with elements of folk, jazz, country and cajun, all fused into acoustic yet pop music with romantic lyrics by Mark E. Nevin and emotional and expressive vocals by Eddi Reader. It also did very well on the chart. Released in May, it debuted at number three (peak position: number two) on the UK singles chart. They were awarded the Best Album for this album as well as the Best Single for Perfect in the Brit Awards next year. They released three more singles from the album: Find My Love, A Smile in A Whisper and Clare.
They were also popular in other European countries and they even did a US tour too. In Japan where their popularity was as high as it was in the UK, they did the first and only tour in June to July, '89. They did six sold-out shows, one of which was packaged into the only official live CD Kawasaki Live in Japan 02.07.89 after 14 years.
But in a short while after Japan tour, in September, some sources reported they had some arguments during the recording of their unreleased-in-the-end second album, which was supposed to include most of Sweetmouth songs, and they might break up. In January '90, it was officially announced that the band had broken up and would release one more album (Ay Fond Kiss) with B-sides and so forth. Walking After Midnight was released as their fawewell single from it.
Before they were Fairground Attraction...
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