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Eddi Reader owes it all to a childhood guitar

Eddi Reader
Eddi Reader

However, with a Best Of compilation just out, she admits that hearing her back catalogue has revived some wonderful memories, and she hopes to add more classic music in the years to come.

“I tend not to listen to myself at all, then it’s a nice surprise when I hear something of mine playing somewhere!” laughs the 56-year-old, whose biggest hit was Perfect with Fairground Attraction in 1988.

“It’s like a stranger, and then I can judge it like a blank canvas.

“All the feelings come back.

“I don’t remember too many technical details, unless the drummer went off in a huff when I asked him to do something he didn’t fancy!

“I look at it all like the underside of a tapestry, all threads and complex, messy things, and when you look back, it’s as if somebody has turned it over and you see your career properly.”

One of her cherished memories is of another Scottish musical legend, the late, great John Martyn, of May You Never and Sweet Little Mystery fame.

“I was sitting with John, totally starstruck, but being a typical Glaswegian, I used humour to get over my nerves,” Eddi explains.

“I told him: ‘Come on, John, I’ll show you how to play your songs!’

“So I took the guitar and started playing his brilliant song Dancing, which I had learned with just the usual basic chords.

“He grabbed the guitar back, shouting: ‘Give me that thing!’ and played it properly.

“He’d said he wasn’t going to play, so that was my way of getting him to pick up the guitar. What a lovely moment!”

She’s having more lovely moments on the road now.

As Eddi reveals, whether she’s in Dublin, Sheffield, Cardiff or her home city, her concert philosophy is simple.

Don’t plan too much, play off the cuff, and don’t stop until you see a lot of smiling, happy faces.

“I tend to not have a set list, so I just busk it and play what I want,” she reveals.

“And hopefully, after an hour and a half, people clap.

“As long as it feels like we’ve had a lovely night, I am happy.

“Basically, I just want to share music with as many people as possible, before my teeth fall out.

“It can be funny, as Saturday- night audiences are energetic, but it can be different on a Monday.”

She owes it all, she reckons, to a guitar she was given in 1969.

“I got a nice guitar for my 10th birthday,” she reveals. “It was a good one, which I begged my mother for. With a beautiful sound, I loved it, and a cousin taught me how to tune it.”

Eddi’s new Best Of album is out now, on Reveal Records, and she is touring the UK most of the year.


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