Eddi Reader’s new year resolutions: "Pray more, love more, dance more, sing more"

By Ross McMichael
 
2010 has been a very good year to be an Eddi Reader fan.

At the beginning of the year, a deluxe version of her landmark Songs of Robert Burns album was released to coincide with the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' death. Like the original release, the album was launched with two sold out shows at the annual Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow.

Her first self-produced album, in a now quarter of a century of recording, Love is the Way was released to great critical acclaim on Easter Monday. The Times, who gave it four stars out of five, wrote: "This trove of acoustic treasures... reminds you what a cherishable presence she continues to be" whilst Q magazine pondered that "Reader is in swooningly romantic mood and singing better than ever".

The release was followed by an extensive UK and Irish tour of 25 dates to launch the new album, as well as gigs in Japan, appearances with Luka Bloom and Dougie MacLean, a host of summer festivals including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Cambridge Folk, a reunion with the post-punk band who gave Eddi her first job back in 1981, Gang of Four, a guest vocal on BBC Radio 2 folk singer of the year, Julie Fowlis' new album Uam and to round it off - an appearance in a Hollywood movie no less! Amongst all this lot she managed to celebrate a landmark 50th birthday.

When people describe Reader as one of the hardest working musicians it's certainly hard to dispute. She’s about to head off to rehearsals with Phil Cunningham. His Christmas Songbook has become a well loved fixture in the Queen's Hall seasonal calendar. This year she will join Karen Mathieson, John McCusker, Kris Drever, Kevin McGuire and a special guest brass band for two fun nights of festive music.

As the year comes to a close, thoughts turn to her own personal highlights. "Well, it ain't over til it’s over but seeing myself in a Hollywood movie and getting to sing in that style I love singing in was a biggie. Getting Love is the Way together was blissful too. But the forties songs I sing in Me And Orson Welles are just like all the old party songs I remember as a little girl; dancing in the living room, twirly dancing to all the voices in the cigarette smoke. Some ghosts inhabited me doing those tunes."

What new thing has she learnt about herself in the last twelve months, good or bad? "I've learnt that the body does what it wants sometimes, without your consent.  I can tell that climbing trees mightn't happen to me again in this life...but you never know."

Who or what made you LOL in 2009? "My sons make me laugh all the time. All their life I know all their moods and when they are happiest they are gripping each other in headlocks and wedgies. The only difference now is that the whole house shakes and doors fall off of hinges... usually when I am putting tea down!"

What about the music that has inspired her this year? "I grew more interested in some things. But I am like the old dears digging potatoes in the field; I know exactly where to go to get what I need. It's rare for me to find something remarkable and life enhancing... but it does happen, and it makes life so amazing when it does."

"I've been playing the Me and Orson Welles soundtrack lots. Edythe Wright is getting a load of my Christmas money. I love her singing The Music Goes Round and Round with the Tommy Dorsey band. I played that twenty times yesterday, four times today... now I wanna hear it again!"

"I revisited loads of stuff. At the beginning of this year I fell madly in love with the sound of Kathleen MacInnes' voice, so soulful, so Gaelic".

Proving it's not all about the retro, new sounds that tickled her fancy included All the Kings Men by indie rockers Wild Beasts; Pixie Lott's chart topper Boys and Girls ("I like the little lisp she has when she sings "got it going on") and even Lady Gaga ("she can sing!!").

And of course, her brother, Frank and partner John's band Trascan Sinatras must get a special mention. Their recent album, In the Music she says, is "a precious, precious thing. People will be playing that when we are like those ancient silent movie stars."

So, what will Christmas Day be like in the Reader household this year? "Well, being a singer of little brain and memory each one turns up with its surprises. I am having my mum and uncle join us this year. I will try not to skin them alive beforehand! I am cooking so let's see what happens there. Bob Dylan's Christmas album will be playing whilst I fumble round the kitchen. As will Mindy Smith’s Christmas album My Holiday: "When you're there and you shine, bright as a beacon, bright as a northern star. Don’t worry because Santa will find you, wherever you are, Santa will find you tonight".

And after a jam-packed 2009, what does 2010 have in store? "Danny Thompson invited me to play at his Danny and Friends Celtic Connections gig in January. And for the first time Transatlantic Sessions are touring in February and I have been asked along for the laugh."

Also in February is a celebratory concert for The Stables' 40th anniversary. Opened in 1970 by world-renowned jazz musicians Dame Cleo Laine and Sir John Dankworth, the intimate venue, built on land next to their home in Wavendon, has proved to be a favourite venue for many of the world's finest musicians. Recent concert highlights have included Joan Armatrading, Bill Wyman, Beth Neilsen Chapman, Suzanne Vega, Cerys Matthews and Kate Rusby, to name but a few.

Eddi herself has performed there on many occasions - a particular highlight being her performance with the Johnny Dankworth band as part of BBC Radio 2's popular series Live at The Stables.

After this there's an Irish tour. "I play Tralee, Co Kerry for the first time in my own right. My granny, Madge Nammock left there aged 19 in 1921 to settle in Glasgow. What a brave wee lass she was. I was her ninth grandchild I think. She had a whole village of us!"

March and April are also booked up with an Australian and New Zealand tour where she continues to have a popular fanbase. With 2010 shaping up to be as busy as 2009, it seems the singer has no plans to slow down just yet.

Any new year resolutions? "Be gentle, don't fear. Pray more, love more, dance more, sing more. Oh and eat a little less of the Waitrose pecan and butterscotch pastries!"

Phil Cunningham’s Christmas Songbook is at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh on 21 and 22 December: www.thequeenshall.net

Celtic Connections 2010 runs from Thursday 14 - Sunday 31 January across Glasgow: www.celticconnections.com

Once you've opened your prezzies and put the turkey in the oven on Christmas morning pull up a seat and tune in to BBC Radio Scotland to hear Eddi being interviewed by popular broadcaster Edi Stark.

Eddi will be joining Edi for a special Christmas special of her award-winning show Stark Talk at 9.05am.

UK listeners can catch it online at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0079g8x

I have just noticed that one of the songs I recorded for the ME AND ORSON WELLES has been put up on itunes.
Its a, filmed by RICHARD LINKLATER, full version of the song I SURRENDER DEAR.

I have just bought it.
Is that wrong?

let me know what you think of me and my 30's moves
love
eddi hollywood reader


UPDATE:

I Surrender Dear video on iTunes

Me and Orson Welles soundtrack on iTunes

Ok John Trashcan read my SO HO blog up until the bit about the ALGERIANS .... then he just read "BLAH BLAH BLAH..."

The REAL story is:
They had to get TWO ONE to qualify... they qualified to play a play off match then they did this other game and WON ONE NIL....! thats why they were jumping up and doon.

GOT THAT!??! Sheesh.. get it right Reader....

or have I just written ...' blah blah blah blah blah blah...." ?????

START!!!:

Trained it down to London from Glasgow, I had been knocked out by bronchitis and I was determined to 'go to the ball' ... I had no new clothes so I got a few ideas together and stuffed a bag.
I took my BLUE fake fur REISS stole... I thought if I might wear it for the premiere but, if not,  I could sleep on it on the train window the whole way south.

I did.... sleep on it

I arrived crumpled in Euston where I met my sister Jean, and we walked to the tube to go to my friend Nitsa's house.  I was given four tickets to the Premiere of ME AND ORSON WELLES. Jean takes pictures relentlessly, shes a great amature photographer and she was determined to document everything. Nitsa is my amazingly wise and wonderful Cypriot friend she was coming and wanted to try on lipstick for the first time in forty years. (shes a natural beauty).

The first thing we saw was a GIGANTIC POSTER, for Me And Orson Welles, two meters by four on the wall of the underground station.  Clare Danes airbrushed face had a little torn bit under her left nostril.  I wanted to draw a little me hanging from the Empire State in the background.

Jean shushed me and took pictures...

When we got to Nitzas in Putney we brought chocolates and wine and Paul, Nitsas fella made us soup.
Jean took pictures...
I also invited Cheyanne, my friend, Angies daughter. Shes a student film producer and was wetting herself with excitement about going to the premiere.

At 5:00 after fussing and preening we all got in an Addison lee car and he whisked us off to Leicester Square. I thought I was paying for the full door to red carpet but he dropped us at the opposite edge of Leicester Square and we HOBBLED to the other side where we could see crowds forming.

The premiere started at 7:00 so we got there too early and they wouldnt let us walk on the red carpet for another 20 mins... Hey ho.... Hello mohitos.....
The bar took my Scottish twenty pound notes (surprisingly!!)...
Jean took pictures....

Twenty minutes later we wobbled over to the Red Carpet and slinked our way along it being snapped and flashlit by a MILLION Zac Efron fans... He was wandering along, signing and chatting... All the way along we were led like brushed beads down a plughole into the VUE cinema entrance.... We left Zac at the start... He didnt miss us.

I asked Jean:  "How come you aint taking pictures?"
She told me: "Ach it'll look daft, me, taking pictures THIS side of the barrier!!"

HA! I love her and her daft ways....

So we settled into our seats and watched the screen... The cinema provided a Galaxy bar and water.  For an hour we watched the screen while some fella interviewed all who arrived.  We had gone in too early.. I saw Jools being interviewed and Christian McKay, who plays Orson Welles,

The music was running in the background and I heard all three songs that me and Julian recorded.

I stuffed the last of the Galaxy bar into my mouth and...

The lights dimmed .. A massive spotlight fell on floor in front of the screen and the guy who was just outside interviewing welcomed everyone then introduced Richard Linklater and his cast. He thanked us all and hoped we would enjoy the movie...

What a FANTASTIC FILM!!
SERIOUSLY !!!!  this is a good one....... I thought I was watching Its A Wonderful Life.

When my bit came on Jean had to stop me from standing up and yelling:
"THATS ME THAT IS... !!"

I need to see the movie again because for a good ten minutes after seeing me sing I was weeping and my eyesight got blurry....so did my mascara.

Afterward we were to join everyone and get on a couple o coaches headed for the east of London and some club...
As soon as we set off we could hear screaming, yelling , horns blazing continuously... the coaches were at an almost standstill .. we saw the reason eventually... HUNDREDS of ALGERIAN flags.. jumping people in their team colours, climbing up chimneys and diving into fountains in Trafalgar Square.  I called home...  I spoke to the footballing guru John Trashcan Douglas:
"oh yeah, for years, the poor, underdog, Algerians have battled against the Egyptians to qualify for the world cup. The rivalry is like oor Celtic and Rangers.  But with the Egyptians having an upper hand most times.  This time the Algerians had to achieve TWO NOTHING to just LEVEL with them... so... they were up one nil, then five minutes before the end they scored. The goal was contested by the Egyptians but allowed, then, miraculously, they scored a third goal".

I might have the details wrong there... I started thinking about the rainforest trees in Trafalgar square about the time John said 'world cup... blah blah blah..agrigate..blah blah..two one.. blah..'.

But good for them Algerians, I sent the one I married years ago a text saying Well done...

We got through the traffic.  Got to the club. A tribal/ South Pacific island kinda vibe.
some geezer in a Hawiian shirt grabbed our attention:
"Hey !  you ladies look like you dont have a drink! Whadda ya want?  TALL AND SWEET? SHORT AND SOUR?"

Tall and sweet got the vote and we were introduced to something called A TOUCH OF EVIL an cocktail named after an Orson movie.
I danced, jean took pictures, Nitsa giggled, Cheyanne got a job in Hollywood... chatting up Richard Linklater ....or something... I started getting flirty.

Ok I cant really remember much after that but, ZAC if there wis an auld drunk wummin wi ripped-to-shreds tights, pinching yur arse It wisnae me!!

NOT THE FINISH!!

Ahead of her gig with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh on Sunday 29 November, Eddi was interviewed by the BBC.

In the short clip below, Eddi shares her experiences of singing with an orchestra and how although she'd always dreamt of singing with an orchestra she never imagined singing folk songs would lead her down that path.

On the night, the BBC SSO play music from the recent TV series, A History of Scotland, accompanied by some of its stunning visuals.

As well as joining Eddi, the award winning orchestra, conducted by Robert Zeigler, will accompany, from Deacon Blue, Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh aka McIntosh Ross and Belle & Sebastian's latest project God Help The Girl.

It will be a night of top quality Scottish music which spans traditional, contemporary, classical and indie.

Tickets cost £15, or £10 with concessions, and can be booked by calling the Usher Hall box office on 0131 228 1155.

I have just discovered Twitter.... I never follow trends usually... I only saw the sit-com Friends after the show stopped.
My sister was mad for Friends and would watch it every morning, noon and night.
Everyone on the planet was talking about Friends.
I just didn't join in.
I wasn't no slave to no HYPE bullshit...HA!..
......Then I watched a couple of her VHS tapes of the first season and I noticed how great a show it was... and despite the mental eighties clothes....I was hooked.

So, I have been cautious about trends ever since and make sure I check them out just incase its something that will thrill me and I never knew....

Along came:
 Big Brother, Celebrity Big Bro, Wife Swap, youtube, myspace, Dragons Den, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Oot O Here, Britains got talent... etc etc etc and they have exhausted me.

I LOVE the way shows like X Factor have the United Kingdom... well ... UNITED...

Even though WE KNOW Its all pish!!!
But... look.... we have ever and ALWAYS had pish to watch... seems like pish and its accompanying fall out, that we all talk about and moan about, gives us all something to talk about and moan about, to each other.  Something to relate to each other about.
We dont have to believe its GOOD... we just have to know that its the usual pish that turns us into the Les Dawson women, shoving their auld tits up and gossiping over the fence...  I like that we become that sometimes... hee hee... I LOVE THAT!


AND So here comes Twitter into my life....  Good friend Ross got me involved and while I am in my bronchial bed I have been checking it all out!
To my delight it satisfies me on many levels.
I get to be a snoopy cow AND annoy myself with not getting replies from people I admire....WHATS UP YOKO ONO????  CAT GOTT YUR FINGER??.....

ALSO ...I think being encouraged to contribute to this world community we share is very interesting and possibly enormously positive... so there!

Last night, I decided to walk the many paths of youtube... I always tend to find myself in some forest of strange videos at three in the morning......never knowing how I got wherever I end up before sleep comes.

Last night I found CHRIS CROCKER.... I ask to be excused for not knowing ONE SINGLE THING about this human being... but, by the vibe of the stuff I was seeing on my lap..this soul was REALLY FAMOUS for something,  MAD as hell about something, erudite ....and  making me laugh right out loud......

My son came in to do slave tasks for his coughing parent.
He noticed I was listening/watching Chris Crocker. He said:

'O he's that guy that was upset about Britney Spiers... although I think he might be kidding on"

That led to me looking on my laptop at Chris Crocker, under a blanket, distressed about this pop person Britney Speirs and really, really, tearful and upset about the media treatment of her... I guess he taped that a while ago.

I got the point that he had a lot of 'hits' on his video...or podcast....maybe four MILLION hits....and further tv apperances, some notoriety, and relentless media interest in the USA... BECAUSE of this one video he made.
I thought he was just some mad Britney fan.
But I noticed something in his wit, and the sharpness of his talk, I noticed something in his manner that led me to look some more.  I found videos he made before his 'BS' video...and while living with his grannie.
I happen to now think that this man.... (I believe he is in the process of developing into a she).... is one of the great comedic minds of our time. Like an Andy Kaufman ... absurd, challenging and ridiculous. 
This might be totally wrong. But I think the geezer is only 21 years old and his earlier vids, made a few years ago...the Nose Picker Vid, his Jobbies Are Holy vid, His 'Cuss words' vid, his 'walmart' vid... all of them around one minute long, are the funniest thing I have seen since Brian Limond.

So I tweeted him.... and told him so....
If I get some mad abuse in return... Twitter can TWEET OFF!!!!

THIS IS THE ONLY TIME YOU HAVE... RIGHT NOW

NO ONE HAS MORE OR LESS.

ENHANCE YOUR LIFE... see them, hear them, Get Weightlifted.

They play Nottingham in a couple of days then London... then 'secret BREL BAR GIGS' in glasgow.

then KILMARNOCK HOMECOMING to drum Diageo OOT O TOON!!!!!! during the late afternoon on the 28th...  Good riddance to the theives of our Johnny Walker.

then the boys return from whence they came.  catch it now.

xx

TOOO EARLY..!!!!!!

The morning after the Trashcan Sinatras night before. I had to wake them up for an early jump to Kelso, where they are gigging tonight.  Tomorrow Edinburgh.  I might help out on the merch stall.

How BRILLIANT are the Trashcan Sinatras.??!!!?!  I stood in the middle of a packed venue, all wrapped up and protecting my Bronchial infestation from being shared... yeek....

They were playing in the ORAN MOR. Glasgow.  I love that venue anyway, but tonight the place seemed to be presenting me with an opportunity to stand back and soak up its ancient Glasweigian blessings.  The ORAN MOR means 'Heavenly Voice' in Gaelic.

The Trashcans have previously been touring the USA and they sounded match fit,
 I was so proud of them. The sound was great.  Frankie my wee brother was singing so well. He has just been discovering in-ear monitors and was enjoying his own wee musical landscape direct to his inner ear.. They are such a relief for singers when you have louder instruments with you on stage, or if you have to try and find a sound while hearing all the other musicians in an unbalanced way.   Frankie has just come home for a visit from California.  He's lived there a full year now and I miss having him nearby for long chats and unraveling of all kinds of knots. I, like my mum and sister Richeal got a lot out of Frank... He helped me get my children back years ago when I nearly lost them.  He stood by on everystep of my journey and held me up.  But I am glad now that when I think of him I see him in warm sunshine and looked after by his new and wonderful wife Tanya in California.

He was remarkably untanned.  I thought that was good.  We all flustered around him with our tales and stretched children.  Mum made him soup, steak pie and brought him Kimberly Biscuits, his long time favourite.
Our mum is like that with her expressions of love.  She's a shy girl but she shows up with our favourite dinner when she wants to tell us she loves us.
We were all there in the venue to say hello to our brother and listen to how far they have come since leaving Kilmarnock.

The songs all made my heart full and my feet felt like I would float right up and out of that building.  I wish I could express how special it was to see Paul, Frank, Stephen, my John, Stevie and NEW bass player Frank.  All delivering. Every lyric seemed so smart and real:

"I'll take these blues skies, however fleeting. Theres beauty in life, theres beauty in life.."
" People, people who fall in love, I feel like I'm one of them"
.."oranges were made for you, and the apples too all made for you, all the things that you went through, now everything is enhanced by you'
...' you led me headlong, to the place where I belong.."
.."and shes making me love, I aint making this up..."
 

I prayed to all the protestant ghosts in that old Kelvinside Parish Church converted into the cultural space thats now called Oran Mor, (somehow I think that if there is a God he would get a kick out of the place being used like that, it spent the 80's boarded up, Gods an artist!), that they would bless the Trashcans and that their music will be loved by millions so that my brother can come home when he likes and so that they continue.. and maybe, just maybe John will stop wearing that stripey shirt he loves so much.....and buy a nice pair of shoes.... sigh
KEEP making their glorious, glorious, life enhancing music.

I paid for my ticket.  Its my new rule... if I want to see something and it isnt a problem to pay, then I wanna pay. I think its how we survive as musicians

ANYWAY ...after the gig it was all back to my hoose, hot toddies and sitting infront of a cosy fire, play guitar and unravel knots with the Californians.

my brother is a beautiful life.

Eddi will be rounding off a very busy year with the release of "Dragonflies" from her very popular "Love is the Way" album at the end of the month.

"Dragonflies" will be released on iTunes on 30th November, with B-sides "Juxtaposed With U" a cover of the Super Furry Animals and Amy Winehouse's "Love is a Losing Game". You can hear excerpts from both tracks on the MySpace player.

 

I am in bed with some yuch development in my lungs.  Welcoming the time to indulge in my guilty pleasure of time travelling.

In the 1840's a young boy called Karl Rader came to Fife, Scotland to find his fortune.  I dont know why he stopped in Fife, but he found a lovely, young lass to marry him there and they both lived in the small port village of Dysart. Her name was Sarah Hunter.
Dysart was renowned, at that time, for its coal and salt imports and exports.  The black and the white.
Karl had come from Hahn in Germany.  He brought with him his skills as a musical instrument maker and set himself up as a music teacher and a piano tuner.
They were very happy in Dysart but Karl had ambitions and wanted to make his own instruments in his own shop.
Sarah gave birth to three young children, JAMES, DANIEL, WILLIAM, and CHARLES in Dysart and the six of them moved to the BIG city of Edinburgh to try and set up a business there.
Sarah gave birth to another batch of children in Edinburgh, JESSIE, ANNE ISABELLA, HAZELWOOD, ALEXANDER. CHRISTOPHER and DAVID. 
Karl was succesful in his business and even employed workers.
But because he came from Germany and British/ German relations were strained during the 1st Boer war, our Karl and his family felt unwanted and racially attacked.  He and Sarah also suffered the infant deaths of their children ALEXANDER, CHRISTOPHER AND DAVID. With a heavy heart, he gave up his business in Edinburgh and the family returned to DUNDEE where they began their lives anew.
While the children grew,  Karl taught them how to make musical instruments. The house would be full of music and the sounds of Lutes, mandolines, banjos and guitars.
They grew up with musical talents but found work in other industries.  The girls: Jessie and Ann Isabella work in the Jute mills of Dundee.
The boys: Hazelwood, Charles and William got involved in becoming Barbers and gave up music.
The eldest boys, James and Daniel came of age and moved 100 miles to the, far west, city of Glasgow. Both boys decided to change the spelling of their last name to avoid connection with anything German.
James found work as an iron turner and brought his young wife Mary Ann to live and settle with him.  Her father was a music hall entertainer and sometimes the Rader brothers would play music with him.
Daniel married Ann who's father was a Glasgow street musician.

Both the eldest boys died in the early half of the 1900's. And with them all connection to their family and Karl Rader back east. Their descendants included my gt, grandfather, grandad, father and me.

A month ago I decided to look up the name Rader, (my real name apparently) and found only a few in the east of Scotland.
I called up someone and said:
"Err, Hi, My name is Eddi and I think we might be related."

I drove over to ST Andrews and found a descendant of Hazelwood, a fella called Jurek, who is an Art Historian in St Andrews and has spent the past couple of decades working on his family history. He noticed some 'holes' which I helped him fill, and he introduced me to his daughter Annakate. She is in her early twenties and is working in a coffee shop.
... But... Jurek told me he had no idea of this but that she was a singer and a piano player and out of the blue, one day, she sat at the piano and played beautiful, florid, music. Learned by ear.

I invited her and her friend Alice to come for the weekend to my home two or three saturdays ago.

I awoke on a bright, autumn, saturday morning with the beautiful sound of Annakate playing piano.  We sung together and I felt that I had found a new born baby with all the joy that a new life like that brings.

When I took both of those lovely, twittering, girls to catch the evening train home to St Andrews on Sunday night, I walked away from Georges Square feeling like all the brothers in heaven were re-united and smiling down on me.

What a trip this life is.

xxx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVObfmOSNGg

I have just discovered Mr Jack Teagarden on Youtube singing .... for free.... THE STARS FELL ON ALABAMA... I pass that link on to EVERYONE nearly every day! He died a poor man and sadly no record company looked after him as well as the execs of the record companies he recorded for...

oh man oh man oh man.... in a uniform.... I am gonna write the most amazing six part mini drama of how a lass from Irvine New Town was taken on a magical journey in 1982, by the chords of her throat, and spun round by those Gang Of Four people.
They were my first proper music job...... I am sooo addicted to them... got to add some vocals to their new recordings and I CANT WAIT to be asked to come sing with them again. Of all the people I have worked with I value them the most because of what they taught me.

It was 27 years between last seeing them wave goodbye to me, from their tour van, after they dropped me near ILFORD station in the early 80's and my consequent journey, to last week, when they had me back in their arms... All the lifetime events I went through... Jon King had a foundness for my Faither, and my da was 'good value' in the late night, after show bars. I broke it to Jon that Danny had died in '96, of welding and its chemicals that he'd inhaled over 44 years of labour.
My mother got one thousand pounds in compensation.

I reminded them of how 'green' they thought I was back then, when they stopped in some service station in the States (my first time there),  and told me that I was to go buy a kilo of cocaine from the supermarket freezer section because it was 'legal' in the States'......... I looked , and looked, and looked............ until I came back with some ice lollies instead, into a giggling van.

Or the games we played.  My favourite was PIKE... you had to nominate who got to be THE PIKE...(best played with the support band at the hotel after show, I usually fancied some guitarist or other... dont we all, eh??).....
So, the PIKE had to try and BITE the back of someones ankle, once he or she did that, then the BITTEN had to become a PIKE also.....you can imagine the carnage in some poor sods room with about twenty people in various states of alcoholic frenzy trying to escape five to ten very eager PIKES.

The image scored into my brain of Andrew Gill standing in the hallway of a Bristol hotel with a train wreck of a room full of the UNBITTEN escaping from THE PIKES, POURING out of the door onto the floor, Andrew was standing stock still and holding a, perfectly full, glass of white wine and in the other hand a long ashed cigarette...(you could smoke inside buildings then)....someone had pulled his trousers to the floor and still unpeturbed he turned his head to greet a fellow hotel guest who had come out of his doorway in a TARTAN housecoat and hair net, to complain forcefully about the terrible racket.. at 3 AM.... Andrew turned to him, while we were all paused, deeply exhausted and stifling our giggles, prostrate, at his ankles in a 'twister' kind of a mess. 
Andy being spokesman said:
'I am so terribly sorry about all this... they will all be punished"

Then there was the glorious, glorious, GLORIOUS music... the pounding drumming of Hugo Burnham...now magnificently developed and taken to other levels by MR MARK HEANEY....
There was also the cute, calming, feminine support of Sara Lee ... now the Bass is masterfully played by MR THOMAS McNEICE, (and weirdly he also supplied the supporting, asking me to come play with the NEW Gang on these shows...Making sure I was aware of dates and times...etc.....Thomas is a Glasgow boy.. and he looks like young Elvis when he smiles).

There was also ANDREW GILL AND HIS GUITAR NOISES... THANK THE LORD! for that man.
and the remarkable-Cary-Grant-lookalike handsome, ALWAYS POLITE, SUPER SMART, HUMAN BEING, JON KING!!!!
The words, the care, the stage craft of Jon.... It was Jon who actually gave me the job. He and Andrew were the elder brothers I never had.

Jon, last week, was telling everyone the funny story (and unheard by me until now), of how it felt to go through thousands and thousands of auditions ...
Gang of Four X Factor style.... seeing girl upon girl .... the wackiest, oddest of people, people who didnt know the words nor had any tune in their throats....
The Gang of Four had begun to despair....... until I came down from Irvine to London and sung them a verse and chorus of one of their own songs....(I had been practicing for days with my mothers kitchen pots and packets... there were two boxed adverts in the music paper that week... one for them and the other was some smokey, Shakatak kinda band...I am SOOO lucky I chose them to call that day)

Jon said ..."thats it.. its her... lets go to the pub....!"

(I remember him saying that but I also remember that there was another girl in the running after they decided on me... she was a nice lass and we played with them on The Old Grey Whistle Test Together... then they settled finally on me... I wonder where she went.....)

The end came when they became troubled about their relationships with each other on the way home from the USA.....  They were stopping working together and I was the least of their responsibilities and worries...... I went on my merry, newly experienced way... and never saw them again..... Needless to say... They taught me a lot..... about music.. but also alot about partying hard..... My next job was when Annie lennox of the Eurythmics had seen me sing and had demanded that Dave Stewart 'find me!"
.......But I am sure she didnt appreciate my GARGLING LA TRAVIATA!!! with VODKA in the tour bus ...... the roadies did.... But the poor woman was trying to give me a leg up and I was more concerned about who I could fall in love with and when the next party was.....I could not get serious....

Backing singing was a big learning curve for me... making a harmony or thickening the sound of someone else on stage is a massive skill and it took me all of my time to perfect it... I TOTALLY respect ALL backing singers...  but the truth was, that it also bored me. I felt unfulfilled.
Fairground Attraction was actually me using my skills at a time when I had come out of that phase and was looking to stretch my self vocally... I was in love with waltz time and Edith Piaf.....I asked Mark Nevin to write songs for me that sounded like that and told that kind of story......Although I handled the singing it was all really new to me... I had no idea of what I could really do with my voice until much later....
I would love to re-record that First of A Million Kisses album... I could sing those songs much better now...... Maybe that will happen one fine day....

But what a laugh I had with The Gang of Four, now and then........
This time was JUST as funny and JUST (if not more so) as musical... I am sooo proud they had me back.
I wanna write about the past week with them.. I think it would be a great finish to a thirty year story...

It felt like my homecoming
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Eddi appeared on her old friend Jools Holland's Later show on BBC 2 last night with Leeds post punk band, Gang of Four.

She joined them on stage for their 1982 hit I Love a Man in Uniform and if you're in the UK you can watch it online, courtesy of the BBC iPlayer for the next seven days.

Eddi performs with the band, who she first worked with 27 years ago, for one last time tonight at the Forum in London.