Eddi Reader
Sadenia "Eddi" Reader MBE (born 29 August 1959)[1] 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. In 2003, she showcased the works of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns.
Eddi Reader
Sadenia Reader
29 August 1959
Glasgow, Scotland
- Singer
- songwriter
- musician
- record producer
- Vocals
- acoustic guitar
- concertina
- harmonica
- piano
- ukulele
1984–present
Early career[edit]
Reader was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of a welder, and the eldest of seven children;[2] her brother Francis is vocalist with the band Trashcan Sinatras, and her grandmother Sadie Smith was a leading Scottish footballer.[3] She was nicknamed Edna by her parents. 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.[4]
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.[4][5] 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.[6]