Fairground Attraction – Beautiful Happening (Music CD)
Fairground Attraction’s first single, ‘Perfect’, came out on 21 March, 1988 and quickly went
to Number One on the UK charts and in countries all around the world. Their debut album
The First Of A Million Kisses, earned triple-platinum sales status and the group won Brit
Awards for Best Single and Best Album of 1988 – they were the first band to win both these
coveted awards in the same year; only Blur, Coldplay and Adele have done it since.
While ‘Perfect’ has gone on to become regarded as a genuine pop classic, Fairground Attraction imploded on the first day of recording what should have been their second album, leaving fans, and the band themselves, wondering what might have been had they been able to continue. Founding members, vocalist Eddi Reader and songwriter/guitarist Mark Nevin went on to have varied and successful careers but, like an annoying mosquito, the ’what ifs’ persisted for 35 long years.
“Why now?” people ask, on hearing the news that the band has reformed. While there are many ways in which this question could be answered, ultimately they found themselves at what just felt like the right moment. Nothing was forced or negotiated, no one’s lawyer talked to anyone’s manager – they don’t even have such things. Perhaps they just got bored of not being friends. Maybe the weirdness of lockdown reminded them of their mortality and woke them up to the fact that if they were ever going to play together again, they had better get on with it because it might soon be too late. Whatever the reason, Mark and Eddi found themselves ordering a couple of croissants in a coffee shop a couple of years ago, on the morning after Eddi’s annual show at the Union Chapel in London. The conversation could have started with: “…and as I was saying,” because it felt so natural and familiar, as though they were just picking up a thread from the evening before. It was a long time coming, but it was worth the wait. There is no other band like Fairground Attraction and, after more than 35 years, this is only their second album. Will there be another? Who knows, but whatever happens, don’t miss this, it is beautiful.
