ShareFairground Attraction performing their Beautiful Happening Tour at The Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on Friday 4th October 2024.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
For Fairground Attraction their appearance at the Royal Concert Hall on Friday night was a long time coming, after a bout of considerable success in the late 1980’s and the bands estrangement for the best part of thirty four years.
For their Beautiful Happening Tour all four original members took to the stage. Songwriter Mark Nevin, singer Eddi Reader, drummer Roy Dodds and guitarron player Simon Edward were augmented by two excellent musicians, vibraphone player Roger Beaujolais and percussionist Graham Henderson, and as they walked on stage singing Oasis’ Roll With It, they were given a warm welcome before Reader announced “Sorry, wrong reunion”.
Delivering a set list that comprised of the bulk of their debut album, The First Of A Million Kisses and their second and latest offering, Beautiful Happening, they opened with a sublime new song A Hundred Years Of Heartache which they followed up with A Smile In A Whisper.
Nevin’s creativity in the band made their work stand out from so many other songs written at the time and listening to them on Friday, it was clear that not only have they survived the test of time, but have somehow got even better.
Comedy Waltz, Find My Love and Moon On The Rain were very well received and Clare was the slower of Fairground Attraction that saw Reader screeching for her very soul as she urged the crowd to sing along.
New song Sing Away originally appeared on Nevin’s 2017 solo album, My Unfashionable Opinion but Reader really owned it as she vocally showed of her slightly deeper voice. Learning To Swim was an amusing ditty with a catchy tune and lyrics that brought a smile to the crowd’s faces. Gatecrashing Heaven was a slower and soulful song with Reader’s vocals impressing.
And of course there was the bands first single, Perfect that had the crowd on their feet before an encore of Fear Is The Enemy Of Love, the gentle Lullaby For Irish Triplets and the rousing Allelujah brought to a close an evening that had seen the band ready to take another ride, one they are clearly enjoying with a hard earned maturity.