07EddiReader

My Lord and Chancellor,

You opened the ceremony by reminding us that this is a special day in the University calendar and one we all look forward to. Unusually, I’d like to almost literally echo your words in expecting everything to go not just well but perfectly today.

[cue second chorus of song Perfect, by Fairground Attraction]

Everyone knows that song. Fewer may know that it was a Number One hit in 1988 for Fairground Attraction. Their lead singer was Eddi Reader, whom I have the honour to present today. Eddi has lived what sounds a romantic life, fulfilling the dreams many of us have had, but never dared to live and using and sharing a glorious voice with an unswerving commitment to Scotland.

Sadenia Reader was born in August 1959 and spent her formative years in Glasgow growing up in Anderston then Arden as an unapologetic ‘schemie’. The eldest of seven children, her father Danny was a welder and home was a two room flat. With a growing family, Danny, his wife Jean and the family were re-housed in Irvine on the Ayrshire coast, to what seemed the luxury of a five apartment house. But Eddi stayed in Glasgow with her grandmother, completing her O levels before joining the rest of the family there.

Early musical influence came from her parents’ love of Elvis Presley and from her mother’s beautiful voice singing such songs as Pat Boone’s “Friendly Persuasion” or Peggy Lee’s “Wishing Ring”. At age 10, Eddi was given a small guitar for Christmas and, making the best of their cramped housing, she practised on it in a cupboard or singing on the tenement stairs, often giving singing lessons to friends! She fondly remembers her first gig with some of those friends at the Cuillins Bar in Arden for the large fee of a packet of crisps. Music began to play an increasingly important role in her life and she moved round the Folk clubs at Irvine and Kilmarnock, beginning to sing and write. But the influences were eclectic. She also worked in Glasgow at the Regent Cinema and claims to have seen the film Sunshine 32 times, entranced by its tale of terminal illness, struggling musicianship - and some wonderful John Denver songs.

During her time back in Glasgow, she busked in Sauchiehall Street, but was spotted by an aunt who ‘reported back’. This didn’t put her off however. She left school and got a job in a band in Kilmarnock, then gravitated to another in Falkirk, rather bemused that people could be paid for doing what they loved best, learning about a huge variety of kinds and styles of music. She soon lived every child’s dream, running away to join the circus, busking her way around Europe and taking on jobs such as grape picking.

As the winter set in and the money ran out she returned from France and set to work in a knitwear factory – where she made some very bad jumpers. With an amazing self-confidence, a beautiful voice and a brass neck, she successfully answered an advert in Melody Maker for a backing singer for Gang of Four, a politically aware punk band, and accompanied them on a trip to America. Travelling in America was a mind broadening experience and they worked with aspiring bands such as U2 and once famously had R.E.M. as their warm-up act. Something of a tearaway she lived the hedonistic style of rock bands. All of that has now gone, of course. As she poetically puts it “My drug of choice is singing”.

After the American tour she gravitated to London and picked up work recording adverts and singing sessions, most notably as backing singer on tours for Annie Lennox and the Eurythmics and for Alison Moyet. Her willingness to accept almost any offer reputedly led to her being nick-named ‘Ever-ready’ in the business – although she claims this is due to a mis-spelling on the chalk board in a pub. It was here that she learned her tradecraft, the recording skills, how to work in clubs and recording studios. And the busking continued. One idol was Edith Piaf with whom she did and does feel great empathy. Another was Ella Fitzgerald and one day she earned £200 busking only to blow the lot on a ticket to watch and listen to Ella Fitzgerald and Nelson Riddle.

She soon teamed up with like minded musicians to form the all to short-lived Fairground Attraction which quickly had a number one hit in 1988, followed by a platinum selling album in 1989. At the 1989 Brit Awards "Perfect" won the award for best single, and The First of a Million Kisses won best album. Those of a certain age will remember that this was the Brits with the [in]famous ceremony co-hosted by Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood. Shortly after this the band split up.

She returned for a while to Glasgow to a mixture of child-rearing, song-writing, recording in Kilmarnock at her brother Frank’s studio and acting, notably in the BBC TV comedy-drama series Your Cheatin’ Heart written by John Byrne and based on the Country and Western music scene in Scotland. She memorably describes her song-writing as “finding jewels in the junk shop of life”.

But the lure of London was strong and she was soon writing songs and recording the albums which form the core of her career’s work – the eighth studio album “Peacetime” was released only in January this year. In 1995 she was recognized at the Brit awards as Best British Female. A punishing schedule of tours and travel took its toll as Eddi struggled to balance her professional life with bringing up her two sons Charlie and Sam. Her mother was a great support with the children. They were clearly perfectly brought up in that son Charlie has shown a wisdom and maturity beyond his years in applying and being accepted for the Applied Music course here at Strathclyde. It is a pleasure to welcome Charlie and Sam, her mother Jean and her partner John Douglas to the ceremony today.

Eddi is proud of her Scottish roots and has now moved back to Glasgow where she displays an ingrained healthy West of Scotland skepticism.

Of Holyrood and our MSPs she said

“ I come from a place that had a lot of prejudice against 'my kind'. I will wait and see what they do with the power they may or may not get. If they can still protect our poor and our free museums and our libraries and education and our elderly and our sick and lonely then they will have my vote. I'm not sure that our leaders will 'care' about the ordinary folk of this planet and there will always be a suspicion in my mind. But I am extremely proud of my Scottish heritage and no kind of parliament will take that from me. I carry it with me wherever I go.”

But she approves of the sort of Can Do approach that characterizes this university. She says in a recent interview “I have voted Green all my adult life in spite of being told my vote was wasted , and that I was just some kinda 'hippy' but if enough people believe in something you can change the most entrenched mind set. I was sitting recently at a dinner with big business men and women who are taking on wave energy and putting tons of money towards developing it... I was honoured to sing to those supermen and superwomen... they are really doing it, fixing the problems... we will have bio energy to fuel cars in a few years...there are other things I noticed they were developing..they are working on keeping our old bonnie buildings and sorting them so they are more energy efficient.” I bet some of our engineers who are delivering sustainable energy were at that dinner.

But going back to Eddi’s music. Her musical influences are eclectic - Joni Mitchell, Frank Sinatra, Harry Nilsson, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Bob Dylan. And more recently Robert Burns and Scottish traditional music. When her father died, at the end of the Nineties her thoughts returned to her bit of Scotland... She says “I wanted to do a traditional album that related to the Celtic and Scottish music that I'd heard bits of throughout my life, from leaving school and going to Kilmarnock folk club, through all the folk clubs in Scotland and the folk festivals to busking and street singing." It taught me stuff about Scotland I didn't know - the north of Scotland, Gaelic music, the Celtic tradition and the Gaelic tongue”. At that point in her life much of Scotland, its culture and history was as foreign and exotic as her first trip to France had been. Almost by chance fate intervened with the Robert Burns album which has received rave reviews.

The music on the CD was originally a performance project done in connection with members of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and debuted in January 2003 in Glasgow as part of Celtic Connections. Indeed she is a regular and welcome performer at that great festival of which we are proud to be a part. Eddi has become something of a Burns fanatic and in a memorable turn of phrase in a radio interview described Mauchline as the Scottish Graceland. As a result of the album she had met "a whole bunch" of Scottish musicians - people she'd known over the years but never played with. "It's a different world, the Traditional world," she says with a grin, "they know a million tunes that I've never heard of but I love the sound of them, it's brilliant; you can stay up all night in their company and never feel tired. You don't need drink or drugs, it's just tunes and jigs and reels and action and energy and vibe and music and no ego and it feels great."

We are not the first to recognise Eddi’s outstanding talents and we shall certainly not be the last. In the 2006 New Years Honours List, she was awarded the MBE for services to music.

But the hard musicians life goes on even after the plaudits. Eddi is briefly at rest in Glasgow this week, but before the end of the month she is singing in Cornwall, Tokyo, Osaka, Exeter, Carlisle, Boston and Milwaukee.

And so My Lord and Chancellor, I have tried to outline the reasons for presenting Eddi Reader: a successful career as a musician and singer; a triumphant overcoming of all life’s hurdles standing in the way of success; and a sheer and unremitting professionalism. Eddi Reader's rare blend of heartfelt vocals and towering romanticism combine with an astute and pragmatic nature to make her a unique and powerful figure in contemporary British music. She has effortlessly developed into one of popular music's most thrilling and affecting performers. Whilst the perfection of her technique is widely acknowledged, what sets her apart is the depth and quality of the emotional performance; her ability not only to move the listener but to connect her experience to that of her audience. Her passion and instinct move people in a way reminiscent of those who have influenced her work.

And that is the final and overwhelming reason; the sheer compelling beauty of her voice

[cue Final chorus of Ae Fond Kiss]

My Lord and Chancellor, with the authority of Senate, it is my honour to present to you for the Degree of Doctor of the University honoris causa, Sadenia Reader.