Fairground Attraction will be performing in Oxford after getting back together for a UK tour and the release of their new album.
The British group first hit the scene on March 21, 1988, when their debut single ‘Perfect’ topped UK charts.
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.
However, the band fell apart on the first day of recording their second album.
Founding members, vocalist Eddi Reader and songwriter and guitarist Mark Nevin, however, went on to have individual success.
Now the band is set to play at Oxford's New Theatre on October 10 following the release of their second album, Beautiful Happening, on September 27.
The two band members, after a spontaneous performance together last year, decided to pursue their shared passion once more.
Japanese concert promoter Smash then invited the band to play at the 35th anniversary of Club Quattro in Nagoya, which saw Ms Reader and Mr Nevin, along with Simon Edwards and Roy Dodds, back together after more than three decades.
This led to the decision to embark on a full UK tour, book studio time, and finally, record their second album.
The band was described by Mr Nevin as "jazz musicians playing pop songs on folk instruments" in the 80s.
Ms Reader and Mr Nevin contacted Roger Beaujolais and Graham Henderson, who had toured with them back in the day, to join them in the studio on vibraphone and accordion respectively and, on January 27, they went into Master Chord Studio, in north London, to record the new songs.
On day one they recorded ‘A Hundred Years of Heartache’, and Mr Nevin had written ‘What’s Wrong With The World?’ in the weeks leading up to the sessions.
The song resonated with the tag-line 'You can change the mirror, but not the reflection', echoing the band’s journey of self-realisation and return to their musical roots.
The band also recorded 'Beautiful Happening', a song originally written for renowned Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
The death of the band’s tour manager, Vance Anderson, came a few weeks later.
The week he passed was the week ‘Hey Little Brother’ was written.
‘Sing Anyway’ is a song that featured on Mr Nevin's solo album, 'My Unfashionable Opinion', but has been given new life by Ms Reader's vocals.
Mr Nevin's favourite song is ‘Gatecrashing Heaven’, a gospel-flavoured soul ballad and the band says ‘Learning To Swim’ is the closest thing to 'Perfect', while ‘Sun And Moon’ expands the band’s ‘neo-skiffle’ sound in a celebration of love and forgiveness.
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