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FAIRY LIGHT NIGHTS - LIVE ACOUSTIC
All About Eve are back ... after reforming last year to support The Mission for a couple of shows, the band have carried on and produced this 'unplugged' cd that was recorded live earlier this year.
Most of the featured songs are from their albums 'All About Eve' (1987) and 'Touched By Jesus' (1991), but there are a few newies included too. The personnel for this album are the crystal voiced Julianne Regan, Andy Cousin on bass and guitars and Marty Willson-Piper on guitars.
The band originally rose to fame on the back of the 'Goth' rock wave in the late eighties and scored a few hit singles. Their first two albums were very successful allowing them to play big tours and tread the
boards of such venues as the Hammersmith Odeon and the Royal Albert Hall in London. As a fan of acts such as Solstice, Judie Tzuke and Renaissance I latched onto AAE's music straight away - their fine
musicianship and combination of folk and rock styles, together with Julianne Regan's stunning voice made them one of the few bands to listen out for in that period. Sadly their success withered and, after the
release of their disappointing fourth album 'Ultraviolet', the band drifted apart.
That's the brief history lesson over, so what of this new album?
Well the sound quality is mostly very good and there's a clutch of the band's classics from yesteryear. 'What Kind of Fool' opens the album followed by 'In The Clouds' and a rousing version of 'Share It With Me'. Marty Willson-Piper excells himself, on guitar, during the emotionally charged 'Shelter From The Rain' while Andy Cousin's melodic bass playing serves to compliment the proceedings in superb fashion and Julianne hits all the notes with ease.
Of the new songs, 'Forever' and 'Will I Start to Bleed' are written by Marty and 'Miss World' is written by Julianne ... all of which fit right in with the Eve's sound perfectly.
Perhaps the best track on this album is the rendition of their biggest hit single 'Martha's Harbour' - since this was originally an acoustic song it loses nothing in this unplugged setting. However, other songs, in particular 'Are You Lonely', make me just want to play the original studio album version because they just don't match up.
Unfortunatly, this is one of those live albums, good though it is, that is more of a souvenir that you may play once or twice rather than a 'Live and Dangerous' type classic. That being the case, 'Fairy Light
Nights' is still a "must have" for existing Eve fans but newcomers may do better to check out their aforementioned studio albums. Also, don't miss their 1989 album 'Scarlet' which in my view is their
best.
A second volume of unplugged material is on it's way and also an album of rarities. Beyond that hopefully AAE will be writing and recording a full band electric album sometime in the near future - now that would
really be something...
Steve 18/6/00
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