Mark Nevin

Mark Nevin first rose to attention in the 1980s as the guitarist and principal songwriter of Fairground Attraction, whose chart-topping single “Perfect” he composed for vocalist Eddi Reader. Born in Ebbw Vale, Wales, Nevin relocated with his family during the 1970s to Leamington Spa, Reading, and Bristol in line with his father’s employment before settling in London as a teenager.

He entered the industry as a member of the final lineup of the post-punk group Jane Aire & the Belvederes, after which he began supplying material for Sandie Shaw during her mid-1980s resurgence. Reader’s initial encounter with Nevin occurred on the Compact Organization sampler The Compact Composers, where she recorded two of his compositions; the pair subsequently formed Fairground Attraction alongside Simon Edwards and Roy Dodds. Nevin contributed thirteen of the fourteen tracks to the band’s debut album The First of a Million Kisses, which earned best single and best album honors at the 1989 Brit Awards, attained platinum certification, and featured their signature hit “Perfect.”

Following the group’s 1990 dissolution, Reader pursued solo work while Nevin partnered with Brian Kennedy in Sweetmouth, issuing Goodbye to Songtown in 1991, and later wrote for ex-Smiths frontman Morrissey and for Kirsty MacColl. He also co-authored “I’m Yours” with Ringo Starr, whose orchestral arrangements were overseen by Sir George Martin. In the mid-1990s Nevin resumed activity under his own name, initially discarding a session employing strings, brass, and backing vocalists in favor of more austere recordings that became the 1999 album Insensitive Songwriter on his Raresong Recordings imprint. Three years afterward he issued The Mighty Dove before withdrawing from music for an extended period.

Returning in 2011, he delivered Stand Beside Me in the Sun and, shortly thereafter, Beautiful Guitars; his fifth studio album, My Unfashionable Opinion, appeared in 2017.