Fairy Light Nights is the collective term for a large number of acoustic

Acoustic music

Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...

 gig

Gig (musical performance)

Gig is slang for a musical engagement in which musicians are hired. Originally coined in the 1920s by jazz musicians, the term, short for the word "engagement", now refers to any aspect of performing such as assisting with performance and attending musical performance...

s performed by All About Eve

All About Eve (band)

All About Eve were a British rock/pop band. The creative core consisted of the Coventry born Julianne Regan , and the Huddersfield born Andy Cousin , with other members changing over the years...

 between January 2000 and February 2002. The name stems from the fact that fairy lights

Fairy lights

In the United Kingdom, a common name for Christmas lights. A string of electrically powered lamps usually used for decoration and for special effect are known as fairy lights...

 were hung from the music and microphone stands. Two live album

Live album

A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...

s were released during this time, one as Fairy Light Nights in 2000 (sometimes referred to as Fairy Light Nights 1) and Fairy Light Nights 2 a year later. These recordings were also later released as a double album, Acoustic Nights, in 2003.

The "Fairy Light Night" concerts featured a simple line-up of Julianne Regan

Julianne Regan

Julianne Regan is an English singer, song writer, guitarist, bass guitarist and keyboard player. She is best known for being the lead singer of the band, All About Eve.- Early life :...

 on lead vocals, Marty Willson-Piper

Marty Willson-Piper

Marty Willson-Piper is a guitarist and member of Australian independent rock band The Church.After busking his way around the world, he arrived in Australia...

 on a variety of acoustic guitars and backing vocals, and Andy Cousin

Andy Cousin

Andrew 'Andy' Cousin is an English bassist and, less commonly, guitarist from Huddersfield in England...

 on electric bass or acoustic 12-string guitar, with occasional guest appearances by other musicians.

Background

In late 1999 All About Eve played three fully electric reunion concerts in support of The Mission. During this time Willson-Piper persuaded Regan to keep the group going and do a few acoustic gigs. The rationale for choosing acoustic gigs included Willson-Piper's previous experience of doing them himself, the lower cost (the band at this time being wholly self-funded) and the fact that, at that point, the band had no drummer - Mark Price

Mark Price (musician)

Mark Gerard Price is an English drummer, who is known for being the first full time drummer for All About Eve and being the percussionist of Del Amitri between 1997 and 2002...

 not being able to leave Del Amitri

Del Amitri

Del Amitri were a Scottish pop-rock guitar band, formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1983. The band grew out of Justin Currie's Jordanhill College School band and came together after teenager Currie placed an advertisement in the window of a music store asking for people who could play to contact him...

 on a long-term basis.
The very first Fairy Light Night was on 25 January 2000 at the Warwick Arts Centre

Warwick Arts Centre

Warwick Arts Centre is a multi-venue arts complex at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. It attracts around 300,000 visitors a year to over 3,000 individual events embracing contemporary and classical music, drama, dance, comedy, films and visual art.Warwick Arts Centre comprises six...

 in Regan's hometown of Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

.

Success by word of mouth

The first gigs were extremely well received by fans, with word-of-mouth and internet forums allowing renewed interest in the band to spread rapidly. Most of the gigs were very well attended, with many being full to capacity. Within six months, a CD entitled Fairy Light Nights was released, this being a recording of performances taken from various gigs. A year later, attendance at the gigs and sales of the CD were such that it was considered viable to release a second album, Fairy Light Nights 2, containing further songs which had been recorded at the same time but not included on the original album.

Ups and downs

In all there were nearly 100 gigs, at a frequency of more than one a week at the height of activity. The band played as far north as Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

 and as far south as Penzance

Penzance

Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...

. Most of the shows were held by both the fans and the band to be extremely successful, although the one in Worthing

Worthing

Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...

 is often cited by all who were there as a low point in the tour: because Marty's amplifiers were too loud for the venue and created intolerable feedback for the first few songs, Willson-Piper was forced to sit out the rest of the gig without playing, putting him in a foul mood and causing him to berate the audience between songs.

End of the era

The last Fairy Light Night was in Crewe

Crewe

Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683...

 on 3 February 2002. This was also the last All About Eve concert to feature Willson-Piper, who would leave the band citing musical differences immediately afterwards. He was replaced in the spring of that year by a Finn

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, Toni Haimi

Toni Haimi

Toni Haimi is a Finnish guitarist originally from Hamina, Finland. As Toni Sailor he is the current guitarist of British electronica band Sohodolls, which he joined in 2004.-All About Eve:...

, lately of bands such as Nozzle

Nozzle (band)

Nozzle is a guitar based rock band from Devon in the South West of England, formed in 1995 by guitarist and songwriter Dave Blomberg, formerly with the English band New Model Army...

 and Malluka. By the time they went back on tour again in May, they were a five-piece band and the subsequent gigs were fully electric.

Other activity during this period

All About Eve also played some fully electric dates during this time: these do not technically count as Fairy Light Nights but were equally well received by fans. These gigs included the 2000 Cropredy Festival

Cropredy Festival

Fairport's Cropredy Convention is an annual festival of folk and rock music held on the edge of the village of Cropredy in Oxfordshire, England. It has taken place in August since 1976....

 where devoted fans sat through two hours of the Incredible String Band

Incredible String Band

The Incredible String Band were a psychedelic folk band formed in Scotland in 1966. The band built a considerable following, especially within British counterculture, before splitting up in 1974...

 before All About Eve finally came on.
These fully electric gigs included a concert at the Union Chapel

Union Chapel, Islington

The Union Chapel is a Grade II* listed church and music venue in Islington, North London, England, located on Compton Terrace.An example of Victorian gothic architecture, it was designed by James Cubitt, and constructed between 1874 and 1877, with further additions 1877-90, providing an ambitious...

 in December 2000, which was recorded and later released as the album Live and Electric at the Union Chapel

Live and Electric at the Union Chapel

Live and Electric at The Union Chapel is a live album by All About Eve, recorded at their Union Chapel concert on 9 December 2000. It was released as both a standard version, and as a limited edition double CD, the second CD containing three more tracks from the same concert.-Track listing:#"Lady...

. The success of this concert and the comparatively high sales of the album encouraged the band to hold another, equally successful, concert in the same venue a year later.

New songs during this time

No new All About Eve songs were premiered during any Fairy Light Night: however, three songs by Willson-Piper (and already existing on his solo albums) were performed, these being "Forever", "You Bring Your Love to Me" and "Will I Start To Bleed?" None of these has been performed as All About Eve songs since Willson-Piper's departure.

"Miss World" was previously a Mice song but this has been performed as an All About Eve song since.

Fairy Light Nights 1 track listing

1. "What Kind of Fool?"
2. "In the Clouds"
3. "Forever"
4. "Share It With Me"
5. "Will I Start to Bleed?"
6. "Miss World"
7. "Martha's Harbour"
8. "Shelter from the Rain"
9. "Are You Lonely?"
10. "Apple Tree Man"

Fairy Light Nights 2 track listing

1. "Scarlet"
2. "The Mystery We Are"
3. "You Bring Your Love to Me"
4. "Freeze"
5. "Mine"
6. "More Than the Blues"
7. "Never Promise (Anyone Forever)"
8. "Yesterday Goodbye"
9. "Wild Hearted Woman"
10. "Every Angel"

Re-releases

Almafame went bankrupt shortly after the issue of Fairy Light Nights 1. Since then two records of unclear legality have been released without the band's permission, entitled Unplugged and Martha's Harbour. A third version, All About Eve's What Kind of Fool, has also been released, available as download only through many mainstream download music sites. All three releases contain identical material to Fairy Light Nights 1.

The second album, Fairy Light Nights 2, was released by JamTart, the band's own label and so not subjected to the same re-issuing conflicts.

Acoustic Nights

This is a JamTart repackaging of both Fairy Light Nights CDs into a double album. The band fully approved it, although they emphasis that it contains nothing not already included in the two single albums.