Look up Reader, Readers, reader, or readers in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Reader can mean a person who is reading a text, or a basal reader, a book used to teach reading. It may also refer to:

People[link]

• Colin Reader (born ?), English geologist
• Eddi Reader (born 1959), Scottish singer
• Felix Reader (1850–1911), German-born Australian chemist and amateur botanist
• Francis Reader (born 1965), Scottish musician, band-member of "The Trash Can Sinatras"
• Ralph Reader (1903–1982), British director and producer
• Richard Reader Harris (KC) (1847–1909), English barrister and Pentecostalist
• Reader Harris (1913–2009), British politician
• Ted Reader (born ?), Canadian chef

Persons who read[link]

• A publisher's reader, also called a first reader
• Historically, a person who entertained cigar factory workers by reading books or newspapers aloud, also known as a lector; see cigar manufacture
• Reader (liturgy), someone charged with reading Scripture in church (also called a Lector)
• Reader (Christian Science Church), a person who conducts services in a Christian Science church, also called a First Reader or Second Reader
• Reader (Anglican Church)
• Reader (academic rank), the British academic rank between senior (or principal) lecturer and professor
• Reader (Inns of Court), originally a senior barrister of the Inns of Court in London who was elected to deliver a lecture or series of lectures on a particular legal topic

Places[link]

• Reader, Arkansas
  • Reader Railroad, a tourist railroad operating in Arkansas
• Reader, Illinois
• Reader, West Virginia

Newspapers and magazines[link]

• Chicago Reader, a newsweekly
• Duzhe, (translated Reader(s)), a Chinese magazine
• High Plains Reader, an independent weekly tabloid
• Los Angeles Reader, a weekly paper, now defunct
• The Reader (magazine), a literary quarterly published by the University of Liverpool
• San Diego Reader, a weekly newspaper in San Diego, California
• Utne Reader, a periodical
• Weekly Reader, an educational magazine for children
• The Reader (newspaper), a weekly newspaper in Omaha, Nebraska

Computing and technology[link]

• Adobe Reader
• Foxit Reader, a multilingual PDF reader
• Google Reader, a Web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds online or offline
• K-NFB Reader, a handheld electronic reading device for the blind
• Microsoft Reader, a Microsoft program for the reading of e-books
• Microsoft Fingerprint Reader, a device that was produced by Microsoft
• Sony Reader, a line of e-book readers manufactured by Sony
• The Nintendo e-Reader, by Nintendo
• Bible Reader for Palm
• screen reader, a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the screen

Other[link]

• Reader-response criticism, a primarily German and American literary theory
• The Reader, a 1995 novel by Bernhard Schlink
• The Reader (2008 film), 2008 movie based on this novel
• A basal reader, a textbook used in reading education:
  • McGuffey Readers, examples of these
• An anthology: a book of different pieces of writing, often by many authors, for example:
  • Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, a series of books containing trivia and short essays on miscellaneous topics, ostensibly for reading in the bathroom
• Plate reader (or microplate reader), a laboratory instrument
• Readers, a slang term for reading glasses

See also[link]

• Reeder (disambiguation)
• The Reader (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Rebecca Black
Rebecca Black in November 2011
Background information
Birth name	Rebecca Renee Black
Born	(1997-06-21) June 21, 1997 (age 15) Irvine, California, U.S.[1]
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2011–present
Labels	RB Records
Website	www.rebeccablackonline.com

Rebecca Renee Black^[2] (born June 21, 1997) is an American pop singer and dancer who gained extensive media attention with the 2011 single "Friday". Her mother paid $4,000 to have the single and an accompanying music video put out as a vanity release^[3] through the record label ARK Music Factory.^[4] The song was co-written and produced by Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson of Ark Music Factory. After the video went viral on YouTube and other social media sites, "Friday" was derided by many music critics and viewers, who dubbed it "the worst song ever."^[5][6][7] The music video received around 167 million views, causing Black to gain international attention as a "viral star", before being removed from the site on June 16. Black re-uploaded it in her own channel three months later.

Biography[link]

Personal life[link]

Rebecca Black was born on June 21, 1997,^[8] in Irvine, California.^[1] She is the daughter of John Jeffery Black and Georgina Marquez Kelly, both veterinarians.^[4][9] She is of Mexican, Spanish, Italian, English, and Polish descent.^[10][11] An honor student, Black studied dance, auditioned for school shows, attended music summer camps, and began singing publicly in 2008 after joining the patriotic group Celebration USA.^{[citation needed]} In 2011 Black left public school in favor of homeschooling, both in response to constant verbal bullying at school and in order to focus more of her time on her career.^[12] Black later said that her main reason for the move to homeschooling was more for career reasons rather than the bullying.^[13]

Career[link]

Ark Music Factory and "Friday" (2010–2011)[link]

In late 2010, a classmate of Black and music-video client of ARK Music Factory, a Los Angeles label, told her about the company.^[14] Black's mother paid $4,000 for Ark Music to produce the music video while the Blacks retained ownership of both the master and the video.^[4][15] The single, "Friday", written entirely by Ark, was released on YouTube and iTunes. The song's video was uploaded to YouTube on February 10, 2011, and received approximately 1,000 views in the first month. The video went viral on March 11, 2011, acquiring millions of views on YouTube in a matter of days, becoming the most-talked-about topic on social networking site Twitter,^[16] and garnering mostly negative media coverage.^[17] As of June 14, 2011, the video had received more than 3,190,000 "dislikes" on YouTube compared to more than 451,000 "likes".^[18] As of March 22, 2011, first-week sales of her digital single were estimated to be around 40,000 by Billboard.^[19] On March 22, 2011, Black appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, during which she performed the single and discussed the negative reaction to it.^[20] The song has peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 and the New Zealand Singles Chart at number 58 and 33, respectively.^[21][22] In the UK, the song debuted at number 61 on the UK Singles Chart.^[23]

Black teamed up with Funny or Die on April Fool's Day (the site was renamed Friday or Die) for a series of videos, including one which addresses the controversy about the driving kids in her music video, stating "We so excited about safety."^[24]

She has stated that she is a fan of Justin Bieber, and expressed interest in performing a duet with him.^[25]

In response to the YouTube video of "Friday", Black began to receive death threats in late February 2011, specifically by phone and email.^[26] These threats are being investigated by the Anaheim Police Department.^[27]

In March 2011, Ryan Seacrest reportedly helped sign Rebecca to manager Debra Baum's DB Entertainment.^[28]

MTV selected Rebecca to host its first online awards show, the O Music Awards Fan Army Party in April 2011.^[29] As an homage to "Friday", Black appears in the music video for Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)",^[30] in which Black plays alongside Perry as the hostess of a party Perry attends. "Friday" was also performed on the second season of Glee in the episode, "Prom Queen", which originally aired May 10, 2011. When asked about why the song was covered on Glee, show creator Ryan Murphy replied, "The show pays tribute to pop culture and, love it or hate it, that song is pop culture."^[31]

RB Records and upcoming album (2011–present)[link]

After the fallout with Ark Music Factory, Black announced she would start an independent record label named RB Records. Black released a self-produced single titled "My Moment" on July 18 by her own label RB Records, with an accompanying music video, publishing it to her YouTube channel; the video as of November 27 has received, approximately, 590,000 "dislikes" against 340,000 "likes."^[32] In the "My Moment" music video, director Morgan Lawley features real life video of Black's life from both before and after her fame.^[33]

Black is planning to release her official debut album around 2012, which she said will include "a bunch of different kinds of stuff."^[34] It is being recorded at a studio belonging to music producer Charlton Pettus.^[35] In an interview with The Sun, Black said that the songs will be "appropriate and clean".

Black appears as herself in the music video of Katy Perry's single "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)". She appears as the host of a party in the house next door to that of "Kathy Beth Terry". At the end of the video Perry attempts to blame the excesses of the party (which had subsequently moved to her own house) on Black, only for her parents (Corey Feldman and Debbie Gibson) to disbelieve her.^[36] Later on, Perry (in character as Kathy Beth Terry) and Black hosted a livestream on Tinychat.com after weeks of Black being mentioned on Terry's Twitter.^[37] Perry, who performs Friday routinely on stage as part of California Dreams Tour, also brought Black on stage to perform the song as a duet during her show at the Nokia Theater on August 5, 2011.^[38]

On August 10, 2011, Black was featured in an ABC Primetime Nightline: Celebrity Secrets special entitled Underage and Famous: Inside Child Stars' Lives.^[39]

On Friday, September 16, Black re-uploaded "Friday" on YouTube.^[40] In late September 2011, she was brought to Australia by Telstra to promote the launch of their 4G service.^[41]

On October 25, Black announced she started filming her upcoming music video which she first identified as 'POI' and later identified as "Person of Interest".^[42] Black said, "The basis of it is that it's a love song but it's not a love song. It's about almost teenage crushes — when you're not in love yet but you really like a guy — which I'm really excited about because I don't think there are too many out like that. It's very much a dance type song. It will make you get up and dance and sing along in your car."^[43] A teaser of the official music video was posted on November 3, 2011.^[44] Black released another teaser including a snippet of the song on November 10, 2011 on her YouTube channel. The single and its accompanying music video were released on November 15, 2011.^[45]

On December 20, 2011, "Friday" was revealed as the #1 video of the year by YouTube and Black hosted a short video called "YouTube Rewind".^[46]

Zeitgeist sorted billions of Google searches to capture the year's 10 fastest-rising global queries and the rest of the spirit of 2011. Rebecca Black #1 Most Searched Google. The searches for the teen singer topped even those of pop icon Lady Gaga and Adele.^[47]

On May 8, 2012, Black released her fourth official single, "Sing It".^[48] The music video premiered on Black's YouTube the same day.

Philanthropy[link]

Black features NOH8 Campaign a silent protest photo project against California Proposition 8. It features photographs portraying people in front of a white backdrop wearing white t-shirts, their mouths taped shut and "NOH8" painted on their cheek.

Rebecca has pledged to donate profits from the sales of her song "Friday" towards her school, El Rancho Charter, and shortly after the 2011 Japan Earthquake, to emergency relief in the country.^[49]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

Music videos[link]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

• In April 2011, the MTV O Music Awards, one of the annual awards established by MTV to honor the art, creativity, personality and technology of music into the digital space nominated "Which Seat Can I Take?" for "Favorite Animated GIF" that included footage by Rebecca Black featuring 50 Cent and Bert.^[55]
• Black was named "Choice Web Star" at the 2011 Teen Choice Awards in August 2011.^[56]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official YouTube Channel
• Rebecca Black at the Internet Movie Database

Stephen Daldry
Stephen Daldry at the Berlin Film Festival 2009
Born	Stephen David Daldry (1960-05-02) 2 May 1960 (age 52) Dorset, England
Education	University of Sheffield
Spouse	Lucy Sexton (m. 2001-present)
Partner	Ian MacNeil (1988-2001)

Stephen David Daldry, CBE (born 2 May 1960) is an English theatre and film director and producer, as well as a three-time Academy Award nominated and Tony Award winning director. He is also notable for having all of his feature films that he has directed go on to be nominated for Best Director or Best Picture at the Academy Awards, the films of which are Billy Elliot (2000), The Hours (2002),The Reader (2008) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011).

Early years[link]

Daldry was born in Dorset, England in 1961 (according to imdb), the son of bank manager Patrick Daldry and singer Cherry (née Thompson).^[1] The family moved to Taunton, Somerset, where when Daldry was aged 14, his father died of cancer.^[2]

After this, Daldry joined a youth theatre group in Taunton,^[3] and then aged 18 won a Royal Air Force scholarship to University of Sheffield to study English, where he became chairman of SuTCo (Sheffield University Theatre Company).

After graduation, he spent a year travelling through Italy, where he became a clown's apprentice. Returning to Sheffield, he became an apprentice at the Crucible Theatre from 1985-1988. He then trained as an actor at East 15 Acting School, London.

Career[link]

Daldry began his career at the Sheffield Crucible with Artistic Director Clare Venables where he directed many productions. He also headed many productions at the Manchester Library Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse, Stratford East, Oxford Stage, Brighton and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He was also Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre from 1992-8, where he headed the £26 million development scheme. He was also Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre, London (1989–92) and the Metro Theatre Company (1984-6). He is currently on the Board of the Young and Old Vic Theatres and remains an Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre. He was the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre for 2002 at St Catherine's College, Oxford. He won awards on Broadway as well as the West End.

Daldry made his feature film directorial debut in 2000 with Billy Elliot. His next film was The Hours, and it won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for Nicole Kidman. Recently, he directed a stage musical adaptation of Billy Elliot, and in 2009 his work on Billy Elliot the Musical earned him a Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical. He has also made a film version of The Reader, based on the book of the same name and starring Kate Winslet, David Kross, and Ralph Fiennes. Again, it won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for Kate Winslet. He has received an Academy Award nomination for directing each of his three films.

Daldry was planning to direct a film adaptation of Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay in 2005.^[4] In the ensuing three years, the project was cancelled and reinitiated several times, and in late 2006 was partially cast with Natalie Portman and Tobey Maguire. According to Chabon, production then stalled due to "studio-politics kinds of reasons that I'm not privy to," and as of April 2007 remains inactive.^[5] The director will soon be working on the broadway musical version of Dumbo, with Disney Theatricals. The musical is to début on Broadway in 2012.^[6]

Daldry's next film was an adaptation of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which starred Tom Hanks, John Goodman, and Sandra Bullock, with a screenplay written by Eric Roth.^[7]

Personal life[link]

Daldry describes himself as a gay man because people prefer it ("they don't like confusion"),^[8] has been married since 2001 to American performance artist and magazine editor Lucy Sexton, with whom he has a daughter, Annabel Clare (born 2003).^[9][10]

He was previously in a relationship with set designer Ian MacNeil for 13 years.^[11] They met at an outdoor production of Alice in Wonderland in Lancaster in 1988, and after settling in a bedsit in Camberwell, began collaborating on theatrical productions.^[12][13]

Work[link]

Detailed theatreography (up to 2003)[link]

• Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool,England, then Theatre Royale, Stratford, England, 1988
• An Inspector Calls, York Theatre Royal, 1988
• Judgement Day, Old Red Lion Theatre, London, 1989
• Figaro Gets Divorced, Gate Theatre, London, 1990
• Cutting Room, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London, 1990
• Our Man in Marzibah and Rousseau's Tale (double-bill), GateTheatre, 1991
• Damned for Despair, Gate Theatre, 1991
• Jerker, Gate Theate, 1991
• (With Annie Castledine) Pioneers in Ingolstadt, Gate Theatre, 1991
• (With Annie Castledine) Purgatory in Ingolstadt, Gate Theatre, 1991
• Manon Lescaut, Dublin Grand Opera, 1992
• An Inspector Calls, National Theatre Company, Lyttelton Theatre, London, 1992, then Royale Theatre, New York City, 1994–1995, *later Garrick Theatre, London, 1995
• Search and Destroy, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 1993
• Machinal, National Theatre Company, Lyttelton Theatre, 1993
• The Europeans, 1993
• The Kitchen, Royal Court Theatre, 1994
• The Editing Process, Royal Court Theatre, 1994
• Rat in the Skull, Duke of York's Theatre, London, 1995
• The Libertine, Royal Court Theatre, 1995
• The Man of Mode, Royal Court Theatre, 1995
• Body Talk, Royal Court Theatre, 1996
• "This Is a Chair," in London International Festival of Theatre, London, 1997
• Via Dolorosa (solo show), Royal Court Theatre, 1998, then Booth Theatre, New York City, 1999
• Far Away, Royal Court Theatre, 2000, then New York Theatre Workshop, New York City, 2002–2003
• A Number, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, 2002, then New York Theatre Workshop, 2002–2003
• also directed productions of Huckleberry Finn and Of Mice and Men.

Awards and nominations[link]

Awards

• 1993: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director of a Play – An Inspector Calls
• 1994: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play – An Inspector Calls
• 1994: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director of a Play – Machinal
• 1994: Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play – An Inspector Calls
• 2000: BAFTA Award for Best British Film – Billy Elliot
• 2002: Vancouver Film Critics Circle Best Director – The Hours
• 2009: Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - Billy Elliot the Musical

Nominations

• 2000: Academy Award for Best Director – Billy Elliot
• 2000: BAFTA Award Best Director – Billy Elliot
• 2001: César Award for Best Foreign Film – Billy Elliot
• 2002: Directors Guild of AmericaOutstanding Directing – Motion Pictures – The Hours
• 2002: Golden Globe Award for Best Director – Motion Picture – The Hours
• 2002: Satellite Award for Best Director – The Hours
• 2002: Academy Award for Best Director – The Hours
• 2002: BAFTA Award for Best British Film – The Hours
• 2002: BAFTA Award for Best Director – The Hours
• 2004: César Award for Best Foreign Film – The Hours
• 2008: Academy Award for Best Director – The Reader
• 2008: BAFTA Award for Best Director – The Reader
• 2008: Golden Globe Award for Best Director of a Motion Picture – The Reader
• 2008: Satellite Award for Best Director – The Reader

References[link]

External links[link]

• Stephen Daldry at the Internet Broadway Database
• Stephen Daldry at the Internet Movie Database

David Kross
Kross at 2009 Berlin International Film Festival
Born	David Kroß (1990-07-04) July 4, 1990 (age 21) Henstedt-Ulzburg, Germany
Other names	David Kross
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2002–present

David Kross (born July 4, 1990) is a German actor. He is best known internationally for his role as Michael Berg in The Reader.

Early life[link]

Kross was born in Henstedt-Ulzburg, 20 miles north of Hamburg. He grew up in Bargteheide, where he attended Eckhorst High School^[1] until 2007. He has two brothers and one sister. He played basketball at the professional TSV between 2004 and 2006.

Career[link]

Kross at ROMY 2010

His career started with a small appearance in the 2002 film Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge (English: Help, I'm a Boy!).^[2] In December 2003, he joined Blaues Wölkchen, a small group from a children's theatre in Bargteheide. His first major theatrical appearance was in Auftritt in Kirsten Martensens Inszenierung Von Hilfe.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, Kross came to the attention of Detlev Buck through his daughter Bernadette, and auditioned for Tough Enough;^[3] Buck hired Kross to play the lead,^[4] a 15-year-old boy who moves with his mother from a rich neighborhood of Berlin (Zehlendorf) to the Neukoelln area, known at the time for its high number of Turkish immigrants and high crime level. Kross not only won praise at Berlinale in 2006, but also won Best Actor in Nuremberg at the 11th Filmfestival Deutschland/Tuerkei.^[5]

In 2006, Kross worked again with Buck in the film Hands Off Mississippi (Hände weg von Mississippi in German), playing a baker apprentice. In the fall of the same year, he started shooting a film by Marco Kreuzpaintner, Krabat (The Satanic Mill in English). In this version of Otfried Preußler's children's book, Kross plays the title role, one of the apprentices of magic, with co-stars Daniel Brühl and Robert Stadlober. The film was released on September 19, 2007 in movie festivals and in October 2008 in theatres.

In September 2007,^[6] The Reader began shooting in Berlin, Cologne,^[7] and Gorlitz. In Stephen Daldry's adaption of the best-selling novel by Bernhard Schlink, Kross plays the lead role of Michael Berg, opposite Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes and Bruno Ganz. He had to learn to speak English to appear in the film.^[8] The world premiere was at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York on December 3, 2008. The film was presented in the 2009 Berlinale but did not compete. In May 2009, Kross was honored for his performance in The Reader at the 62nd Cannes Festival, winning the Chopard trophy. Kross was nominated for an European Film Award as best actor.

His next work was in Same Same But Different (2009), again with Buck directing. The script is based on an autobiographical article by Benjamin Prüfer.

In July 2010, it was announced that Kross had been cast in Steven Spielberg's film, War Horse.^[9] Filming started in August 2010, in Dartmoor, Devon, U.K. and the film was released in December 2011.^[10]

Personal life[link]

In 2009, Kross started a 3-year course of studies at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).^[11] His plan was to improve his acting skills and his English. However he dropped out at the end of the same year. Since then, he has been living in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

Kross in 2008

• At the 11th Germany/Turkey Film Festival in Nuremberg, David won his first award as "Actor in a Leading Role" for his performance in Detlev Bucks Tough Enough ("Knallhart" in German).
• 2009 Shooting Stars Award, at the Berlin International Film Festival, annual acting awards for up-and-coming actors by European Film Promotion.
• 2010 Shooting Stars Award at Romy TV-Awards, together with Cristiana Capotondi.

References[link]

External links[link]

• David Kross at the Internet Movie Database

Eddi Reader
Background information
Birth name	Sadenia Reader
Born	(1959-08-29) 29 August 1959 (age 52)
Origin	Glasgow, Scotland
Genres	Pop, Folk
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, musician, record producer
Instruments	vocals, acoustic guitar, concertina, harmonica, piano, ukulele
Years active	1984–present
Labels	RCA Blanco y Negro Rough Trade Compass
Associated acts	Fairground Attraction
Website	Official Website

Eddi Reader MBE (born Sadenia Reader; 29 August 1959)^[1] is a Scottish singer-songwriter, known both for her work with Fairground Attraction and for an enduring solo career. She is the recipient of three BRIT Awards and has topped both the album and singles charts.^[2] In 2003 she showcased the works of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns.

Early career[link]

Reader was born in Glasgow, the daughter of a welder, and the eldest of seven children^[3] (her brother, Francis, is vocalist with the band The Trash Can Sinatras). She was nicknamed Edna by her parents. Living at first in the district of Anderston, Glasgow, in a tenement slum demolished in 1965, The young Reader family moved to a two-bedroomed flat in the estate of Arden, Glasgow.

In 1976, due to overcrowding the family was re-housed 25 miles from Glasgow, in the council development of Irvine, Ayrshire; however, Eddi returned to Glasgow (where she lived with her grandmother) in order to finish her compulsory schooling.^[4] She began playing the guitar at the age of ten, and started her musical career busking, first in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street, then in the early 1980s in London and around Europe (where she also worked with circus and performance artists).

Back in Scotland, while finding factory work in Irvine and working part-time in Sirocco Recording Studio in Kilmarnock, she answered an advert in the music press and travelled to London to audition and join the punk band Gang of Four, who needed a backing singer for their appearance on British television music show The Old Grey Whistle Test and for their UK tour. This led to her first US tour with the band. After returning to the UK and leaving the band, she started working as a session vocalist in London, picking up work singing jingles for radio advertisements and singing with such acts as Eurythmics, The Waterboys, Billy MacKenzie and Alison Moyet.^[5]

Fairground Attraction[link]

In 1984, Reader returned to the UK from Paris, where she had been working as a singer for the composer Vladimir Cosma. Through her contact with the brass section session players The Kick Horns in London, she signed a contract with EMI, and recorded two singles with the disco group Outbar Squeek. Around the same time, she met and asked Mark E. Nevin, a guitarist and songwriter from the band Jane Aire and the Belvederes to write for her and they recorded two songs as The Academy of Fine Popular Music. They subsequently formed Fairground Attraction, together with Simon Edwards (guitarrón — a Mexican acoustic bass guitar) and Roy Dodds (drums & percussion). In 1988 the band signed to RCA/BMG records and released their first single, "Perfect", which became a UK number one, winning best single at the 1989 BRIT Awards. Their first album, The First of a Million Kisses, was also a success, reaching number two in the UK Albums Chart, and winning best album at the 1989 Brits.

This success was short-lived, however. In November 1989, after a break, during which Reader had her first child, Charlie, with her French-Algerian partner Milou, arguments arose within the group, and Nevin abandoned a recording session for the second album, which eventually led to the splitting of the band. A makeshift second album, a collection of B-sides and live tracks, Ay Fond Kiss, was rushed out the following year.

Solo career[link]

Reader returned to Scotland, but before she embarked on her solo career she took a temporary detour into acting. She played Jolene Jowett, a singer and accordionist, in John Byrne's Your Cheatin' Heart,^[2] a comedy-drama series for BBC Television, set in the country music scene in Scotland. Her other acting credits include playing the part of Joy 3 from the Michael Boyd (artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company) production of Janice Galloway's The Trick Is to Keep Breathing. This was a BBC Radio 4 production in 1996, Also a Tron Theatre production the same year.

Returning to London, Reader worked on new material with a backing band calling itself The Patron Saints of Imperfection (made up of Roy Dodds, Neill and Calum MacColl, and Phil Steriopoulos). This became her first solo album, recorded for RCA Records: 1992's Mirmama. She met Geoff Travis who signed her to Warner Brothers subsidiary label, Blanco Y Negro, The managing director Rob Dickens executively produced her second solo album Eddi Reader (1994), which won her the "Best female singer" BRIT Award that year,^[2] followed by Candyfloss and Medicine (1996), and Angels & Electricity (1998). She parted from Warner Brothers and continued her work on Geoff Travis' Rough Trade label when she recorded Simple Soul (2001) and Driftwood (2002) - a "homegrown" release of songs recorded during the Simple Soul sessions. During this time, Reader also recorded the song "Ocean Love" for the soundtrack of the animated Danish film Help! I'm a Fish (2001).^{[citation needed]} Reader also contributed vocals to one of Big Country's final singles before Stuart Adamson's death, "Fragile Thing."