Forty years of being fascinating, funny and filthy for cabaret trio
Fascinating Aïda are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, and as part of the anniversary tour they’re returning to The Kings Theatre, where group founder Dillie Keane is also a patron.
Dillie founded the group in 1983 and was joined by key writing partner ‘Dame’ Adèle Anderson the following year. They quickly became a regular fixture on light entertainment TV, were nominated for a Perrier in 1984 and were soon selling out West End seasons, garnering three Olivier Award nominations.
Joined by soprano
Liza Pullman in 2006, this indomitable trio have defined the British cabaret scene for four decades with razor-sharp satirical songs like Cheap Flights and Dogging.
While this is an anniversary show, the trio won’t just be rehashing old favourites.
“Of course it will have new songs!” says Dillie. “New subjects do keep popping up… AI, for instance. That’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to keep going.
And we are relentless about rewriting and reworking old songs to stay contemporary.
“We were very aware that AI is hot news at the moment. Our song is very light- hearted, there’s enough doom and gloom elsewhere in the show. Hilarious doom and gloom, of course, but doom and gloom nonetheless.”
In recent years, the trio have been pulling in younger audiences, which could be in part down to Dillie’s presence on social media, but also their style of comedy.
“I had a fascinating conversation with a young man of 21 only the other day,” says Dillie. “He said the reason he loved our material was because we never take a pop at people who might be disadvantaged in any way, only at the rich and powerful. Maybe that has something to do with it. And I suppose having a trans person in the group made us fairly ‘woke’ before we even heard the word. Having said that, we are spectacularly vulgar and rude and when we do take a pop at the rich and powerful, we take no prisoners.”
Fascinating Aïda shows are famous for their ‘Bulgarian Song Cycles’ – very short songs combining crunchy harmonies and upto-the minute satirical lyrics – sometimes from that very day’s news agenda. What started this tradition in their shows?
“I met the Trio Bulgaka in the 1980s which was a real treat as I adored their singing. Discovering those Bulgarian harmonies was utterly mind blowing. I wanted to use that music to convey short ideas. I suppose there are people who think it’s cultural appropriation – for me, it’s cultural homage. Deep deep homage.”
Is it true a woman went into labour during the show in Newcastle on your last tour?
“Oh, we’ve had all sorts of lovely achievements like that. Someone’s daughter laughed for the first time in over a year after a massive breakdown. People have met at our gigs, fallen in love and got married. And now we have brought a child into the world a little earlier than anticipated. I hope, if it’s a boy, he’s called Brian. Whoops, that’s rather gender-specific. If it’s a girl, why shouldn’t they be called Brian too? Lovely name.”
You can see if anyone goes into labour during their show at The Kings in Southsea on March 23 from 7.30pm. Only tickets in the gallery remain at £19. Go to kingsportsmouth.co.uk.