“I think that makes Adele and I the Mick and Keith of the cabaret world.”
Dillie Keane laughs when it’s pointed out to her – although she’s very well aware – that Fascinating Aida, the musical cabaret group which she founded in 1983 and which Adele Anderson joined a year later, is approaching its 40th birthday.
From Perrier to Olivier
“It’s extraordinary,” says Keane of her time with the group, which broke through with their Perrier Award nomination at the Edinburgh Fringe in ’84.
They have since gone on to gather three nominations for Olivier Awards, the highest accolade on the London stage.
“I can’t believe I’m still at it, but I like it better than I ever did, it’s more fun than it was, and I think we’re better at it than we were.
“We now know what we’re doing, and even when we’re not doing it very well, we know how to mask it.”
Satire with good manners
There are few troupers on the British stage with as much experience and skill as Keane and Anderson, who disguise biting satire by making it sound very well-mannered.
Their third member for the last decade has been Liza Pulman.
“There’s four of us on stage now,” Keane explains of the current tour.
“We’ve co-opted our good friend Michael Ralston to play piano. He’s fantastic and he’s added a great deal, because it means we can play more complicated music.
A song about Woke
“We’re very topical,” she continues. “We will definitely have a little mention of the Prime Minister – especially for Scotland.
“We do keep up, there’s a section in the show which we update regularly, and the rest is more generally topical. We’ve even been brave enough to write a song about the Woke movement, and how difficult it is to navigate.”
Her views can be summed up simply: “My feeling is that the Woke movement has its roots in being decent to other people, but everybody needs their voice as long as they’re not promulgating hate speech.
“We need to listen and be kinder, and have respect for everybody. The song is sung from the point of view of somebody who lives with her mother and her son.”
Tonic for the new generation
Over the years, Keane – who was raised in Portsmouth in an Irish Catholic family – and Fascinating Aida have been an inspiration to a new generation of musical cabaret artists,
She’s “delighted and very flattered” that people like Camille O’Sullivan and Amanda Palmer have covered her music. Many among their audience have also been with them for a long time, and want to hear the hits.
“We’ve got a few old favourites in,” she says. “There’s a song called Suddenly New Zealand, which people love.
“We wrote it 20 years ago, it’s about wanting to escape to New Zealand because it’s a long way away from all the scary things. But we’ve completely rewritten it, because the scary things then are not the scary things now.
“We’re merciless with our material, if it’s not up to date, it’s rewritten.”
Retire? What on earth for?
Keane turned 70 last month, but like Mick, Keith and the Rolling Stones, surely retirement isn’t on the cards?
“I love doing this, it’s what I am, really,” she says. “I’m a show-off.
“Singing is terribly good for you too, you know? They say you must sing every day, because it keeps you young.”
- Fascinating Aida play Perth Concert Hall this Sunday, June 19. fascinatingaida.co.uk, www.horsecross.co.uk
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