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Laughs with a razor's edge
Fascinating Aida The Cheap Flights Tour Birmingham Town Hall **** WHEN the first song gives you the “c”
word you can probably take it you are not in for an evening of three
gentlewomen performing Schubert's greatest hits. Indeed by the time of the rap-inspired, get on down with the kids, yoof kulture, mother of a finale to the first half has moonwalked its way to a conclusion, pretty well the whole alphabet of taboo words had been used and somehow it is done with such assurance, charm, wit and aplomb that not even a maiden aunt prone to attacks of the vapours would mind. Let us be honest when you have a song about financiers and
avoiders of hefty taxes along with Companies Using Nifty Taxation
Systems then a taboo word seems somehow not only apt but entirely
appropriate - a feeling endorsed by the rousing cheers of agreement by
the full house. Bankers and city figures would perhaps be wise to
avoid proximity to ordinary people and lampposts, methinks. Dillie Keane, the founder of the group some 28
years ago, her long standing collaborator Adele Anderson , who has only
managed 27 years, and newbie Sarah-Louise Young are a sort of three
woman For those who have never seen this particularly British creation before, Fascinating Aida are three ladies with beautiful voices who look and sound as if they have wandered out of the staffroom at Roedean to give a concert of light opera and familiar musical comedy numbers in a Sunday afternoon concert in the palm court at the local tea rooms. Looks can be so deceiving.
What you get is a sort of Private Eye to
music with some very funny patter which ranges from the Iron Man and
Birmingham's twinning with Milan, to the state of economy and HS2 along
with some beautifully written, witty, biting and hard edged songs full
of comment and satire on the state of the world today. There are swipes at not only tax avoiders,
bankers, and politicians, but religion, cults and fads, Tesco (a
religion in itself), dogging – don't ask – relationships, cheap air
flights, German cabaret stars, modern art, Little Chef and celebrity
babies. We all know that in the busy life of a world
famous sleb there is hardly time to take out a year to have a baby with
all that stretching and mess – so why not buy one in or better still
find a surrogate mother who will not sue, complain or sell her story
such as . . . an Orangutan Cheap Air Flights, incidentally, the title of the
tour, is a song written for a corporate event in Ireland which was
posted on YouTube and is now running at some 7,500,000 hits. It has gone
fungal according to Adele . . . Anyone who has ever travelled on a
budget airli Interspersed with the remarkably witty and often
biting numbers are some more serious songs such as the bittersweet
One Night Stand and a new gentle, poignant song about laying one
place fewer at the table – a song to "celebrate that we were friends”. It is about that realisation of mortality which
creeps up on you at a certain age when
It is one of a catalogue of serious, often
beautiful and haunting songs the trio sprinkle, sparingly, through
their concerts. It is not all fun and rapier wit though. There is
an educational aspect to Fascinating Aida concerts with their
traditional Bulgarian song cycle. This is an eclectic, ethnic series of 13
songs or more – there is never a song six incidentally - about everyday
life, or to put it another way, a simple way of slagging off 13 - or
more - souls who didn't manage a full song of their own this time around
with the biggest cheer of the night for Tony Blair's criminality. We had Jordan and James Corden who would
both float if dumped off a boat, Rooney's hair, Liam Fox, Cheryl Cole,
Hugh Grant, George Osborne, Paul McCartney's marriages and more,
including outgoing Greek PM George Papandreou – beware Greeks bearing
debts. With throwaway lines, songs full of wit and bite,
a little sadness and plenty of laughs Aida are more than just
fascinating, they are a national treasure. Roger Clarke
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