Kiki Dee gets intimate in Worthing

While Elton has continued to embrace the commercial limelight, Kiki has shunned it, followed her heart and gone the "intimate" concert route, having what she calls a musical rather than a pop career, not dependent on how you look or how old you are. But the pair who took the number one chart slot with Don't Go Breaking My Heart in 1976 have remained good friends since, attending each other's 60th birthday parties last year.

"He's like a brother," she said. "It's the kind of relationship where you don't see each other all the time but you have a mutual respect. We have gone in different directions in our lives. He respects the fact I have gone off and done what I want."

After hits like Amoureuse, I Got The Music in Me and Perfect Timing, Kiki took her singing to the stage in the '80s with West End hits Pump Boys and the Dinettes and Blood Brothers, for which she gained a Laurence Olivier Award nomination.

She charted again in 1993 with the Elton duet True Love but for the last 12 years she has teamed up with guitarist Carmelo Luggeri for an acoustic act coming to Worthing next month.

"We've been working together for a long time but the world at large doesn't particularly know about it," she said.

Their "dynamic" act is based around Kiki's voice, Carmelo's guitaring and their eclectic musical backgrounds and Kiki plays keyboards, too.

There are Kiki's hits from the '70s, alongside covers of singers like Kate Bush and original material, all given a fresh, "not so poppy" take.

"I've never had a very defined direction in my career but I love the intimate sound '“ it gives you a musical direction.

"I've been moving in a more musically ambient direction as I've got older and out of the mainstream, as a medium to express myself. It's very intimate and we get good communication going with the audience.

"We usually get a great audience reaction. It's fairly new to people. One man said his wife had dragged him along and he loved it '“ he wasn't expecting to like it so much. We love doing it and that reflects back on the audience."

The pair met when Carmelo co-produced tracks for Kiki's greatest hits album. Carmelo, from a rock background, was instrumental in Elton's early career and the pair decided to do something new and innovative.

Hailing from Bradford, Kiki always loved singing. "I didn't have much of an education but I always had a good eye for music and probably decided that was what I was going to do a bit early."

She cut her first record at 17 and went to London in the '60s to work in backing vocals with the likes of Dusty Springfield '“ "the best female pop singer of all time" '“ and "slogged away" for 10 years until she started working with Elton. She was the first European artiste to be signed to the US Tamla Motown label.

The hits with Elton, touring the US with him and Blood Brothers are among the highlights of her varied career.

With Blood Brothers she "discovered I was a very good team player. I had always been a solo artiste but I liked working with other people and the discipline of the theatre".

What next? It's a big year for Kiki. She has signed a 10-year deal with EMI, there's a major publishing deal... but Kiki is happy to continue playing the intimate, small venues.

"We're happy at the level we're at. It's been an interesting journey and so it continues," she said.

Kiki and Carmelo are at the Pavilion Theatre on March 3 at 8pm. Tickets are 15, with concessions available, from the box office on 01903 206206 or www.worthingtheatres.co.uk

They have a new DVD due out, available to buy on the night. To find out more and hear some of their work, click here

Find out what else is on at Worthing Theatres by clicking here

Nikki Jeffery