Karen Poole

Date of Birth: 8th Jan
Birthplace: Chadwell Heath, Essex
Star sign: Capricorn
Hair Colour: Blonde (varying shades)
Eye Colour: Blue

She wrote nearly all of the lyrics for the band and ang the harmonies, taking the lead vocal occasionally. She always carries her lyric book around with her to jot down ideas (Shellie says "she uses her lyric books to clear out the mush from her brain in some sort of therapy way!"). She adores dolphins, and apparently would love to swim with them one day (who wouldn't?).

Karen is the elder sister and according to Shellie she's very organised, always remembers everything and "she's a bossy pants sometimes!". She's never liked to take a back-seat and let others take care of business for her. She also used to protect Shellie from bullies who tormented her when they were in school!

She loves musicals (they both do), a favourite holiday destination of hers is Venice and she claims that "I don't cry, I'm as tough as nails"!

Her post Aa career has seen her write chart hits for a formidable array of stars. In October 2003, The Independent newspaper named her one of the "top 20 most influential groovers and shakers in the music industry".

She describes her finest moment as: "Getting the call from Kylie on my mobile phone."

Karen Fun Facts

Karen is always rescuing wildlife animals in distress. In the past she has rescued two one day old ducklings plus a moorhen and nursed them until they could be returned to the wild. It meant her feeding them every two hours, even through the night, and keeping them warm indoors in a propagator.

Her favourite American talk show host is Jerry Springer.

She's a great reader and one of her favourite bookstores is called "book soup" on Sunset Boulevard in LA, she's spent many happy spare hours in there!

Shellie Poole

Date of Birth: 20th March
Birthplace: Barking, Essex
Star sign: Pisces
Hair Colour: Brunette, with various shades of purple and red thrown in!
Eye Colour: greeny blue

Shellie's powerful vocals are at the front of Alisha's Attic's unique sound. With Karen, she composes most of the music for the band. Karen says that Shellie is 'exactly what Pisces are said to be like, very floaty, not bothered with details, dreamy and creative. She can be very flamboyant and loves to be on stage performing. She loves playing the guitar and music is her life'.

She loves to ski, and is a dedicated vegetarian, and loves Indian culture (well, there are 500 million vegetarians in India so she'd feel right at home!).

Shellie is known for her ever-changing hairstyle, which has gone from red, to plum, to black and white, and back to red again! (We won't mention the hairdressing disaster when it fell out during a re-dying ...)

Shellie married Ally McErlaine from the Scottish band Texas in October 2001.

Shellie's post Aa career is about to begin as she launches herself as a solo artist with her debut album "Totally Under Water" due in early 2005. She's also changed the spelling of her name to "Shelly" to mark her new venture. She went through a period of experimentation where tracks for the album were lined up and then discarded, but finally settled on collaboration with musician and songwriter Paul Statham (B-Movie, Peter Murphy, Peach, Dido).

Shellie Fun Facts

Shellie loves the show 'Friends' and has all the official videotapes and apparently also one 'unoffical' one!

She loves going to the theatre, and one of her favourite West End Shows is 'Oliver' with Ron Moody playing the part of Fagin. Her favourite West End show of all time though is 'Phantom of the Opera'.

Her favourite American talk show host is Sally Jessy Raphael.

When staying in the Soho Hotel in New York for two months whilst recording 'Illumina', the thrill of the trip for Shellie was seeing Benny and Bjorn from Abba sitting in the hotel lobby - she even sneaked a photo of them!

Alisha

"Alisha's a fictional character, but she's a bit of both of us." So says Shellie, who with older sister Karen, makes up Alisha's Attic. "We got the attic bit from the fact that we had a studio in the attic," says Karen, "and we wanted to use a girl's name to create this character that had lots of elements of both our personalities. We've definitely got a mental picture of her."

Alisha's Attic

Since their Aa recording career began in 1996 with the hit single "I Am, I Feel" the girls have recorded and released three albums for Mercury Records, but that relationship came to an end in 2001. Karen and Shellie issued a joint statement which said:

"Mercury Records have not taken up the Option for our 4th album. It's been a long time coming, and we're relieved to finally be free to work on new interesting musical avenues without the obstacles we've been enduring for years. To our fans....this won't be the last you'll hear from us....we've already started some new projects and collaborations which are well underway so this is not the end...it's the beginning!!

We'll keep you all posted but thank you for your continuing support for Alisha's Attic."

The Future

So the girls have entered a new chapter in their musical lives, and have taken the initiative by releasing their own compilation of demos and unused tracks, and a second compilation album is planned for sometime in 2004. Please see the fan club section for full details of these 2 albums, which are available to order only from the Fan Club.

Shelly is now embarking on a solo career, as mentioned above, and her album is due in early 2005 (watch this space for any announcements). Karen has written for many other artists and is developing a formidable career as a lyricist, working with many of the current big names in pop such as Blue, Dannii Minogue, Holly Valance and Amy Studt.

Who knows if they will ever record together again as Aa? If they don't, well they've left us with a good 6 albums worth (counting b-sides and the Vaults) of their fabulous harmonies and clever lyrics. And if they do ... bonus time!

Good luck to Karen & Shellie, whatever form their future musical career takes!