Yeah I know I've been a bit quiet... been getting on with the new job and very little else. I really can't bore you with the details.

But Sunday was a real diva fest! In the afternoon Owen and I went around the Victoria & Albert Museum's exhibition THE STORY OF THE SUPREMES.

Curated from Mary Wilson's collection of their stage outfits it was huge fun seeing so many of the dresses I have seen in photographs, album covers and TV footage.

There was the pink layered dress, so often seen in their early television appearance that would loosely sway as they did...
There was the riot of colour that was the heavily-sequinned 'butterfly wing' gowns as seen on the covers of the TCB and CREAM OF THE CROP albums...There were the pale pink diamante-studded tight-fitting dresses that they dazzled London at the Royal Variety Performance with - odd how it photographs white:
There was the funky outfit for LOVE CHILD when The Supremes went 'Urban'
Happily *my* Supremes - 1970-72 - was also represented with the Bob Mackie 'Peach' dresses
and there was also the glittery fuschia gowns seen on the front of the 1970s GREATEST HITS:
As you can see... I loved it!After that we headed over to the restrained surroundings of Cadogan Hall to see the eternal Petula Clark.

We saw her last year in the less restrained Croydon Fairfield Hall and she was damn fine... professional to her fingertips and of course still singing her classic pop songs from her golden period of the 1960s.

Although it was roughly the same show I must admit this time I was a little less engaged. It is phenomenal she is still out there, taking the show to her fans. I mean.. here is a woman who has been a household name for 65 years!!! I'll be generous and blame it on it being the first night of her tour but she seemed to have difficulty pitching her voice. I think the main problem is that the songs we all want to hear are presented exactly as they were in the 1960s so it forced her to sing them in an upper register that she doesn't seem to have the breath for anymore.

Maybe it's time to find a way of presenting them in a new style - believe it or not, she did a lovely ballad version of I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND accompanying herself on the piano so maybe this might be a solution. The over-emphatic brass section and drummer also gave her stiff competition as to who was the centre of attention.

Her energy level didn't seem to flag though and although it was not a sell-out she was loudly cheered.... and when you finish the evening belting out I COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOUR LOVE it's impossible to say you didn't have a good time!