It's not often you get close encounters with divas but the past few days have seen me trembling in front of two of the fiercest!

On Saturday I finally made it through the doors of the Purcell Room next door to the Queen Elizabeth Hall - how have I managed to go all this time without visiting it? We were seeing the unstoppable Justin Bond in his "Rites of Spring" show with musical direction by Our Lady J whose Amazonian figure is matched only by her talent.

Justin is always Out There when it comes to his outfits and he didn't disappoint tonight with a floor-length gown made from small laminated pages of tranny porn - you watch, this time next year....

Justin has *finally* got a cd out albeit an e.p. PINK SLIP and he sang all 5 songs featured on it. They are good songs but there is a definite feel of "right let's be grown up" so there is no feel of his particularly anarchic stage persona. His voice is something else... imagine a tree bark smoothie. Warm and enveloping but with a rawness that could give you splinters. He appeared after Our Lady J's fun solo "Pink Prada Purse" in a little black dress which was perfect for his torch song "The Puppet Show" - imagine Judy Garland being possessed by Edith Piaf while singing an unknown Jacques Brel song... and you're halfway there.

He and Our Lady J were signing in the foyer so Owen and I made it clear to OLJ that we had bought hers at the Soho Theatre last year - it would be great if she could do an album - and got Justin to scribble on a few cds reminding him of our last meeting at the Retro Bar pop quiz with Dawn Of The Red.

We first saw JB's solo show in 2005 and it has been great to follow his career since - he really has found the perfect stage partner in Our Lady J.

Yesterday we toddled along to HMV Oxford Street where Siouxsie was signing the dvd of her Mantaray tour which we saw twice. I was surprised that it wasn't Totally mobbed but that was good for us as we were in the first group to get ushered into Herself's presence.

We had a bit of a wait while she was fashionably late so it gave me a moment to muse on me and la Sioux... how I had bought HONG KONG GARDEN the day it was released in the long-gone Our Price in Tottenham Court Rd, THE SCREAM in the long-gone Virgin at Marble Arch, seen The Banshees on the Join Hands tour at Hammersmith supported by the first incarnation of The Human League... and here we both were all these years later.She was delightful - like who knew from The Goth Ice Queen? I apologised for asking the question she must be fed up of hearing but when could we expect a follow-up to Mantaray and she said it won't be till at least next year.

Now that is something to look forward to!