If it was Wednesday it was definitely Diva Central at Hammersmith.

Owen and I were among the 25 scared men who huddled together for solidarity in the face of row upon row of women who had loudly come to party. It was all rather overwhelming - the show was sold out and they were standing along the back and down the sides. I tell you - if three of them had experienced a joint hot flash we would have all gone up.

We were there to worship at the altar of three BIG-voiced Sisters of Song namely Lulu, Chaka Kahn and Anastacia. I can't say I have ever particularly cared for the latter but am a big fan of Lulu and Chaka, although Lu was the only one I have ever seen live before.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect but assumed it would take it's lead from the Divas of Motown show where they each had an allotted time to shine before maybe a group singalong at the end.

Wrong.

The three of them appeared together and came and went in ones and twos in a show that seemed to have been sequenced by the director putting his iPod on shuffle. They all had solo moments to shine but Lulu for some bizarre reason lost out in this.

Anastacia had two solos with "I'm Outta Love" and "Left Outside Alone" while "One Day In Your Life" was shared between them. Chaka shared "I'm Every Woman", "Ain't Nobody" and "I Feel For You" with her co-stars but had a solo with "Through The Fire", a lovely ballad needless to say ignored by the audience chattering through it - oh and Owen too.

And Lulu? Well, "Shout" made a for a priceless second half centrepiece, "Independence" was shared with her co-stars as was "Relight My Fire" which made for an obvious encore. But that was it - no "Man Who Sold The World", "The Boat That I Row", "I'm A Tiger", "To Sir, With Love"... hell not even "Boom-Bang-A-Bang" made it!

Even odder was the fact that the "Proud Mary" and "Disco Inferno" arrangements used showed that someone had been listening to the "What's Love Got To Do With It" soundtrack - so why not use "I Don't Want To Fight"... written by Lulu?
What we did get was a generic Motown tribute - odd to watch after the real thing had been on the same stage a couple of weeks back! I was bemused by this 1960s sequence - with Austin Powers-style groovy video projections and the obvious mini-skirted dancers - wondering what does Lulu think of having the decade that made her famous neatly summed-up in this short-handed way. We also had "Soul Man" thrown into the edit as well as Chaka soloing on "Respect" - where even she was drowned out by the audience!

There was also a generic Disco sequence which featured "Enough Is Enough" and "I Will Survive" (yawn). We also had them doing their version of the 'MOULIN ROUGE "Lady Marmalade" and slotted in between were numbers to show that our Divas are still "relevant" - Beyonce's "Single Ladies" and Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" came and went just as they were becoming too incongruous but Lulu had a solo with Duffy's "Mercy" which again raised eyebrows - but which actually proved how she could sing the arse out of the song. Chaka seemed a bit going-through-the-motions - she obviously Doesn't Do Choreography - I was wondering whether the format suits her style of performance. It was great to see her finally on stage though. Anastacia came across well - grinning and shaking hands with the front row at the drop of a hat.

The show certainly had been stylishly put together with video sequenced backdrops, six hard-working dancers and big lighting design but the transitions from sequence to sequence could have been tighter.

I wondered after to Owen whether I would have enjoyed the show a bit better in a smaller venue where there might have been some real engagement with the audience.