Petula Clark - Fairfield Halls, Croydon

Went to see Petula Clark on Thursday night at the Fairfield Halls down in Croydon. Yes, Petula Clark!

I've always had a soft-spot for Petula, her songs from around 1965-1968 are so evocative of the time, with her clear voice and production, optimistic and joyful. Whenever I think of those '60s pop girls, it's Petula for me every time. I remember early Saturday evenings in the late '60s and early '70s with Cilla and Dusty and Lulu and Petula and they all wore long sparkly frocks for the big song. Marianne Faithfull was the bad girl who didn't appear, Sandi just wasn't big enough to really register beyond Eurovision and Clodagh Rodgers? But Petula epitomises that time for me and how I think of her.

Her voice is wonderfully clear and songs like 'Downtown', 'Don't Sleep In The Subway', 'I Know A Place', 'I Can't Live Without Your Love', 'Colour My World' and a host of others helped make London (and the world) swing and made London the place to be. Great, simple songs that stick in the mind. She was a star long before I was even born and that makes it a bit odd that she's not more of a legend than she is. I kept thinking to myself, 'That's *Petula Clark* on stage', not quite believing it...

Croydon is the start of suburban commuter-land in Surrey but you'd be hard-pressed to see where London ends and Surrey begins. I met Chris at Victoria for the trip down through saarf London and out into the big world. I've been to Croydon lots (it's just about 5 miles from my house) but I've never been to the Fairfeld Halls before. I'd always thought of the place as being a bit posh but that illusion dropped as soon as I entered the building. It would've been fab in the '70s, but now just looks a bit worn out, threadbare and a trifle grimy (and, ahem, provincial). The concert hall shriekd '70s at me, lots of wood paneling and brown. Just brown. A simple stage.

The band walked on, a nine-piece with three horn players at the back. They started playing 'Who Am I?', a voice floated in from the wings and, a few bars later, on walked Petula in a sparkly long red frock with a lace coat on top. Wow. There was Pet Clark in a sparkly frock and I whizzed back in time! She looks good, moving round the stage, engaging with the audience and the band, working it like the professional she is. But, I mean to say, that's PETULA CLARK!

She played for about an hour, doing a couple of songs and then telling a few stories of the old days, singing a couple of new songs, sometimes at the piano, sometimes wandering along the stage singing to the front few rows and then throwing back her head and giving us all some welly! She did a great version of 'I Know A Place' where she really wigged out, man. She can still do it! And then she said a few words, went off and the lights came up. 'Eh?' I thought and realised we were having a half-time. More Pet to come.

The second half opened with Pet re-appering in black sparkly this time and starting off with a couple of jazzy big band numbers, the music of her youth. Then launched into more favourites, she recited a poem she wrote on the Eurostar about the theatre, sang a Piaf song in French accompanying herself on piano, and more favourites. An hour later and it was all over to a standing ovation. And then back she came again for a fantastic, 'I Can't Live Without Your Love', the audience on their feet singing and clapping along and Pet in charge from the stage. It was a great ending, she shook hands and accepted flowers and that was it for the evening.

She has an astonishingly large catalogue of songs to choose from and she did all the biggies from my perspective. She sounded in excellent voice. She sang songs from some of the shows she's been in over the years, 'Blood Brothers', 'Sunset Boulevarde' and 'Finian's Rainbow'. She sang a few of her new songs which sounded good and probably more gentle on her voice as it is now. I thoroughly enjoyed the show - just over two hours, a load of memories and the knowledge that I've been in the presence of a great star.