An Unexpected Sundae

I had no plans for today except to be lazy but instead it turned into a bit of a Sixties confection with memories stirred and songs sung. What happened? The Supremes and Petula Clark happened all around me.

Talking about Sixties girl singers with Chris this morning, about Lulu and Dusty (we didn't get as far as Cilla, Clodagh, Marianne, Sandie et al) led me to look up Petula Clark since Chris thought she was touring over the summer and she is, this very evening saw the start of her tour at Cadogan Hall in Sloane Square. How fortuitous. And if we're heading up to Kensington and Chelsea then we might as well see the Supreme's exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum (cue hand gestures).

The Story of The Supremes from the Mary Wilson Collection

Doesn't everyone have some Supremes songs in their collection - if not, you really should. The best thing about The Supremes, though, was that they were a total package, the great songs, the moves and, of course, the frocks! And frocks are the centre piece of the latest exhibition at the venerable Victoria & Albert Museum, an exhibition drawn from Mary Wilson's collection of memorabilia from her years in The Supremes, the only one to be a member from the start to the demise of the group.

At once frivilous and serious, the exhibition places The Supremes at the centre of their times in the '60s and early '70s, in the context of civil rights and black consciousness. There's a nice quote from Oprah Winfrey about the power and inspiration of simply seeing The Supremes on TV in the '60s, the first black women to be seen proud and smiling in posh frocks and white folks being respectful. It's easy to forget about things like that but The Supremes and the rest of Motown played an important role in the '60s and deserve some credit for helping to change the world.

Returning to frivolity, of course, and it was fun to see a collection of their sequinned shoes with their names written on the inside in biro to make them easy to find, their wigs and ear-rings, their record covers behind glass and the others that you could pick up and browse. And the frocks. There were frocks from the whole period the group was together but my favourites were the psychedelic and glittery sequinned confections from the late '60s. You're not supposed to take photos but I took a couple without flash when no-one was looking. I am bad.


After browsing in the museum shop we headed down to the Kings Road and to My Old Dutch for pancakes and then headed along to Sloane Square for the evening's performance by a legend.

Petula Clark at Cadogan Hall

Petula has been on the go since the '40s when she was a child star on BBC Radio and then in films and on record, having hits across Europe and recording in various languages, particularly in French. But the '60s saw her go global, a major star everywhere and with a back catalogue to die for. For me she's one of the voices of the '60s, she's always been there, always smiling and always singing and, more often than not, in a sparkly frock (did you see what I did there with the frock segue?).

Her songs, many of which were written by Tony Hatch, sum up the optimism of the '60s and swinging London, they're gloriously 'up', three minutes of perfection and Petula was the perfect singer to embody that style and that era. She was never off the telly, particularly the Saturday evening variety shows and she was a regular visitor to my parents living room as I grew up. I was gobsmacked last year when I saw Petula in concert for the first time - I just kept thinking, 'wow, that's Petula Clark!'. And tonight I kept thinking, 'wow, that's Petula Clark!'. If anyone these days can claim the title of 'legend', it's wor Pet!

The show started at 7pm and Petula sung and entertained us for about 2 hours with an interval half way through. Her 9-piece band came on stage promptly and then she took the stage, Petula Clark in person. She sang a mix of the big hits from the '60s, some new songs (she has a new album out in two weeks time) and some of her stage and film songs, interspersed every second song or two with some reminiscences... and her reminiscences are worth hearing since she's met everbody! Name -dropping Fred Astaire, George Lucas, Sophia Loren, Paul McCartney...

This was the first night of her mini-tour to promote the new album and it showed to a degree. The horns were too loud in the first half and the lighting bloke could do with some lessons. Pet's voice wavered in some of the older songs and was better in the newer songs, although she sounded much better in the second half. Well, after all, she is in her 76th year! But she prowled the stage like a pro, making sure we all had a good view of her no matter where we sat, going to the front of the stage to hold hands with privileged members of the audience, played piano on some songs and shook her hair out for wig-out songs. Pet knows how to put on a show!

Highlights for me were the slow version of 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' with Pet playing piano, 'Don't Sleep In The Subway' (and I don't care if she couldn't quite sustain the notes!), 'Downtown', 'I Know A Place', 'The Song Of My Life', 'Losing My Mind', 'People Get Ready' and, for the encore, the glorious 'I Can't Live Without Your Love'. The whole concert was a bit of a thrill, really. Sigh.

What an odd and unexpected Sunday. I will do lots of listening to The Supremes and wor Chula this week. The only thing missing was ice-cream...