Yuku free message boards

Setting off down to The Smoke in about half an hour. Might get some preemptive kip in my hotel room this afternoon in anticipation of a certain lady keeping us all waiting tonight - for a change!

See y'all in the S & L!

For me, one of the many, many joys of seeing Siouxsie in the flesh (as it were) is the way the years fall away in her presence. She makes me feel 20 again. (Sadly she isn't able to make me look 20!) And never is this more appreciated than on my birthday. It happened once before back in 2002 when The Banshees were kind enough to begin the UK leg of the 7YI tour at Barrowlands in Glasgow on my much dreaded 40th birthday. It almost happened again last year when she played at the O2 Wireless Festival... the day before my birthday. Today, though, she was bang on target once more...

Back when I was a mere lad of 46 (yesterday, in other words) I headed off down to London for my date with the diva as I have done so many times before. This time, though, the pressure was off. No leaping off the train, rushing to the florist, zooming across London to my hotel, quickly dropping my things in my room and then shooting off to the venue to start my stage door vigil. With Matter not opening its doors until 10PM and our heroine not scheduled to to take the stage until 12:30AM I could take it easy for once.

As we knew in advance, London Underground's Jubilee Line was shut all weekend meaning there was no direct rail link to the O2 from the city centre. Instead we had to get off at East India station and then take a free ferry ride across the Thames to the imposing venue - which was actually rather pleasant (apart from the pong of the river water - I sure as heck wouldn't like to go swimming in it!) in the evening sunshine. The majority of my fellow passengers (just about everyone on the boat except me I would imagine) were off to see Madonna in the main arena. Reaching the admittedly pretty impressive building I headed inside to meet Robbie, Antonella and Linda at the Slug & Lettuce bar. Robbie was running a bit late but Antonella and Linda soon arrived - all the way from Italy and The Netherlands respectively, no less, just to see Siouxsie in action for an hour. Respect! A quick drink (that seemed to be made up of 30% drink and 70% ice cubes!) and we made our way to Matter.

In a move that later turned out to be a stroke of genius on his part, Robbie had arranged for us to have a table in the VIP section. And indeed we did get the VIP treatment. After being issued with special wristbands we were led up to the cordoned-off VIP area where our genial host, young Mr. Fett, and his friend Jamie awaited us. Soon the Smirnoff Lime and bottles of Beck's were being poured (or orange juice in my case) and everybody was in a great mood, eagerly awaiting the appearance of a certain rather special lady. A little later Robbie pointed out no less than Graham Norton standing just a few feet away. Siouxsie was due to start DJing at half past midnight so fifteen minutes before that we headed downstairs to the sizable DJ booth.

What a racket! Not exactly being what you'd call a party animal (understatement of the century!) I had never really been in a nightclub before. The volume was easily double what you'd hear at a gig. Ooh my poor lugholes! Anyway, no sooner had we taken up position by the entrance to the booth than Siouxsie appeared. Our heroine not only not late but actually early? Oh well, there's a first time for everything. I suppose it was because there was some technical stuff to get up to speed on before she started. Siouxsie looked divine in one of her silver catsuits and greeted us warmly, reaching over the top of the glass partition to shake our hands. To be honest I think she was glad to see us there, a handful of familiar faces amidst the other revellers.

A little over five minutes later than planned (through no fault of her own for once!) Siouxsie spun her first disc: Shirley Bassey's immortal classic, 'Diamonds Are Forever'. Being a lifelong John Barry worshipper I was absolutely overjoyed. The rest of the set was an eclectic mix of everything from Suzi Quatro to thumping dance to the 70's disco tunes that she's always loved. So did our Siouxsie just stand there pressing buttons at the appropriate moments? Did she hell! She put on as much of a show as if she'd been performing on stage, shimmying and shaking her beautiful booty to every song, playing around with a blow-up guitar signed by us all that Linda had given to her and clearly having a ball. My belief that she was pleased that we were there was borne out by the fact that she kept dancing over to us all the time, smiling and taking our hands in hers. The emotional connection was unmistakable. It was heaven.

Her hour long set came to a close all too quickly and Doug led her to the booth entrance. She accepted my inevitable bouquet as graciously as ever and when I thanked her for making this such a great birthday for me she wished me all the best with a sincerity that really touched me. We followed her and Doug out to the backstage exit where she gave Linda a hug and signed a few autographs. Elated, we retired upstairs to the VIP area again. After about a quarter of an hour who should enter the VIP area? Yup, Siouxsie and Doug. She came straight over to us and gave Robbie and I a hug (tragically the rest of our party were outside in the smoking area - I always said its bad for you!) and again wished me a happy birthday, as did Doug. Lovely chap that he is he chatted to us while Siouxsie spoke to her friends. She hung around for about five minutes or so and when she was about to leave she went out of her way to come over and shake hands with Robbie and I. I think I can safely say we were both blown away by her kindness. Ice queen my arse!

It was the perfect end to an incredible experience. The most wonderful birthday I could wish for - spent in the company of dear friends... and the incredible woman we all adore. To paraphrase the words of one of the songs she played: "Sioux makes us feel mighty real!"