Oh Jeezus. Bette Midler has released a cover version of the wonderful Kirsty MacColl song, In These Shoes. And it's number 11 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart (hello?). I bloody well hate Bette bloody Midler.

But I do love Kirsty, and am very pleased to hear that Westminster Council have accepted a proposal to place a bench in Kirsty's memory in Soho Square, central London. Soho Square is the setting for my favourite song on the "Titanic Days" album. The bench funding has been raised purely from donations by Kirsty fans around the world. The surplus donations will be given to the Music For Cuba Fund, and the bench is due to be unveiled this summer.