IT WAS a marriage made in heaven – the emotive songs Burt Bacharach and Hal David channelled through Dionne Warwick, whose versatile voice could swing from delicate to powerful with seemingly consummate ease.

She recorded definitive versions of more than 30 of their classics and it remains the bedrock of her most acclaimed material.

But to talk of the New Jersey-born legend in the past tense would be entirely wrong, as anyone who witnessed her show on Saturday night before a packed house of enraptured devotees would testify.

Now in her late 60s, she gamely limped on stage nursing a leg injury, apologising that if a frown were to cross her face during the performance it had nothing to do with her favourite Liverpool audience.

She went on to deliver a stunning two-hour set, which proved that her delicious dexterity remains intact, bolstered by a superlative six-piece band and dual vocal backing support from her sister and her cousin.

In between, we were treated to the story of her career spoken drily and laconically by Warwick herself speaking in the third person.

This is usually the domain of demented boxers or wrestlers, but in this case it was cleverly done, allowing her to have a pop at the pretenders to her crown such as Our Cilla. She had two of her greatest hits with Anyone Who Had A Heart and Alfie, Bacharach/David songs tailor-made for Warwick but both of which she believed were shamelessly hijacked by the copycat chanteuse from Scottie Road.

She was duly referred to from the stage – to much guffawing – as “what’s ’er name?” before both songs were polished off with luscious, velvet aplomb.

A myriad of other gems from the bitter sweet pantheon of clas- sic pop songs were also scattered to the hungry mass – Walk On By, Do You Know The Way To San Jose, A House Is Not A Home, The Look of Love, I Say A Little Prayer, I’ll Never Fall In Love Again ... how many more do you want?

It had the audience almost swooning in delight, especially when capped with a triple whammy from her later collaborations with the likes of Barry Manilow and the Brothers Gibb: I Know I’ll Never Love This Way Again, Heartbreaker and finally That’s What Friends Are For. Then she gave a last final smile through the pain to a full five- minute standing ovation as she turned and hobbled unattended from the stage, the ultimate diva personified.