Life and times of a legend

LIVE: DIONNE WARWICK (Glasgow Royal Concert Hall) Verdict: Soulful songs and stories

IF Dionne Warwick’s legacy was simply to be known as the finest interpreter of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David songbook it would be enough to secure the 83year-old icon a place at the top table of pop culture.

And sure enough the sixtime Grammy winner opens with the soulful stirrings of her first hit, 1962’s Don’t Make Me Over.

But it’s one of only a handful of songs performed live, in an evening that is as much about the singer’s iron will as it is her velvet tones.

The show is mostly a spoken-word stroll down memory lane that serves as an accompaniment to the 2021 biographical documentary, Don’t Make Me Over, with its director Dave Wooley on hand to introduce clips and jolly Ms Warwick, pictured, along to expand on ground covered and her career-long activism.

Bases covered range from starting out singing in church aged six with Jesus Loves Me – ‘My first ovation’ – to breaking down barriers between black and white music in Sixties America.

That tonight offers only intermittent smatterings of her full repertoire will have been cause for regret for some fans. Though when they come (a revamped I Say A Little Prayer; Anyone Who Had A Heart; Walk On By; What The World Needs Now), each is enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

But most, I suspect, will have lapped up what turns out to be a diverting, entertaining and up-closeand-personal look into the remarkable life and times of a living legend.