TV presenters, radio dj’s and music fans are all too guilty these days of casually referring to many artists as legends, when in truth, most have hardly earned the label.

It is a tag that is bandied about with little thought given to what it actually takes to warrant such a title but with respect to soul diva Gladys Knight, her status as a music legend is fully deserved and has been justifiably earned during her career that now spans fifty years of performing.

Gladys Knight, like most other black female singers of her ilk and era, started out by singing gospel music in church at a tender age – Knight was just four years old.

She later became part of the wonderful stable of singers and groups that ‘worked’ at the greatest and most productive music ‘factory’ there has ever been, Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan.

There, along with her backing singers group, The Pips, she emerged as a bona fide legend amongst a host of others such as Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes and The Jackson Five as the classic pop hits rolled off the ‘production line’ at a phenomenal rate year after year.

Now sixtysomething, Knight is currently in the middle of what is billed as her ‘Farewell Tour’, which pulled up in the North West for two shows last week (in Manchester and Liverpool) and, if this is indeed to be her touring swansong, she succeeded in leaving all those who witnessed her performance with some magical memories to take away.

Her show, as you would expect, is an ultra slick, glitzy affair, full of humour and interesting anecdotes which commenced with Knight appearing, to thunderous applause, at the top of a flight of glittering steps, down which she was escorted to centre stage by two of her impeccably dressed male singers.

Over the ensuing ninety minutes, Miss Knight proceeded to take her fans on a musical journey that stopped at all the key stages of her remarkable career.

She joked that many of the songs she originally performed and recorded probably long before many of her audience were even born and glancing around the crowd that did indeed seem to be the case for the Motown ‘sound’ has always seduced all age groups and demographics.

From a stirring rendition of ‘If I Were Your Woman’(the adult content of which she explained she had initially felt a little uncomfortable singing when very young) and a rousing ‘You’re The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me’, through to a glorious performance of ‘The Way We Were’ that earned a long standing ovation and, a powerhouse delivery of ‘Licensed To Thrill’, her Bond theme song from the film of the same name, Knight demonstrated that the passage of time has in no way diminished her vocal ability.

In fact, were she to appear on a show such as X Factor at her now mature age, she’d still blow all comers off the stage with that voice.

If one was to be a bit picky about an aspect of the show, the Motown medley, that featured songs like ‘Get Ready’, ‘My Girl’, ‘Baby Love’, ‘What’s Goin On’, ‘My Guy’, ‘Stop! In The Name Of Love’ and ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, was too hastily despatched with fans only getting mere snatches of tunes they longed to hear much more of.

Teddy Pendergrass’s ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now’, ‘Till The End Of The Road’ and her signature tune, ‘Midnight Train To Georgia’ brought the show to a glorious end.

Surprisingly and yes, somewhat disappointingly, the house lights came on without any encore following but hey, what she gave the crowd was very special and she did have that train to catch, though I was not aware you could get an 23.59 to Georgia from Piccadilly.