Marianne Faithfull at the Aotea Centre

By CATHRIN SCHAER

"You're still gorgeous," an ardent female admirer cries out from the depths of an almost-packed Aotea Centre during a still moment.

Which pretty much set the tone for Saturday night's Auckland concert by Marianne Faithfull, former Rolling Stones consort, ex-drug addict, punk-era chanteuse and all round musical legend.

After local singer-songwriter Damien Binder showed the expectant crowd, with his beautifully constructed songs, why he should soon be bigger than Bic, Ms Faithfull took the stage to loud, exuberant applause.

There's just something exhilarating about seeing a star like this in the flesh, especially one with such stage presence. Despite the fact that she's quite a bit older than when Mick and Keef first laid eyes on her, her personal magnetism has definitely survived all that hard living intact.

The 56-year-old also remains downright sultry, cool even. Black-clad hips swinging and arms sensually unfurling, she is the ultimate sexy older woman with the bedtime history to prove it.

And then, of course, she opened her mouth. And that gravelly, warm, powerful voice that even less-dedicated fans must recognise from songs like The Ballad of Lucy Jordan and Broken English purred through the crowd.

Yet, interestingly enough, these were not the songs that impressed most. Faithfull told the audience, "It's been a long, hard road and we've already done 90 shows."

And to be honest, if you weren't a long-time fan gagging to hear them, it was on the older, oft-performed tracks that you got an inkling of just how long that road had been.

The anguish was somewhat missing from Lucy Jordan's tale of woe, and an up-tempo version of Broken English sounded more mainstream rock than the angry, hissing jingle to a German terrorist that it once was.

Where Faithfull became most immersed and emotive was on the tracks from her latest album, Kissing Time. She has co-written the songs on this album with a roster of some of the best alternative-music talent around. She is clearly very proud of it - after all, it's about her life now, not in the 60s.

Faithfull claimed songs co-written with Beck, indie hero Will Oldham, Damon Albarn of Blur and Jarvis Cocker of Pulp as utterly her own, spitting out explicit and sneering lyrics with feeling and style that reminded you where she comes from and the freedom with which she has lived her life.

Then, an hour and a half later, in keeping with all her recent shows, the evening finished up with Strange Weather, the title track of her 1987 album written by Tom Waits.

On this torch song, Faithfull's almost-unaccompanied tobacco-stained voice smokily filled the large venue all by itself, and provided a fitting finale to a warm, intimate performance that had, at times, had everyone in the place as mesmerised as if they were sitting in Faithfull's hotel room.

"Thank you, I love you," called Faithfull as she left the stage to a partial standing ovation.

And as the crowd, still basking in the afterglow of her presence filed out, you got the feeling that this was one legend who really meant it.