ANYONE who went along to Bette Midler's recent concert at the Manchester Arena  thinking that the passage of time might have resulted in a more toned down performance from the now 69-year-old star than we have come to expect throughout her career could not have been more pleasantly surprised.

From the very off there was evidence that The Divine Miss M's trademark fabulous humour was still gloriously intact when a projection of Michelangelo's 'hand of God'  Sistine Chapel painting was revealed to be attached to Midler's grinning face.

What followed during the ensuing two hour performance from the showbiz legend was far removed from a straight down-the-line concert and was much akin to a one woman Broadway Revue type show that was brassy, sassy, frequently hilarious and full to the brim of superbly choreographed high energy song and dance routines from Miss Midler, ably abeted by her three trusty backing singers/dancers, the Harlettes, and an ultra tight and polished 14-piece band.

This was Midler's first time on a Manchester stage as part of her first concert performances in ten  years, billed as The Divine Intervention Tour, the main focus of which is to promote the entertainer's recent album release, 'It's The Girls' - a collection of covers of songs made famous by girl groups such as The Ronettes, The Crystals, The Andrew Sisters and TLC to name a few. 

The night's set list though did not in anyway disappoint Midler's many longtime fans, who gave her a most rapturous and warm reception, as its content included all the key musical moments from her career that has now spanned over four decades.

But those fans craved much more than just the hit songs from Miss M, what they wanted more than anything was her rapier, bawdy wit that has long defined her and boy did she deliver in spades.

A Midler performance is like a visual cocktail of Mae West(the killer one liners), Joan Rivers(the near the knuckle, and sometimes over it, outrageously fabulous humour) and Tina Turner(the strutting, high-heeled song and dance) yet she still manages to come over as a true original in her own right.

Looking well-toned and pretty in a short pink dress, Miss M's appearance belies her true age which she clearly seemed very happy about as the audience were quick to find out.

"The important question is, don't I look fabulous" she asked, or more like told the crowd, which received a huge roar of approval and then she quickly added, "You do too......most of you."

There were further funny quips about age directed at segments of the audience as she referred to some in the front rows as  "fifty shades of grey" and followed up with quick-fire lines such as "I don't know if I should sing to you or talk about the benefits of equity release" and when she asked "How many of you drove here tonight?" , to the acknowledgement of the many hands that were raised in response she said, "So good to see that some of my fans can still drive at night."

In truth however, the 15,000 plus crowd consisted of a real cross-section of age demographics.

"I'm like vodka - ageless, odourless and tasteless" Midler told the audience and then with the double entendre "I have resurrected more oldies than Viagra", she launched into a superb selection of songs from her 'It's The Girls' record which included 'Tell Him'(originally recorded by The Exciters), 'Bei Mir Bist Du Schon'(The Andrew Sisters cover) and a wonderful rendition of TLC's smash hit 'Waterfall'.  

Further musical highlights were a somewhat surprising cover of the Rolling Stones song 'Beast Of Burden', Leonard Cohen's composition 'Everybody Knows', Randy Newman's 'I Think It's Gonna Rain Today' , Ella's 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most' and 'I Put A Spell On You'(a Screamin' Jay Hawkins cover).

Between the music segments the humour never once relented and the loudest audience laughs came during Midler's topical discussion on social media and her love life.

"Remember when people were afraid of being followed? Now they are devastated when they're not", she remarked before bemoaning, with mock regret, not having monetized her sex life a la Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton,   "I could have been a billionaire by the time I was thirty" and then up popped on a huge screen a series very funny, mocked up mobile phone selfies of Miss M in compromising positions with her supposed  former lovers including President Putin, Jeremy Clarkson("he went from 0-60 in 0.5 seconds"), Jamie Oliver(cue lettuce leaf reference), Nigel Farage and Margaret Thatcher!("to be fair I thought it was Meryl Streep").

The evening's wonderful entertainment was put back on a musical track and brought to a conclusion with the expected big career numbers from Midler - 'The Rose' from the hit film of the same name in which she starred ("I know you're all going to want to sing along to this one....please don't.

There's only room for one diva in this room."), 'From A Distance', a knockout version of  'Stay With Me'(the Lorraine Ellison cover) , 'Wind Beneath My Wings' and the final 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy', The Andrews Sister song that Midler succeeded in putting her personal stamp on.

And with that she was gone, and in all probability Miss M is unlikely to pass this way again.

If this is indeed her final tour (and there was a real sense that it was), then it is bringing the curtain down on a glittering career of a woman simply born to entertain.