Marianne Faithfull remarkably conjured up the ghost of singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson -- and not fellow diva Marlene Dietrich, as earlier predicted -- during a powerful, cabaret-style performance last night at The Phoenix Concert Theatre.

The poignant moment came just as Faithfull, accompanied solely on stage by pianist Paul Trueblood, was about to launch into Nilsson's aptly-titled Don't Forget Me, the only contemporary song off her latest album, 20th Century Blues.

"We used to do drugs together, lots and lots and lots of drugs," said Faithfull, at the beginning of a long, rambling story. "None of this modern airy-fairy stuff -- narcotics."

The tale, one of many during the evening, ended strangely: Nilsson, clean and sober but without any money, dying in a dentist's office under general anesthetic during root canal surgery.

Faithfull claimed his corpse was taken to a funeral parlor and put into a coffin, which disappeared into a crack in the earth's crust during the "great L.A. earthquake, and was never seen again."

Personally, I thought he died of heart disease, but Faithfull seemed satisfied that her fantastic story had summoned Nilsson's spirit.

"Here's your Remy Martin, darling," she said, pulling a filled brandy snifter on a round table towards an empty chair. "He's here."

And for that moment I believed her.

Such is the hold that Faithfull, a 50-year-old ex-heroin addict with a swaggering stage presence Courtney Love would kill for, has over her audience.

In this case, about 500 fans were treated -- at the very end of her 90-minute performance -- to a sweet rendition of Faithfull's first ever hit, 1964's As Tears Go By, written for her by former boyfriend Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

Not that the audience had anything to complain about up to that point.

Wearing a shiny black suit and sheer black gloves (which intially covered a tiny tattoo on her left hand), Faithfull seemed truly happy and relaxed in her sparse surroundings, which were adorned simply by a black backdrop and multi-colored lightbulbs.

If anything, it was the material from 20th Century Blues, a celebration of Weimar Republic-set songs by German composer Kurt Weill, that made her smile often.

Faithfull got off to a rousing start with the Weill-Bertolt Brecht collaborations Alabama Song and Pirate Jenny before retreating into Dietrich territory with Friedrich Hollaender's Want To Buy Some Illusions.

Her deep, husky voice truly hit its stride, however, with Weill's Complainte De La Seine -- which Faithfull sang on her knees -- and the classic Mack The Knife.

"Take that damn pipe out of her mouth -- you rat," Faithfull spat out in Surabaya Johnny's chorus.

Who could deny such a formidable delivery?

SUN RATING 4 OUT OF 5