11-November-2015
Euskalduna Auditorium
 Bilbao, Spain

Setlist
Celtic Swing
Close Enough For Jazz
Higher Than The Wold
Days Like This
If You Only Knew
In The Midnight
Wonderful Remark
Sometimes We Cry
Playhouse
Precious Time
Enlightenment
Keep It Simple
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchmarn Farm/Don't Start Crying Now
In The Afternoon
Moondance
Think Twice Before You Go
Whenever God Shines His Light
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
And The Healing Has Begun
Gloria

Big Hand for The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Dana Masters (Vocals)

10-November-2015
Teatro Circo Price
 Madrid, Spain

Setlist
Celtic Swing
Close for the Jazz
Brown Eyed Girl
Days Like This
Precious Time
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm/Don't Start Crying Now
That's Life
If You Only Knew
Early in the Morning/Rock Me Baby
Think Twice Before You Go
I Believe To My Soul 
Moondance
Enlightenment
In The Afternoon
Magic Time
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
Whenever God Shines His Light
Help Me
Ballerina

Big Hand for The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Dana Masters (Vocals)

08-November-2015
The O2
 London, England

Photo via Alan L.

Brendan Hynes sent in this review

Van Morrison and Tom Jones at O2 Arena, London 8th November 2015.

This was a much anticipated concert which brought together two septuagenarian music legends still performing great music so late in their careers.

First onstage was Van Morrison who started rather tamely with Celtic Swing and Close Enough For Jazz before a wonderful Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child got the show properly under way. A powerful Early In The Morning/Rock Me Baby went down a storm with the blues festival audience and featured a great organ solo by Paul Moran. In the Afternoon which followed was a great extended version the early part of which was marred for me by the now almost obligatory group of ignorant people talking loudly until I asked them to desist in no uncertain terms which mercifully had the desired effect. Playhouse fairly moved at pace and included nice guitar from Dave Keary and piano by Paul Moran. Days Like This and Precious Time brought somewhat of a lull to proceedings for me but were well received. Baby Please Don't Go/ Parchman Farm/Don't Start Crying Now went down a storm as usual and featured Van singing the first two songs in the medley almost entirely through cupped hands and harmonica. I Can't Stop Loving You and Magic Time were well delivered but nothing exceptional but that cannot be said of All In The Game which followed and it was once again magnificent. This version saw Van return to the mantra of No Plan B/No Safety Net/This Is It before telling us over and over that Time Is Running Out. Van shuffled off stage still singing in the wings only to return for an encore and telling us he wanted to bring on his old friend Tom Jones. While waiting for Tom's arrival on stage Van informed us that for this show he had given us a mixture of the club sets and the bigger concert sets which pay the bills. Former band member Leo Green also joined proceedings on stage to play some great saxophone which certainly enhanced the band's sound. The first duet with Tom was a really strong slow blues number Sticks and Stones(I've Been Abused) which was followed by That Lonesome Road which saw Van become very amused by the depth of Tom's vocals. Finally we got a terrific performance of Not Feeling It Anymore which of course Tom also recorded back in the 1990s.As the song came to it's conclusion Van and Tom departed to great acclaim leaving the band to finish off aided in no small part by a blistering extended saxophone solo by Leo Green. I thought this song was the end of Van's involvement for the night but surprisingly this did not prove to be the case.

Tom Jones set opened with an incredible Burning Hell from his Praise and Blame album and his set drew heavily on material from that album and his Spirit In The Room and Long Lost Suitcase blues/soul/gospel albums . Tom's voice is simply phenomenal and at 75 really defies human logic. A cover of Leonard Cohen's Tower of Song was absolutely superb while Didn't It Rain brought the audience to their feet. Tom still managed to include a bluesy version of Sex Bomb while a calypso version of It's Not Unusual had the unfortunate effect of encouraging a troop of women to try to storm towards the stage only to be turned back by security staff who may have had worries on health and safety grounds about the possibility of injuries being caused by flying underwear.

When Tom returned for his encore he told us that Van was coming on to sing some more songs which was quite a surprise. The first duet performed was a fine version of the Chuck Willis number What Am I living For with both in fine voice as they traded vocals. The second number was the dreaded Goodnight Irene. This is a song I never desire to hear and whenever I do I hope it's the last time a singer will feel the need to say goodnight to Irene but alas.... Tom reminisced about first meeting Van in London in 1965 and attempted a number of times to engage Van in conversation but quite hilariously most of Van's responses were of the one word variety such as 'yes'and 'no'. Van kept asking after each song "what's next" and they were about to do the up tempo Strange Things from Tom's Praise and Blame album when the drummer intervened and said they had forgotten Sometimes We Cry. I for one am most grateful for his intervention because while I have heard Van sing this song with various singers over the years none come anywhere close to the sheer power with which Tom delivered his contribution. Van was suitably impressed too as he shouted "one more time" for a repeat chorus at the end. The aforementioned Strange Things brought the night's proceedings to a very lively end after almost 3 hours of top quality music leaving the audience very satisfied at the unique experience they had enjoyed which may never be repeated.

-Brendan Hynes

Setlist (Thanks Lynn C.)
Celtic Swing
Close Enough for Jazz
Motherless Child
Early In The Morning
In The Afternoon/Burn Baby Burn
Playhouse
Days Like This
Precious Time
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchment Farm/Don't Start Crying Now
I Can't Stop Loving You
Magic Time
All In The Game/No Plan B/The Waiting Game
Sticks And Stones w/Tom Jones
Lonesome Road w Tom Jones
I'm Not Feeling it Anymore w/Tom Jones

Tom Jones Set
What Am I Living For w/ Tom Jones
Goodnight Irene w/ Tom Jones
Sometimes We Cry w/ Tome Jones
Strange Things w/ Tom Jones

Big Hand for The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Dana Masters (Vocals)
Leo Green (Saxophone)

The Complete Them 1964-1967 Three CD Set From Sony Legacy Coming in December

Pre-Order from Amazon.

The Complete Them 1964-1967, a 3-disc anthology, is the most thorough collection of Van Morrison's early studio and live performances ever assembled. It includes all material recorded for the first two Them albums - The Angry Young Them (1965) and Them Again (1966)- in addition to singles, demos, live sessions, alternate takes and rarities, many of them long unavailable or previously unreleased.

All tracks have been newly remastered for this collection and the package includes a 16-page booklet featuring an insightful new commentary on Them provided by Van Morrison.

Disc: 1
1. Don't Start Crying Now
2. One Two Brown Eyes
3. Baby Please Don't Go
4. Gloria
5. Philosophy
6. Here Comes The Night
7. All For Myself
8. One More Time
9. How Long Baby
10. Mystic Eyes
11. If You And I Could Be As Two
12. Little Girl (album version)
13. Just A Little Bit
14. I Gave My Love A Diamond
15. You Just Can't Win
16. Go On Home Baby
17. Don't Look Back
18. I Like It Like That
19. I'm Gonna Dress In Black
20. Bright Lights, Big City
21. My Little Baby
22. (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66
23. (It Won t Hurt) Half As Much

Disc: 2
1. Could You Would You
2. Something You Got
3. Call My Name (album version)
4. Turn On Your Love Light
5. I Put A Spell On You
6. I Can Only Give You Everything
7. My Lonely Sad Eyes
8. I Got A Woman
9. Out Of Sight
10. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
11. Bad Or Good
12. How Long Baby
13. Hello Josephine
14. Don't You Know
15. Hey Girl
16. Bring 'Em On In (album version)
17. Richard Cory
18. Friday's Child
19. The Story Of Them Part 1
20. The Story Of Them Part 2
21. Times Getting Tougher Than Tough
22. Stormy Monday Blues
23. Baby What You Want Me To Do

Disc: 3
1. Don't Start Crying Now (demo)
2. Gloria (demo)
3. One Two Brown Eyes (demo)
4. Stormy Monday Blues (demo)
5. Turn On Your Love Light (alternate version)
6. Baby Please Don't Go (Take 4)
7. Here Comes The Night (Take 2)
8. Gloria(Live on BBC's "Saturday Club")
9. All For Myself(Live on BBC's "Saturday Club")
10. Here Comes The Night(Live on BBC's "Saturday Club")
11. Little Girl (version one)
12. Go On Home Baby (Take 4)
13. I Gave My Love A Diamond (Take 8)
14. (It Won't Hurt) Half As Much (Take 2)
15. My Little Baby (Take 1)
16. How Long Baby (Take 1)
17. One More Time (Take 14)
18. Gloria(Live on BBC's "Saturday Club")
19. Here Comes The Night(Live on BBC's "Saturday Club")
20. One More Time(Live on BBC's "Saturday Club")
21. Call My Name (single version)
22. Bring 'Em On In (single version)
23. Mighty Like A Rose
24. Richard Cory (Alternate Version)

27-September-2015
Heineken Music Hall
 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Photo via Heineken Music Hall

De Telegraaf
The decor Van Morrison Sunday had taken to the Heineken Music Hall, or rather the total lack of it, says everything. The Northern Irishman (70) is a musician, not a circus artist. Acted upon
An evening with Van Morrison called the concert Sunday evening and the large concert hall was packed for the occasion put chairs. An easier way to enforce attention is not natural, but the veteran had at least also for the show. The initial one minute 20.00 and the final applause was still before ten at least, um, brave.
For nothing else in its decor than a dark curtain Van began his saxophone. Almost modest, if one of them among his concentrated, yet versatile band, he first heard in Close enough for jazz that he still has his distinctive voice. With the classic Moondance - in 1970 - then he subtly reminded us that we had to deal with someone with very respectable record.
So on sax, guitar or harmonica. From his voice at times used as an instrument. On learning of course no shortage. Just as diversity. A jazzy start followed sweetness á la Days like this, which again was continuation of solid blues as jakkerende Baby please do not go.
For the neutral observer will be a little austere, perhaps even boring have done. Certainly the lover of all these different sides of Van came largely into their own. Without distraction and without even a breather between songs showcased The man where he has been almost half a century is praised for. And the best news is that after Sunday we physically for years seem to enjoy it.
-Bart Wijlaars

Setlist (Thanks Wim D.)
Celtic Swing
Close Enough For Jazz
Moondance
I Believe To My Soul
Days Like This
Precious Time
Carrying A Torch
Think Twice Before You Go
Talk Is Cheap
Baby Please Don't Go/Don't Start Crying Now
Enlightenment
Wild Night
In The Afternoon
Magic Time
Whenever God Shines Hos Light
Brown Eyed Girl
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
And The Healing Has Begun
Help Me
Gloria

20-September-2015
Sony Center
For The Performing Arts
 Toronto, Canada

Dan Murray sends in his thoughts on night two in Toronto

Magic Time in Toronto
During two powerful shows at Toronto's Sony Centre for the Performing Arts over the weekend, Sir George Ivan Morrison demonstrated his continued vitality as supreme soul-sender and improvisational marvel.

I have been whining for a good year now that I thought Van had cut back considerably in the past year on his classic improvisational skills, musical dynamics and pure, unvarnished passion.

There were times of brilliance, but I thought things were becoming much too routine. I chalked it up to age, and death, and the ghosts, as poet John Berryman put it.

But the Cyprus Avenue birthday gigs showed major signs of the Van performance style I have known and will always love. The afternoon show finale of Ballerina, And the Healing and Garden were terrific songs delivered with drive and beauty.

The finale of Hyndford Street in the evening set summed up the day in gorgeous, dramatic style.

And then on to Toronto three weeks later, where a combination of a lovely venue, a great audience, pristine sound, a performer completely committed to the cause, and a finely tuned band added up to two wonderful evenings of music.

The sound of surprise as the music unfolded, the passion, the drama were all back in full force, and a relaxed Van sang with as much authority as I have ever heard.

The sets lists featured a diverse mix of Van tunes in the first half, nicely paced. The second half of the show brimmed each night with Morrison in full vocal flight, the lights of the cars on the overpass, shining like diamonds in the night, driving all night long, until the sun comes up.

Burn baby Burn, you're gonna make me high.

Morrison used all of his classic imagery, nature-based and mystical. I believe there was even a reference to his young children, as he repeated over and over "Daddy, take me down, please, to the burning ground. Daddy, take me across the river, across the water. Daddy, please."

The shows opened with the traditional songs to warm up the pipes, merely pleasant.

Then he mixed things up in the middle of the gigs, doing songs ranging from the greasy, grinding blues of Talk is Cheap and Keep Mediocrity at Bay and I Believe to My Soul, to a propulsive, sweeping version of Motherless Child, guitars strummed hard, and a wonderful, woozy In the Midnight.

The All in the Game both nights was epic, so much new revealed, despite the fact that he has sung it so often. The way he formed the words into exquisite shapes: "Make it real one more time....one more, one... one.... one... one."
"And you take my hand, and you walk with me, and sometimes it feels, like eternity."

Can it be said any better? And how much more pleasurable to hear it sung by a voice that is truly blessed. Van's enunciation at these gigs was the best I have ever heard.

The Ballerina was exquisite in its beauty and clarity.

The shows ended with Gloria, which the audience loved, and the great band absolutely pulverized it as Van got into his limo and took flight again.
-Dan Murray

Setlist (Thanks Mike S.)
Celtic Swing
Close Enough For Jazz
Moondance
Days Like This
Precious Time
Talk Is Cheap
Keep Mediocrity at Bay
Carrying A Torch
Enlightenment
Magic Time
Whenever God Shines His Light
In the Midnight
In the Afternoon/Raincheck
Think Twice Before You Go
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm/Don't Start Crying Now
Ballerina
And The Healing Has Begun
It's All In The Game
Gloria

Big Hand for The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Dana Masters (Vocals)

19-September-2015
Sony Center
For The Performing Arts
 Toronto, Canada

Toronto Sun (Source)
Van still The Man at 70? You betcha.
Van Morrison, now in his first year as a septuagenarian, lived up to his longtime nickname Van The Man Saturday night during the first of two back-to-back shows at the Sony Centre.

The veteran Belfast belter seems to have defied time and still possesses a big, beautiful, soulful voice even if his physicality - he doesn’t move much or speak between songs - barely hints at the power within.
It’s only when he’s singing - soul, blues, gospel, rock, pop and jazz - that Morrison’s spirit really comes alive with rich, expressive vocals that seem to come directly from his heart.

Dressed in a suit, tie, fedora, and sunglasses with dim lighting making it hard to actually see him, the singer-songwriter began in a low-key, jazzy way playing saxophone (he later played guitar and harmonica) on the instrumental Celtic Swing followed by Close Enough For Jazz.

But then Morrison, accompanied by a tight five piece band, quickly picked up the pace with hits like Moondance and Days Like This, the latter which got fans clapping for the first time.

Finally seeming to relax, he followed up with a plenty of vocal improvisation and a potent mix of blues, rock and gospel selections big on jams.

Highlights included a cover of Baby Please Don’t Go (previously covered by his pre-solo ‘60s band Them), and his own I Believe To My Soul, Talk is Cheap, Whenever God Shines His Light, Wild Night and the very sexy Don’t You Make Me High, and finally The Burning Ground which saw him shuffle off stage while still singing.

Thankfully, he returned for the crowd-pleasing encore number Gloria, also by Them, with plenty of solos offered up by his musicians and the audience finally on its feet and clapping and singing along.

Sadly, there was no Brown Eyed Girl but it was a small quibble given the quality of music for an hour and 40 minutes delivered by a legend still going strong.
-Jane Stevenson

Setlist (Thanks Mike S.)
Celtic Swing
Close Enough For Jazz
Moondance
Days Like This
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm/Don't Start Crying Now
I Believe To My Soul
Talk is Cheap
Whenever God Shines His Light
Wild Night
In the Afternoon /Burn Baby Burn/Raincheck
Cleaning Windows
Motherless Child
And The Healing Has Begun
Precious Time
Magic Time
All in the Game/Time is Running Out/Burning Ground
Gloria

Big Hand for The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Dana Masters (Vocals)

18-September-2015
Landsdowne Park
 Ottawa, Canada

Ottawa Sun (Source)

It was a marvelous night for a Moondance on the Great Lawn of Lansdowne Park Friday, with the legendary Van Morrison packing the park to capacity for CityFolk's marquee show.

It took a personal letter to Morrison, penned by festival director Mark Monahan, to convince the ever-elusive Belfast Cowboy to hop the pond for the exclusive date -- it's been a full five years since he set foot in Canada, last appearing in Ottawa at Monahan's Bluesfest in 2007.

And as with another legend of similar stature, Bob Dylan, who shared the Bluesfest bill that year, concertgoers know you're either in line for "Good Van" or "Bad Van" -- when he's on, it's a near-spiritual experience, when he's off, it can fall a little flat.

But on Friday, he wasn't just Good Van. He was vintage Van the Man.

The elder statesman of soul, now 70, needed no introduction as he and his crack five-piece band strode on stage -- a full ten minutes ahead of their scheduled start -- and with no fanfare at all, launched into the smooth-sailing jazz instrumental Celtic Swing, with Morrison looking dapper dressed in all-black, capped by fedora and shades, blowing soft sax lines on his alto while fans were still staking out their spot on the crowded lawn.

Even the camera operators were late on the draw, the video screens still projecting a stationary shot of the side of the stage while the main attraction was stepping up to take his first of many jazz-infused sax solos.

There was little time, or need for fanfare, however, as Morrison quickly counted off the cheeky Close Enough For Jazz, then eased into his signature tune, Moondance, while the estimated 15,000 fans took up the occasion to find a partner and sway along to the gently syncopated bounce.

He barely allowed a breath between songs for his bandmates, and wasted no time to take in the rapturous applause, quickly counting in each song on the heels of the last, with the gospel-tinged Days Like This and Higher Ground, followed quickly by the down and dirty r&b of the classic Them hit Baby Please Don't Go, the horn-driven Real, Real Gone and the funky bass jam of Wild Night.

Yes, it was just that easy for the venerable Morrison, whose trademark vocals seem to have defied Father Time, capturing every bit of the power and the grace of his prime.

The stage volume was kept noticeably quiet at the outset, but gained in decibels by the time the band really hit their stride on Cleaning Windows -- the band had already reeled off a dozen tunes by that point and it was barely 9 p.m.

The inspiring Jackie Wilson Said brought the entire crowd to their feet, as even the fans dotting the hillside at the far end of the park could be seen kicking up the turf to the driving horn lines, and even his most casual fan was singing along to every word of Brown-Eyed Girl, Domino and the rousing encore Gloria.

On Friday, he spoke only to his band, and did so only to quickly count in the next song, or spontaneously call out the key signature. His bandmates followed along with every cue, sometimes as subtle as a quick raised hand or catching a barked audible cue, and displayed supreme musical mastery throughout it all.
-AEDAN HELMER

Setlist (Thanks Ken D.)
Celtic Swing
Close Enough for Jazz
Moondance
Days Like This
Whenever God Shines His Light
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchment Farm/Don't Start Crying Now
Enlightenment
Real Real Gone
Wild Night
Can't Stop Loving You
Precious Time
Cleaning Windows
Jackie Wilson Said
In The Afternoon/Ancient Highway/Raincheck
Brown Eyed Girl
Domino
In The Garden
Think Twice Before You Go
Help Me
Gloria

Big Hand for The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Dana Masters (Vocals)

31-August-2015
Cyprus Avenue
 Belfast, Northern Ireland

Photo via Pablo G.

Here are Brendan's thoughts on both shows
(1st Show)
As the clock ticked ever closer to the start time of 3.00pm one surprising observation given the overwhelming demand for tickets was that there were several rows of empty seats at the rear of the seating area and they remained unfilled throughout the concert. Just as Van Morrison and his band hit the stage the skies opened and rain cascaded down to dampen the spirits somewhat.When Van opened with the fairly routine numbers Celtic Swing and Close Enough For Jazz followed by Moondance I felt somewhat deflated as I was expecting something a lot different on this special day.Two duets followed with PJ Proby on Whatever Happened To PJ Proby and Chris Farlowe on Born To Sing and while they were enjoyable enough they were a long way below my expectations from the day. However, Van then announced a dedication to Brian Keenan before unleashing an imperious version of Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child with Van emphasing the word 'freedom' over and over to great effect and Paul Moran playing exceptional organ throughout. This was incredible and I found myself exclaiming that this was the sort of music I had come to hear! When a wonderful Mystic From The East followed, things were much brighter on the avenue and even the rain had cleared as the sun shone down on us all.The opening notes of Brown Eyed Girl provided a quick reality check however and when regular and somewhat overplayed setlist numbers such as Days Like This,Baby Please Don't Go and Enlightenment followed in quick succession the concert had reverted back to being a somewhat mediocre one.By the time Van had finished the Guitar Slim song Things I Used To Do, I had more or less resigned myself to the concert being a missed opportunity and quite a let down given the occasion. But then it happened! Van strapped on his guitar and without warning transported us through a magical music tour featuring three of the greatest songs he has written in his long and distinguished career.And The Healing Has Begun was stunning and seemed to go on for ever before being followed by a wonderful Ballerina which included a Cyprus Avenue reference by Van. After departing the stage we didn't have to wait long for Van's return,not for Gloria,but to the wonderful piano strains of In The Garden. Van was unstoppable by now and he brought things right down low before urging us all to sing it as he moved into the No Guru No Method No Teacher chant to the extraordinary sight of the entire audience jumping to their feet in unison to sing the words back to Van. This was very special and as Van departed the stage the band played on for a few more minutes to rapturous applause. What a finale we had witnessed and one sensed it had changed the whole mood entirely. The set time was 1h 27m.

Setlist
Celtic Swing
Close Enough For Jazz
Moondance
Whatever Happened to PJ Proby w/PJ Proby
Born to Sing w/Chris Farlowe
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Mystic of the East
Brown Eyed Girl
Days Like a This
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm
Cry Cry Baby
Sometimes We Cry
Whenever God Shines His Light
Enlightenment
Things I Used To Do
Healing Has Begun
Ballerina
In The Garden

Big Hand for The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Dana Masters (Vocals)

Photo via Pablo G.

(2nd Show)
As we walked down the avenue again for the second show there was much speculation as to what would be played this time. It seemed inconceivable and indeed illogical that Cyprus Avenue and indeed Madame George(with its Cyprus Avenue references) would not be played but with Van Morrison there had to be an element of doubt. As it transpired, he again played neither much to the disappointment of many including myself thereby emphasising that the only predictable thing about Van is his unpredictability!

After the show opened as ever with Celtic Swing we then got a really good version of Kingdom Hall to liven up proceedings considerably. When Van introduced Carrying A Torch as their latest hit and joked about the BBC Radio 2 playlist it was clear he was in more relaxed mode. Aided in no small part by Dana Masters on vocals, the song delivered yet again to great acclaim. After reprising his earlier duet with PJ Proby, Van brought the Belfast influences to bear with a stirring Cleaning Windows. Days like This and Precious Time were nothing out of the ordinary but the same cannot be said of Mystic From The East and Sometimes I Feel like A Motherless Child which were both played again and once more were quite wonderful. Sometimes We Cry was sung with great energy by both Van and Dana before being followed by Van's favourite medley of Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm(which Van again made a point of crediting to Mose Alison) and Don't Start Crying Now. Van picked out someone in the front row before the replicated gun shots during Parchman Farm telling him he was a 'sitting duck'. Whenever God Shines His Light gave one last chance to the dancers amongst us to let loose before we embarked on the homeward journey with Van firmly in the zone. It started with an extended and quite magnificent It's All In The Game with Van giving it the full treatment taking us to the burning ground then on to the factory before picking up the sack and mopping his brow from the mid day sun. At one stage Van brought everything down so low you could have heard a pin drop as the audience fell virtually totally silent which is a feat in itself given the audience behaviour at outdoor concerts in particular these days. Finally, we had Van emitting various sounds and pleading over and over 'Daddy please take me to the burning ground' before slowly leaving the stage after just one hour. Mercifully Van's somewhat premature exit was simply for effect and he returned for four more numbers starting with a duet with Chris Farlowe on Stand By Me which saw Chris change the lyrics slightly to 'as long as Van Morrison Stands By Me'. And The Healing Has Begun was unsurprisingly rapturously received once again before an extended Help Me followed which saw Van and the band go into overdrive on what was a great version. When Van departed once more it appeared it might all be over but he returned one more time to deliver On Hyndford Street to an ecstatic response particularly from many of those who had travelled from abroad who were hearing it live for the first time and were virtually gasping for breath afterwards. Van made a number of humorous references during this rendition including to the the inclusion of a line which he said he couldn't believe he had put in. After using the phrase 'lit up inside' Van said he was plugging the book and that there were some on sale. We all laughed merrily of course! Finally, Van kept repeating the phrases "the only time is now" and "in the eternal presence" over and over before thanking the band and heading off in to the night. Another person who would have been well worthy of mention at that point was the one and only Maurice Kinkead whose vision and great endeavour played such a huge part in making the event happen. The set time was 1h 30m.

Setlist
Celtic Swing
Kingdom Hall
Carrying a Torch
Whatever Happened to PJ Proby w/PJ Proby
Cleaning Windows
Days Like This
Precious Time
Mystic of the East
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Sometimes We Cry
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm/Cry Cry Baby
Whenever God Shines His Light
It's All in the Game
Stand By Me w/Chris Farlowe
Healing Has Begun
Help Me
On Hyndford Street

Big Hand for The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Dana Masters (Vocals)

My overall perspective on the event was that it was the dedicated and indeed fortunate fans who managed to attend both shows who really got to enjoy the full Cyprus Avenue experience as they were afforded the opportunity to marry the really significant and outstanding moments of real excellence from each show into an abiding memory truly befitting the occasion.
-Brendan Hynes

Chrissie Hynde

Paste Magazine

Van Morrison: Between the Heart and the Throat

From a conversation between the psychologist R.D. Laing and Van Morrison in 1973:
LAING: All the times that I’ve listened to your voice, you seem to sing somewhere between your throat and your heart. Sometimes it’s right in your heart, sometimes it’s more up in your throat. When you do that now, is that the zone that you want to both come from and resonate in other people, the heart…
MORRISON: Eventually it’ll get into the heart. That’s what the eventual goal is—Exactly.

Van Morrison’s voice interests me because it seems inexplicable, misaligned somehow from his body and even his experience. The gift of the golden throat may have been given to the recipient most constitutionally unsuited for it. Biographies of Morrison are rough going if you’re a fan: very few people have anything nice to say about him. Recurrent adjectives used to describe him include distant, uncommunicative, arrogant, sullen, angry, grumpy, drunken, unpredictable, cutting, brusque, dismissive, moody, bitter.

In his voice there’s pain and comfort, a squealing anger. Resentment, and a squall, a snuffle. The meandering arrow of a fitful quest for transcendence. Or perhaps something more like a ley line—an invisible force of magnetism that compels you whether or not you’re aware of the secret nature of its influence. A Protestant Northern Irish mysticism, rough-and-tumble and pragmatic. B.B. King said about Morrison: “His voice is pure, yet bitter.”

The first time I saw Van Morrison was at the 2007 Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. Still visible on the fronts of many of the houses around the Fairgrounds where the festival was held was the brutal graffiti (numbers, X’s, markings like tic-tac-toe) left by rescuers checking the houses for the living and the dead after Katrina. In April it was already so hot it verged on the unbearable. It was the weekend I learned that what I thought were small horses leading tourists on carriage tours through the French Quarter were in fact mules—horses couldn’t survive the New Orleans humidity, at least according to my friend.

Morrison was horrible—turgid, sedate, and indifferent. We listened to him from what seemed like a quarter of a mile away, unable to penetrate further into the sea of lawn chairs, beach umbrellas and sunburned frat boys eating crawfish Monica and yelling for “Brown-Eyed Girl.” There were a lot of jazz and blues covers, a lot of mid-tempo numbers. Dr. John may or may not have made a guest appearance on piano. Nothing caught fire. He seemed sleepy; his voice never really got out of his chest. I was incredibly disappointed.

The second time I saw Van Morrison was less than a year later, at the South by Southwest festival in early March 2008 in Austin, Texas. A few nights before his headlining gig at the Austin Music Hall, Morrison played a set at a small club called La Zona Rosa. Both shows were ostensibly to promote his new album Keep It Simple, which was about to be released. I had a press pass and, after a long meandering wait in line, was able to get into the club. I knew no one else there.

There was a sign at the bar saying that it would be closing five minutes before the set started, “by request of the performer,” and would remain closed for the duration of the performance. Coming from a musician who was notorious for enjoying a drink or two over the years, this move struck me as deeply perverse, and therefore admirable. I drank bourbon while I still could and checked out the assembled crowd of mostly English and American journalists. One English guy next to me was audibly dictating the first two paragraphs of his review of the show into a hand-held recorder a good half-hour before it actually began.

The eight- or nine-piece band, serious professionals, came onstage a few minutes before he did. He kind of lurched in front of the microphone from stage right suddenly and violently, even though I remember some sort of typical showbiz introduction by a member of the band: “Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome the one, the only, Van the Man… VAN MORRISON!” From 15 feet away, and from a vantage point several feet below him, he still looked short. He wore sunglasses and a fedora and sang into a gold-plated microphone and a gold mic stand accessorized with the letters VM.

Few concessions were made to the crowd, or to his back catalog of beloved, popular songs. Almost every number was drawn from the new album, with the exception of a cover of Webb Pierce’s classic alcoholic country lament “There Stands the Glass” that was especially ironic to listen to with the bar standing in darkness behind us. One review I read later said that Morrison told someone in the crowd to fuck off, but I don’t remember it happening.

After maybe half an hour, something started to shift. Morrison began to attack the syllables of the songs, biting them off, snarling and growling, repeating them in unpredictable flurries and bursts. He reminded me of a bulldog, a prizefighter with a broken face, an old heater warming up. His pale cheeks flaked away from the sides of his sunglasses like fresh-baked biscuit.

The last song he played was the best song on the new album, but I didn’t know that at the time. It started with a gentle rhythm on guitar and ukulele, and quietly he began singing about drinking wine and making time in the alley. It felt fluid and precise. Even the most blasé and exhausted-looking journalists glanced up from their electronic devices and began paying attention. He chanted “Behind the ritual/you find the spiritual” in a low growl again and again, until the words seemed to unmoor themselves from their network of associations and meanings and float free into a zone of spontaneously generated syllables and sounds. His teeth drew back as he sang, and he seemed for a few moments to be transported into a trance, an elongated pause of drawn-out time that manifested in the form of evanescent vocalized phonemes that disappeared the instant they were produced.

At first I wasn’t sure if he was singing what I thought he was singing, but after a moment it was clear that he was: “Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah,” the syllable most associated with meaninglessness, nonsense, blather, sung with such inexplicable fervor and charged with such momentarily perverse passion that it was as if all previous language had been boiled down to that single (plosive, sibilant) unit, where it could either end or begin again.

He reached a point of fine frenzy, put the microphone back in its gold-plated stand, said “Let’s hear it for the BAND!” and abruptly walked off stage. The band kept playing for three or four minutes. Morrison did not reappear to play an encore or take a bow. It was unclear how much time had elapsed during the last song, what exactly had happened onstage.

The third time I saw Van Morrison was in the summer of 2013 in what was essentially a cornfield deep in the heart of Oxfordshire, England. Morrison was headlining the final night of the Cornbury Festival, a typical, if smallish, British summer music festival that nevertheless proved extremely difficult for my date and me to make our way to, even though it was ostensibly only 30 or 40 miles away from Oxford, where we were staying. Getting there without an automobile proved baffling and difficult, especially on a Sunday, when in the British hinterlands, the availability of public transportation grows thin on the ground or nonexistent altogether. Our journey to the festival site involved a late-running train, a missed shuttle bus and a long, awkward cab ride with a driver who seemed befuddled and slightly miffed by our request to go to Cornbury, even though it was the only event of note taking place within any significant distance of the taxi stand that afternoon.

We walked for half a mile from where the cabbie dropped us off and asked directions from about four volunteers before we finally were directed to the proper location. We seemed to be the only Americans there, as well as the only people who didn’t know exactly where we were going and what we were doing. It was about 10 minutes past 6 p.m.; we assumed we had arrived early enough, with time to spare and wander around in. Van Morrison, festival headliner, would surely go on around 8 or 9 p.m., with the sun slowly setting picturesquely behind him in the background. The very nice women who took our tickets and affixed complicated, multicolored cloth bracelets to our wrists informed us that Mr. Morrison was currently onstage and had started his performance at 6 p.m. sharp, per his personal request. I expressed surprise that the headliner was playing so early in the evening, and she murmured something less than complimentary about Mr. Morrison’s behavior in and about the Cornbury complex that afternoon. “I think he does whatever he wants to do, whenever he wants to do it, frankly…regardless of how it affects others!” She pointed us in the right direction, and we followed a vague, Morrisonesque sound down a gently sloping hill before finally arriving at a large stage in front of which were sprawled several thousand nice-looking British people, many of whom were in the process of conducting extensive picnics and apparently had been for quite some time. The man himself was a small blot a quarter of a mile away, a backdrop of rolling cornfields behind him in the distance.

We darted to the far right, skirting most of the main mass of the crowd, angling our way as close to the stage as possible without causing disturbance to any picnics, until we were probably a few hundred feet away. Somewhere in the course of our journey from the back (not front) gate to the stage, I told my date, “If he starts scatting, or doing any sort of vocal improvisations, really, we’re in luck. He’s into it. It’ll be a decent show.”

We found a spot to stand behind a group of neo-hippieish women in their 40s who had by all appearances been drinking white wine for several days straight. A Big Joe Williams cover dating from Morrison’s Them days, “Baby Please Don’t Go,” rendered straightforwardly but passionately. No scatting yet, but nothing to complain about, either. His voice was there, shockingly well-preserved and rich, which surprised me somehow, and he seemed less detached, more relaxed and engaged than the last time I’d seen him, five years earlier. There is a soupiness, an inoffensive, middle-of-the-road quality, a leaden, dozing sound to much of Van Morrison’s work in the ‘80s and ‘90s that bothers me, makes being a fan of his occasionally embarrassing, and for a few moments early on in the set I’m worried the show could slide in that direction. The setlist is much more greatest-hits-oriented than the earlier shows I’d seen, and somewhere about five or six songs in, in the middle of a real crowd-pleaser—“Jackie Wilson Said” or “Real Real Gone”?—he wanders off script for the first time, with a joyous burst and volley of bop-bop-bop-dit-dit-dits. I nudge my companion, raise my eyebrows to her affirmatively. The Belfast cowboy might take flight after all.

Somewhere in a three-song sequence near the end of the set that includes a barn-burning cover of the Sonny Boy Williamson blues classic “Help Me” followed by one of the only new songs in the set, “Pagan Heart,” and a wild, blues-drenched, Ray-Charles-inflected version of the Don Gibson country number “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” the rough magic shakes forth, and the angry angel in Morrison’s phlegm and windpipe presses a bruise onto the afternoon. Evidence of the intrusion is traced on my ganglia and nerves. The lion is in full roar, whole invented choruses, refrains, plots and subplots of growls, slurs, pops, blue notes, proclamations and exclamations in strange Irish and American tongues. At one point, he stands stock-still in the center of the stage with his head tilted all the way back, microphone held above him like a raised scepter, barely moving for a full two or three minutes, again suspended in some sort of temporary trance.

In a 2009 interview on the CBS show Sunday Morning, Morrison says that if he can find a way to get into such a “place” on stage, where he can receive (from where, he does not indicate), he considers the performance successful, but he’s often prevented from doing so, for whatever reason. Perhaps that’s what I had seen and heard—seen and not heard, actually—for so much of the first two hours I’d spent in the same space with him: that thwarted effort. Few find themselves in that space ever, or do so completely by accident. The sunglasses must help shield him, make such a public entrance into such a private space more possible, likely, bearable. Greil Marcus says that Morrison’s best work takes place in “a continuous present.” This place he seeks, on stage and in the studio, exists in that continuous present somehow, and when he enters into it, it does something extraordinary to the quality of the sound and texture of his voice—changes its relationship to language—makes it an enterprise both transcendent and absolutely simple.

Later on, he plays both harmonica and saxophone, conducts his small horn section and walks off stage while still singing the chorus to “Gloria,” a song he wrote in 1964 when he was 19 years old. No encore. Mystery intact. Corn swaying everywhere behind him.

Throughout his life, Van Morrison has been periodically fascinated by the mystical and the supernatural, the occult and the astral. In the late 1980s, a German Rosicrucian master met with several members of Morrison’s touring band and told one of them, Clive Culbertson, that, in regard to his voice, Morrison was essentially in the karmic grip of what was called “an Angelic Knot.”

“I was told that from a past life through certain occult works he had been involved in, there had been a knot placed in his throat and that had a lot to do with his mood swings. Energy would come in there. That was where he was caught. The German Rosicrucian master told me…all this. He offered, at no cost to himself or no signing to anything, to break this knot of these other beings that were around [Morrison]...The darker parts of him are operating through the throat chakras. That’s where his message was coming from. The energy that’s coming from there could be used for lighter, holier things. He could free himself, but it’s a past life committing him, from a ritual commitment he had made [in a previous existence] that’s karmically still with him.”

Who knows?

Jeff Fallis teaches in the English department at Clemson University and lives in Athens, Georgia. His writing has appeared in The Oxford American, Ploughshares and The Iowa Review.

24-August-2015
Slieve Donard Hotel
 Newcastle, Northern Ireland

Brendan Hynes sent in his thoughts on night 2 at Slieve Donard
As on the previous night, the second concert by Van Morrison at this venue started well ahead of the scheduled start time but on this occasion as the band took to the stage we had the added bonus of seeing Irish broadcaster and game-show host Marty Whelan leap onto the stage to lead the audience in a rendition of Happy Birthday specially for Van. At this point I almost anticipated Van being carried shoulder high through the audience onto the stage but alas it didn’t materialise. Celtic Swing and Close Enough For Jazz gave the show itself a pretty predictable opening before By His Grace got proceedings properly under way. Wild Honey got a rare but welcome airing but suffered somewhat from an apparent breakdown in communications where Dana Masters stopped singing a verse as if she was expecting an instrumental solo but it didn’t materialise which resulted in the band just playing but no one singing. Playhouse got another airing to great acclaim with Dave Keary and Paul Moran excelling with guitar and organ solos respectively. Mystic of the East which followed was the highlight of the night for me with Van playing guitar and singing and humming over it as only he can do. Magical!.

The lively Guitar Slim number Things I Used To Do was followed by Van telling us he had a request which turned out to be Who Can I Turn To? (featuring a great Paul Moran trumpet solo) but not before a fan had shouted out looking for Not Supposed To Breakdown from the Philosopher’s Stone album. Van explained that they didn’t perform that song and hadn’t rehearsed it but encouragingly he did say ‘next time’ which would be a great treat as it is another neglected musical gem from his incredible repertoire that I would love to hear live.

Moondance was notable for a great piano solo by Paul Moran(one more time) and was quickly followed by another eminently forgettable version of Brown Eyed Girl.An outstanding Carrying A Torch was followed by a really good Cleaning Windows which saw the gentleman from the previous night reprise his John Travolta dancing role to great acclaim. The absence of the brass section was, however, particularly noticeable on this song and they would undoubtedly have enhanced it further but it nevertheless went down a storm and received a standing ovation from many of the audience .Days Like This and Precious Time rather surprisingly were played again tonight and were followed by an absolutely blistering version of Think Twice Before You Go with Van and the band perfectly synchronised and earning another standing ovation.Whenever God Shines His Light and Baby Please Don’t go/Parchman Farm/Don’t Start Crying Now kept the tempo up and got a great reaction yet again.

At this point Van told us he was going to slow things down and he embarked on It’s All In the Game.Van referenced Jimmy Witherspoon as having also recorded the song and told us that he had been an artist who used to engage in the old blues tradition of ‘testifying’.Van did some ‘testifying’ himself at this point to the extent that he didn’t get to bring us to the burning ground and the song delivery came nowhere near the heights reached the previous night.After departing the stage, Van returned for a brisk rendition of Gloria before leaving the band to bring proceedings to a close which they did to great effect, especially Dana doing some wonderful chanting over the music.

The set time was 1 h 38 m and while there were a number of outstanding moments I didn’t feel the concert matched the previous night’s quality.

Brendan Hynes

Setlist
Happy Birthday (sung from the audience)
Celtic Swing
Close Enough For Jazz
By His Grace
Wild Honey
Playhouse
Mystic of the East
Things I Used To Do
Who Can I Turn To
Moondance
Brown Eyed Girl
Carrying a Torch
Cleaning Windows
Days Like This
Precious Time
Think Twice Before You Go
Whenever God Shines His Light
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchment Farm
Cry Cry Baby
All in the Game
Gloria

Big Hand for The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Dana Masters (Vocals)