New Message From Sarah Jory

Sarah Jory has posted a new message at her website.

'Hello everyone'

'We had an amazing time in The States with some great shows including one at the Gibson Amphitheatre right in the middle of Universal Studios in LA, and then off to Canada in temperatures as low as -12 at times - more snow than I had ever seen ! The stadium gigs that we played were amazing - it is the first time I have ever been to Canada and I met some wonderful people. We got back from Canada and The States and then it was off to Copenhagen and on to a tour bus to play Paris and Amsterdam. It was great to see some of our special Dutch fans in Amsterdam (Henk and Desiree and family - thanks a million for coming to see the show).'

'Next, we head off on some dates in the UK before going Stateside again to play the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Canada and then Norway, France and then a week at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, which I am really excited about playing (it has been a long time ambition of mine to go to that Festival). I will also be getting out to play some shows with Alan West and his new band later this year and you just might recognize some of the band members !!!!! Well that is all for now. Have a great Easter and I will see you somewhere down the road soon.'

New Exclusive Interview On Van's Website

New Interview in the "Exclusives" section of Van's website. You have to register first in order to view. There are two parts running 20 minutes in total.

Exclusive to Van's website and never seen before in it's entirety, this interview was given by Van in August 2006.


The interviewer is Jeremy Marre and short clips were used in the UK
TV documentary Soul Brittania

Van Interviewed For 'So Hard To Beat' On BBC TV

Van breaks seven-year telly silence for Beeb

You may have thought there would never be Days Like This - but notoriously publicity shy Ulster music legend Van Morrison is set to put the record
straight - on telly!

In a major coup, BBC Northern Ireland has persuaded 'Van The Man' to give his first telly interview in years, in the new two-part documentary, So Hard To Beat.

Van, currently in the charts with his At The Movies album, reminisces about a wide range of subjects, including his early years playing in Belfast's
Maritime Hotel, making it big in the USA and his career today.

The 61-year-old east Belfast born singer agreed to break a seven-year telly silence - thanks to his friendship with BBC Northern Ireland's Head of
Programme Production Mike Edgar.

During the documentaries, written and narrated by noted broadcaster and journalist Stuart Bailie, Van admits that Northern Ireland still shapes his music and provides a constant inspiration for his work.

Said Van: "Any writers or poets that are from here, they do keep coming back in their imagination because it's like a source. They still have a sense of place."

Although Morrison remains a significant force on the music stage, he revealed that making music isgetting more difficult.

"The longer you do it, the harder it becomes to make it fresh. It's just simply the way things are. You can't do something a long time and expect it to be all the way it was when you started. You have to work harder at it," he said.

Other artists who talk about their part in the history of Northern Ireland rock over the past five decades include Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, Ash's
Tim Wheeler, Thin Lizzy's Gary Moore and Eric Bell and DJ/movie soundtrack composer David Holmes.

So Hard To Beat - produced by Tony Curry - will be shown on BBC ONE NI this Tuesday at 10.35pm and Wednesday, March 28, at 10.40pm.

Listen to the BEAT

Northern Ireland may be a small place, but over the years it has made a big noise in the world of music.

Over the decades, songs such as Have I Told You Lately?, Teenage Kicks and Chasing Cars have seeped into the consciousness of music lovers the world over and as a result Northern Ireland musicians as diverse as Van Morrison, The Undertones and Snow Patrol have become household names on a global scale.

So Hard To Beat, a new fast-paced, two-part documentary on BBC ONE NI, takes an in depth look at the exciting range of music to come from Northern Ireland which has made its mark on the musical map over the past five decades.

Written and narrated by broadcaster, music journalist and long-time supporter of local music Stuart Bailie, So Hard To Beat celebrates the musicians and figures who first started making a noise in the music industry in the 1960s, through to the exciting new up-and-coming artists who are only starting to make a name for themselves.

This two-part documentary covers the swinging sixties, the backdrop of the Troubles, the punk period, peace time Northern Ireland and the current music scene and features exclusive interviews with many of our musical legends and current superstars, including Van Morrison, Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, Ash’s Tim Wheeler, Gary Moore, Eric Bell and Henry McCullough.

These world renowned artists talk about their careers, how being from Northern Ireland has impacted on their music and careers and what they think of their fellow Irish musicians.

Stuart Bailie says: “The story really hurtles along, from Baby Please Don’t Go to Chasing Cars. It was a joy to work on this and an honour to talk to so many of our musical legends. Most of them share a deal of pride to have come from here and most of them are happy to be part of a musical chain letter – passing on ideas, experience and inspiration. This is where we’re from, and documenting this history has been really great for the heart.”

The documentary also features plenty of unmissable archive footage from many of Northern Ireland’s biggest names.

The first So Hard To Beat programme, on BBC ONE NI on Tuesday March 27 at 10.35pm, starts in Northern Ireland in the 1960s when The Beatles and a new revolution in music were inspiring musicians here to pick up their guitars and start finding their own musical identities.

The documentary charts the buzz of Belfast’s The Maritime Hotel, where Van Morrison and his band Them, among others, would play their own brand of rhythm and blues and follows Van Morrison’s venture into a solo career with the acclaimed Astral Weeks and beyond.

Belfast music legend Terri Hooley fondly recalls one of the cities most famous music venues of the sixties: “The Maritime [Hotel] was a fantastic place, filled with sweaty bodies and bands that were very exciting and bands that were playing their own music, too.”

“The first time that I saw Them I thought the band were fantastic and Van was wearing an old army jacket and he came to the fore to play the saxophone. They really did blow my mind.”

Also in the first programme, Portstewart’s Henry McCullough talks his career as a world class guitarist, joining Joe Cocker at Woodstock and being part of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles group The Wings.

Henry says: “I was nervous. I grew up with the Beatles, you know? When I was playing in showbands we were playing Beatles songs. I had about three pints of Guinness before meeting Paul just top settle myself. And we talked and stuff and jammed around for about three days and at the end of it he just said ‘Do you want to join a band?’ And that’s just how he said it, and who wouldn’t? I know about 12 players that would give more than one finger to play with Paul McCartney, and better men than me they would be as well.

“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime but once you get into it, you adapt to the lifestyle of the way it has to be, because you’re part of that team, you’re part of Paul McCartney’s group. You can get on a Lear jet and end up in bloody Morocco.”

We hear of the resilience of musicians from here playing during the dark days of the Troubles and the tragic killing of members of the Miami Showband in 1975;

Derry’s Phil Coulter tells of the hits he penned for the likes of Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Sandy Shaw and the Bay City Rollers; we are reminded of the brilliance of Rory Gallagher and Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott; the Horseslips talk of their experiences touring Northern Ireland; and we are taken back to the days of punk rock with The Undertones, the Stiff Little Fingers and Terry Hooley, among others.

Among the highlights in the second So Hard To Beat programme, on BBC ONE NI on Wednesday March 28 at 10.40pm are; following Van Morrison’s career further, from his collaborations with The Chieftans and Brian Kennedy to present day; hearing from the young acts making it big in music today, from Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody and Ash’s Tim Wheeler to the Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon and Brian Kennedy; hearing from David Holmes, who, as well has making a name for himself as a musician, DJ and producer is now a stalwart in making Hollywood soundtracks; and getting a sneak peak into the acts making their mark on the current music scene, from Duke Special to Iain Archer.

So Hard to Beat captures the complete rich and exciting history of Northern Ireland music in two fast-paced, programmes jam-packed with exclusive interviews and archive footage which are essential viewing for music lovers from these shores.

Amsterdam 17-Mar-07

Comments on Van's Patrick's Day show in Amsterdam:

Van seemed to be in good spirits all night, with lots of theatrics, like
showing what the sound of one hand clapping is, and giving the secret sign.
He was moving a lot and seemed to be very slim and fit. During a great bass-solo on Real Real Gone, Van played a bit of piano, and
during Domino he played some organ.
-Hans



It was a good show with Van singing with a lot of emotion. I had the
impression that he was not only "singing" the songs but trying to
transport the emotions that the songs express. Van doing a lot of sax
playing and once or twice he went to the piano during soli of other
musicians - just to play some notes (couldn't be heard though), I think
he injoyed it listening to the others. Don't know who the bass player
was, I liked his playing, good groove. Wonderful versions of Raglan
Road, St. James Infirmary and Star of the County Down and the best
version of Baby, please don't go I ever heard live were my highlights
-Andrea


Setlist:
1. Band Intro
2. Bright Side Of The Road
3. Enlightenment
4. Days Like This
5. Wining Boy Moan
6. Stranded
7. Cleaning Windows
8. Real Real Gone
9. Foggy Mountain Top
10. Domino
11. Raglan Road
12. Have I Told You Lately
13. Playhouse
14. Moondance
15. Saint James Infirmary
16. Wild Night
17. Please Don't Go
18. Star of The County Down
19. Brown Eyed Girl
20. Gloria

Thanks to Jain for photos.

Paris 16-Mar-07

An an American in Paris comments on show:
Moondance started things off. van looking bored, muttered his way through a perfunctory rendering. why even bother? at least he got it out of the way early. at first, the show was a discordant abomination, the andrews sisters a little loud in the mix. somewhere in there was a song about crying in your beer. the sisters offered oooh and aaah non-stop. later a happy banjo during bright side of the road perked things up. van remembered that it was st. patty's day eve. by the end the audience was satisfied. the band never missed a hand signal and van said he "enjoyed this gig very much". for me, "when the leaves come falling down" made it all worthwhile.
-Pat

Setlist:
Moondance
Stranded
Bright Side Of The Road
There stands the glass
Cleaning windows
Beauty of the days
Playhouse
When the leaves Come Falling Down
Going down Geneva
Precious Time
Days like this
Real Real gone
I can't stop lovin' you
Stop drinkin', SB
St. James Infirmary
Wild night
One Irish rover
Help Me
Star Of The County Down
Gloria
Brown eyed girl

The Definitive 200 Albums Of All Time: #72 Moondance

The Definitive 200: Top Albums Of All Time

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) in Marlton, N.J., and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, released a list of what they term the definitive 200 albums of all time. Topped by the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson and Led Zeppelin, the list is a virtual who's who of the artists who we all love and rock out to.

72. Van Morrison – Moondance – 1970

I Shall Be Released - Van With Joni Mitchell & Dylan

Gorge Amphitheatre In George, Washington May 16, 1998

Flashback: Into The Mystique (1997)

CAUGHT BETWEEN GIGS IN HIS HOMELAND, VAN MORRISON MAKES CLEAR HE STILL HAS NO USE FOR THE USUAL ROCK-STAR BLARNEY. HEREIN, MUSIC'S ROUGH GOD TALKS ABOUT HIS HITS AND MYTHS.

The first five minutes are torture.

Van Morrison enters the Europa Hotel with a face as sullen as the Belfast sky. He takes a chair by the window. Out on Great Victoria Street, the February clouds over the capital of Northern Ireland look like they're going to burst. You can only pray that Van the Man doesn't do the same.

It's happened before. He's been known to shoot down an interview with a fusillade of grunts and mumbles. The last time he spoke to the mainstream American press, seven years ago, the stocky bard actually bolted from a Boston restaurant and fled down the street with a Rolling Stone journalist in hot pursuit.

This time he stays put, but it's touch and go for a while. He coughs, peers out from the brim of a Calvin Klein cap, greets the first few gentle inquiries with conversation killers like ''Fine,'' and ''I don't know,'' and ''I can't remember.'' The journalist, in turn, shrinks into a ball of shredded nerves.

But in fits and starts, Morrison begins to loosen up. The first topic he warms to is ''Rough God Goes Riding,'' an apocalyptic R&B workout that opens his new album, The Healing Game. It contains the following lyrics: ''There'll be no more heroes/They'll be reduced to zeroes.'' What, you ask, was he getting at?

''I don't know, it just seemed to fit at the time,'' he says, then stops. Unlike the hickory-smoked tenor you hear on record, his speaking voice carries a trace of a brogue, making a word like down sound like dine. At 51, Morrison -- who grew up here in Belfast, and who's flown in from his London home for two homecoming gigs -- is physically imposing. No longer the picture of a dashing Celtic troubadour, he's got the belly of a baker and skin the color of boiled cabbage.

''I don't think there's any heroes, anyway,'' he suddenly decrees. ''There's just people. I mean, you can be the world champion one day, and nobody the next day. So there's no heroes. That's just a myth.''

Now this, it turns out, is a subject close to Morrison's spleen. The music world considers him a legend -- the man responsible for sacred texts like Astral Weeks and Moondance, the visionary behind soul-stirring pearls like ''Brown Eyed Girl'' and ''Have I Told You Lately'' -- but the legend himself has no time for worship.

And while we're on the subject, he's got no patience for people who think he's some Celtic mystic chasing moonbeams and tilling the soil -- an image that stuck in the early '70s, back when PR snapshots featured Morrison and his wife Janet Planet frolicking in ancient forests. ''I had this album cover years ago, Tupelo Honey, where there was a horse in it,'' recalls Morrison, who split with Planet in 1973. ''So the myth then was that I was living on a ranch and had horses on that ranch. I didn't have a ranch; I didn't have a horse. I don't have a farm, and I never will. I mean, this is all part of the f -- -kin' mythology. Let's get on with it, you know?''

In the spirit of getting on with it, Morrison offers a self-portrait: He's a singer and songwriter. Period. It's a job. ''People talk about mystery,'' he says. ''There's no mystery about what I do. It's straightforward.'' Just because a guy's written hymns like ''Into the Mystic'' and ''Whenever God Shines His Light'' and, um, ''The Mystery'' doesn't mean he's a saint. ''Some of the songs might be mystic, but some of them are very nonmystical. Some of them are very brutal.''

Good point. These days, Morrison's grappling with issues of a less-than-celestial nature: namely, the twin burdens of fame and depression. "People get depressed," he says. "It's a fact of life. So, write a song about that. Write a song about melancholia, which is just the blues, anyway, under a different name."


And if anyone gets the blues, it's Van Morrison. The weather that passes over Northern Ireland can switch from sunshine to gloom in the time it takes to cross Cyprus Avenue. So can he. One of Morrison's former publicists remembers how he once agreed to sing on the Today show and Late Night With David Letterman, then threatened to split minutes before going on the air. "With most artists, they'll say, 'The sound sucks' or 'I'm not cutting my song down to three minutes,'" the publicist says. "But with him, it was just like 'I don't feel like doing this now.' There's no rhyme or reason to him."

The actor Liam Neeson, who grew up 30 miles outside Belfast in the town of Ballymena, remembers hearing Morrison as a teenager and being inspired by "the fact that some local talent could produce this extraordinary sound that literally made the hairs on the back of my neck tingle." Years later, Neeson got a chance to meet Morrison and do a spoken-word cut on 1994's No Prima Donna, an album of Van covers by various artists. He defends Morrison's mood swings as the mark of an old-school tortured artist. "When someone is always at the cutting edge with his own music and his own inner voice, that cannot be an easy existence, because he's continually foraging within himself, his own psyche," Neeson says. "And I know because I'm a moody son of a bitch myself and I totally recognize it in him. He'll never settle for second best."

Still, like Belfast itself, where Morrison's serene "Days Like This" recently became the anthem of the Ulster peace process, the Celtic curmudgeon seems to be going through his own personal cease-fire. The British tabloids have made hay of his romance with Michelle Rocca, 37, a former Miss Ireland who appears on the cover of 1995's Days Like This walking a muzzled dog, but the fiercely private Morrison shields himself from the spotlight the old-fashioned way: "Basically, I just do the work," he says.

He also takes refuge in the past. From time to time he revisits his birthplace, a brick row house at 125 Hyndford Street where the Belfast Blues Appreciation Society has secured a brass plaque in his honor. "It's called healing through the past," he says. "I don't yearn for it, but you have to sort of go back to find out where you are."

Indeed, Morrison often comes across as a man trapped in a time warp. He never listens to '90s pop; he refuses to lip-synch in his videos. Mark Isham, a composer and trumpeter who played with Morrison on five albums in the early '80s, says the singer feels closer to lofty poets like Blake and Wordsworth than to the sordid trappings of pop. "He loves the tradition of rock 'n' roll, but he also hates it," Isham says. "He loves Jackie Wilson, who was pretty overtly sexual and rough around the edges. On the other hand, there's an aspect of that that drives Van crazy, because it isn't this higher-aesthetic thing."

That schism has been a Morrison trademark since his salad days. Just as Merseybeat hit big in the '60s, he stuck to the American jazz, blues, and gospel that had thrilled him as a kid. "When the Beatles came around, everyone wanted Beatles songs," Morrison says. "If you had horns, it was like 'Don't bring the horn players up.'" Sure, he broke out of Belfast with British Invasion barn burners like "Gloria," but his band's name was prophetic: Them. To Morrison, rock was always Their music.

It still is. These days, he fills discs like The Healing Game with the lost echoes of '50s doo-wop and roadhouse blues--"stuff that got buried in the Elvis Presley thing," as he puts it. If that frustrates the fans, so be it. "You can't please everybody," he says. "First, you have to please yourself, and then it might be interesting for other people. But if it's not interesting for you, then you're f---ed. You've got nowhere to go."

Even though Morrison's albums routinely go gold, he steers clear of the rigmarole--tour for months, go unplugged, butter up the press--that can goose sales into the stratosphere. If singing is just a job, he seems to resent it as much as your average desk jockey. Of course, that didn't stop Shana, his 25-year-old daughter, from applying for the same line of work (she and Dad have recorded duets on Days Like This and A Night in San Francisco). "I never thought she'd become a singer," Morrison says. "If it had been up to me, I would've advised her not to. I just think it's a very hard way to go in life."

In the bar at the Europa Hotel, Georgie Fame grabs the journalist's pint of Guinness, takes a chug, and offers his own view of Van. "He communicates," says Fame, 53, Morrison's organ player and longtime crony. "He communicates all the f---in' time. It's people like you got the wrong idea about him. He's a wonderful Irish poet and a great musician. What else do you want?"

Well, plenty. On stage, Morrison has been known to sneer at the audience, stumble through a lackluster set, walk out. Anything can set him off--a bum solo, a heckler. He's still steamed about the Haight-Ashbury loafers who packed a show at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium way back in the '70s. "I looked out, and there's all these hippies down there," Morrison sniffs. "And I thought, 'This is not what it's about at all.' I cut the set short. I just didn't want to be part of all that hippie crap."

There are times, though, when all of that malt vinegar turns to tupelo honey. Tonight in Belfast, it happens. Hours after the interview, Van the grumpy gnome is gone, replaced by Van the fire-breathing soul dragon. He drives his 11-piece band through a set so blustery and ecstatic it sends shivers up the spine. He roars through oldies like "Into the Mystic" and "Tupelo Honey"--songs he usually shuns. He takes the brand-new "Burning Ground" to a sweltering crescendo, leaping in place, hurling the microphone stand to the floor, and finally strutting backstage while a band member drapes a towel over his back, a la James Brown.

In other words, the last five minutes are heaven.

"You never know how it's gonna work out," Fame laughs. "But when he turns it on, he turns it on so heavy."
-Jeff Gordinier

Published in Entertainment Weekly issue #369 Mar 07, 1997

Copenhagen 09-Mar-07

Stereotypically Van Morrison in Tivoli

Because stereotypically Van Morrison in Tivoli Everything had been good, unless there constantly through the concert had gone a little too much stereotypic country blues at the arrangements Of Dorte Hygum Van Morrison has become called ’Belfast's cowboy’ for years. At the moment he lives up to really that pet name by exploring country blues together with a band, who helps the white soul man with sticking in mud-heavy standard times from 50’erne and 60’erne. Only the rhythmically fluttering, loose trousers material from the knees and downwards revealed at the concert in Tivolis Koncertsal on Friday evening that Van Morrison constantly moves in time for the music. The feet stay the at once in minutes at a time. The hands are held at rest, unless one of the musicians has to have a hard conducting hint with the right hand. The dressed in suit upper body thinks firm as a rockly. And only one opera glasses might have revealed how much it really happens in the facial muscles under the hat and the glasses, when Van Morrison sings. Country-blues-like arrangements Adskillige of the numbers at Tivoli's harmonious concert hall were from his album ’Down tea Road’ from 2002. They were arranged just as country-blues-like as the songs on his latest album ’Pay tea Devil’ from last year. ’The Beauty of tea hour Gone By’ From ’Down tea Road’ would stand for the concert as a kind of headline in Tivoli. Four willingly helped by a band consisting of among others Sarah Jory (Steel-guitar, dobro etc), Tony Fitzgibbon (violet ion), Neil Wilkinson (drums) and David Hayes (bass) Van Morrison played about the country blues, he grew up with and shelves on ’Pay tea Devil’. Standardized empty phrases When Morrison was a child, it was custom that a band leader gave the individual instrumentalists room to solos during the concert, just as one does it in the jazz. The problem with the instrumental features during the concert in Tivoli was that they sounded standardised empty phrases from 50’erne and first half of 60’erne like. It was, as if the arrangements were stubbornly retrospective at the expense of all that, Van Morrison can do. And it's a lot. As a jazz-marked saxophonist he is considerable more interestingly to listen to than the other musicians in his band. As a vocalist he have the good saxophonist's rhythmical punk likeness, surprising phrasings and expressive mumbling with oneself. In Tivoli you couldn't always hear what Van Morrison sang, when ’Stranded’ from 2002, ’Cleaning Windows’ from 1982, ’Foreign Window’ from 1986, ’Have In Told You Lately’ from 1984 or ’Beautiful Vision’ from 1982 was played. Dirt with it. The voice is an instrument in Morrison's case, and everything would be good, unless there constantly through the concert had gone a little too much stereotypic country blues at the arrangements. Currently was framed Empty phrases and mystique are two sizes, who stand in the road for each other. There were moments, where Van Morrison almost was lifting the barring, when he completed a mainly acoustic version of ’Foreign Window’ from ’No Guru, No Method, No Teacher’ together with his band. Also Mose Allison's ’Don’t Worry About a Thing’ and the finale numbers ’Brown Eyed Girl’ (from 67) and ’Gloria’ (from 65) fell, where they had to. But was it probably for the audience? And was it enough for the all-musical Van Morrison that currently was framed? Without acknowledgement of it considerably more osmotic tones, as if characterised his music in 70’erne and 80’erne? Evident yes. Van Morrison is interested in telling about the bygone times' faded beauty. It's a road back instead of forward, but luckily his album publications can deny that he has been since 1965 petrifiedly.



Setlist:
Early in the Morning (Band)
Wavelength
All Work & No Play
Stranded
Bucket's Got A Hole
Whining Boy Moan
Foggy Mountain Top
Bright Side of the Road
Cleaning Windows
Beautiful Vision
Magic Time
Don't Worry About a Thing
Beauty of the Days Gone by - Van on guitar
Foreign Window - Van on guitar
Precious Time
St. James Infirmary
Have I Told You Lately
Brown Eyed Girl
Gloria
-Thanks To Henrik In Denmark for Setlist.

Vancouver Sun: Fans Disappointed With Van & Concert

How quickly the beloved fall

It was madness. People who had been fans of Van Morrison's for upwards of 25 or 30 years were threatening to throw out every album in their Van
collection. They were threatening to relinquish their fan status. They wanted to break it off entirely with a man they once adored.

They wrote to me and phoned me (I had given last week's concert a positive review) to express their vehement opposition to my opinion. They were
furious that the Belfast Cowboy had failed to acknowledge the audience. They were outraged at the short duration of the pricey show -- angry that
"for that price" there was no opening act and that Van had opted not to give an encore performance.

And they took out their anger and frustrations on me, not because I could do anything to remedy their disappointment, but because I had been impressed by the show and because we newspaper writers are often considered absorbent sounding boards for people's vitriol.

The angry words amazed me -- not because I've never had readers disagree with me or insult me (this latest round can be considered mild) -- but because people were so quick to dismiss someone they had once held in high regard.

They were so unforgiving and so demanding of someone who was there to perform for them. And they seemed to take his behaviour personally.

I received e-mails from people who believed that because they had spent $400 on tickets, parking, and dinner they deserved more from Van Morrison.

Sorry, but Van Morrison does not tailor his shows according to ticket price, nor does he care how much parking costs in our fair city.

People were equally incensed because he hadn't greeted or spoken directly to the audience. His silence did seem a bit cold, but if the audience
were true fans, they would know that Van Morrison has the reputation of being a cranky curmudgeon.

I've only been reviewing concerts for a few months and such reactions will undoubtedly become standard fare, but for now, I remain mildly stunned that
people are so demanding of their musicians and that the love is lost so easily.

A few days after the concert, I had the pleasure of interviewing veteran performer and songwriter Rickie Lee Jones in advance of her concert here
this Thursday. I told her about the unfriendly reaction from some of Van's fans and she contributed her own two cents.

"They must know that's what he does. He always does that. That's not a surprise. It's not like, 'He treats everybody else good and treats us badly,'" she said.

"He's a musician. He's not a celebrity, he's not an entertainer."

She had been talking about her own tendencies towards stage fright and how a few harsh reviews early in one's career can haunt an artist even when
they're selling out arenas.

It can be so easy to forget that these music mega-stars are human -- that they have their own insecurities and fears and mood swings.

Faced with a sea of 13,000 people, I'm quite sure I'd be scared. I've been known to scowl at attractive men when they smile at me, mainly
because I'm scared and defensive. And my insecurities have been mistaken countless times for coldness or arrogance.

Maybe I'm being too forgiving towards Van.

But Rickie Lee Jones has an analysis I'd like to
believe for Van's behaviour.

"I frankly think Van could be more generous. I
think he's afraid and that's why he does that," she
said.

"I think he's afraid to look up and look people in
the eye. He keeps himself protected and he walks
off as quickly as he can because it's terrifying to
be up there.

"I've seen him be generous. I know it's in him to
do that, but I always feel he [gives the cold
shoulder] just because he's afraid."

We'll likely never know why Van Morrison gave us a
bit of a brush off last Monday night (he grants
interviews about as often as he smiles during a
concert), but that's no reason to harbour a grudge
against the man.

He's a legend, but he's also mortal. And if we're
going to revel in the music he's made over the
course of his illustrious career, why can't we
appreciate that it's the music of a human, not a
machine?
-Amy O'Brian, Vancouver Sun

Van Considering Biographical Documentary

Van takes an aisle seat
Van Morrison says he has "put aside all the documentary material" he has on hand to allow a filmmaker to create a proper doc portrait along the lines of Martin Scorsese's Dylan doc, "No Direction Home."

"I have all this material collected and I realized we weren't getting past 1968," Van Morrison told Daily Variety. "We were really squeezing everything in. It was getting very complicated and I realized, 'I need someone to collaborate with,' so I just put it all aside for now."

Morrison has had movies on his mind lately. EMI released on Feb. 13 "Van Morrison at the Movies: The Soundtrack Hits," a compilation of 19 of the more than 70 Morrison songs that have graced films.

It's a potent reminder of the role the Belfast-born star's music has played on screen over the past few decades.

Morrison's system today is to "watch a clip of the movie" before granting approval, a process he says is made easier "when top directors ask to use one of your songs. If Neil Jordan wants to use a song, you can be pretty sure he's going to use it appropriately and he's going to be sensitive to the material." Morrison says it wasn't always so and like his early career music biz travails, "back in the 70s my songs were just turning up in films I knew nothing about. The songs were just being used indiscriminately and I had no say in it."

Over the past two decades, however, Morrison has no complaints and points to films such as Oscar best pic "As Good As It Gets," "Bridget Jones's Diary" and Neil Jordan's most recent film "Breakfast on Pluto" as positive examples of films using his songs.

"It's great now," says Morrison, who was winding down this morning from Wednesday night's Gibson Amphitheatre sell-out show and before tonight's Oscar Wilde Awards at the Wilshire Ebell Theater where he is being honored for "Irish literary contributions to film," alongside scribes Terry George and William Monahan.

Morrison has regularly expressed his love of culture - mostly literary and musical - in his songs. References to Coleridge, Yeats and Kerouac bop up regularly alongside tips of the porkpie hat to Jackie Wilson, Big Bill Broonzy and Gene Vincent.

Until now, however, Morrison's cinematic influences and filmmaking heroes haven't popped up much in the press or on the disc or stage. He quickly rejects the tag "movie buff," but then demonstrates that he's not surprisingly, a rather sophisticated movie viewer. Saturday matinees in Belfast were filled with pics such as "The Cisco Kid and Hopalong Cassidy," but by his teens Morrison had moved on to heavier fare.

"I love Hitchcock and Welles and Brando. 'On the Waterfront' was the big one, you know, the taxi scene with Brando and Rod Steiger. 'I coulda been a contender.' And 'Rebel Without a Cause' was way ahead of its time."

Euro faves on Morrison's list include Alain Resnais's "Last Year at Marienbad," Jean Cocteau's "Blood of a Poet" and "everything by Fellini."

"If you see anything with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson or Joe Pesci, you know it's going to be good," he said, and not surprisingly, Nicholson and Pesci were in the audience the last time he played the amphitheater. Closer to his Irish home he cites director Jim Sheridan and thesp Daniel Day-Lewis as "two of the greats."

Morrison has never appeared in a film. Tantalizingly, he answers affirmatively when asked if he would consider being involved in one. "It was a long time ago, but there was talk about doing a movie around 'Astral Weeks.' It's one that lends itself the most to being a film. It's probably the most cinematic."

Van Interview Coup For BBC

Publicity-shy singing legend Van Morrison usually lets his music do the talking.
But in a broadcasting coup, BBC Northern Ireland has managed to persuade the reclusive star to give his first telly interview in years.
Details of the scoop are still hush-hush but Sunday Life can confirm 'Van the Man' has recently filmed an interview with the Beeb's Mike Edgar.
Mike, the Beeb's head of entertainment, events & sport, has a musical background himself, once playing drums for Eighties outfit Cruella de Ville.
Said a BBC NI spokeswoman: "I know that the interview has taken place. It has been filmed for TV, but there are no plans yet on exactly when it will be shown."
Last Christmas, a Nashville concert by the 61-year-old was one of the highlights of Radio Ulster's programme schedule.
And in August 2005 the station celebrated his 60th birthday with a Van Morrison Day.
During more than 40 years in the spotlight, Morrison has given very few media interviews.
There are only a handful of local TV appearances to his name.
In September 2005, Morrison was named as the worst interviewee in music journalism history by The Independent newspaper.
-John McGurk

Winnipeg 01-Mar-07 Concert Review

Morrison offers choice pickings from his oh-so-rich musical past

He rarely makes eye contact, he hates having his picture taken and his concerts last just 90 minutes -- not a second more.

So after all these years -- not to mention all those eccentricities -- is Van Morrison still capable of delivering on his decades-old hype? You better believe it.

Belfast Cowboy, blue-eyed soulster and all-round musical genius, Van the Man treated a crowd of 11,000 to a truly wild night yesterday, picking and choosing a masterful set list from his storied back catalogue of genre-straddling, spiritually inspired sonic odysseys.

And even though we know he had a clock on stage with him, counting down the minutes till his contractual obligations were through, we still couldn't help hanging on every word.

Though fans had been instructed to arrive at MTS Centre by no later than 7:30 p.m. -- or risk having to wait until the next song break to be seated -- the 61-year-old Irishman waited a good 20 minutes after that before finally making his entrance, giving his stellar 10-piece band a chance to warm up with countrified versions of My Own Business and T-Bone Shuffle.

When he arrived onstage, nattily attired in a black jacket and grey fedora, Morrison was blowing soulfully into a tenor sax, trading licks with his trumpet player and organist before launching into the lyrics of Wavelength, from the 1978 album of the same name.

Morrison's voice -- one of the most distinctive in the history of rock -- is still in fine form, retaining every shred of the wind-instrument-lodged-in-the-windpipe quality that's made him such an unflappable icon for so many generations.

After Wavelength came All Work and No Play, on which Morrison indulged in some jazzy interplay with his trio of backup singers, jerking his body back with every syllable of the chorus before segueing neatly into Stranded, which benefited last night from some nifty organ noodling, doo-wop harmonies and a slide guitar solo cribbed from the '60s gem Sleepwalk.

A brassy trumpet solo lifted Whinin' Boy Moan skyward, a heavenly scat solo shot Little Village even higher and by the time Morrison dropped his froggy growl down to a whisper on the blue-collar hymn Cleaning Windows and then fired it back up again for a Be-Bop-a-Lula refrain at the end, it was as if the show had been transformed into some sort of classic rock church service, with the Celtic iconoclast serving as preacher and saviour.

Van drew smiles from his singers with a spoken-word interlude midway through In the Midnight, tipped his hat to his early days with a fiery version of Baby Please Don't Go and even -- can it be? -- cracked a joke before launching into the worldweary anthem Days Like This.

Played for president

"This is a song we played for the president," he smiled, addressing the crowd for the first and only time. "Of the United Farmworkers Association."

There were hits, too -- a sexed-up Moondance, and the now-obligatory closers Brown Eyed Girl and Gloria.

But for our money, the evening's high point came when Morrison took the jazz standard St. James Infirmary from a barely-audible blues trill to an epiphany of sax and brass, the vertical stage lights behind him exploding with colour until they resembled nothing less than a neon pipe organ.

Countdown clock be damned -- we loved every second of it.

****1/2

Setlist:

1) My Own Business (band only)

2) T-Bone Shuffle (band only)

3) Wavelength

4) All Work and No Play

5) Stranded

6) Whinin' Boy Moan/Symphony Sid

7) Domino

8) Little Village

9) They Sold Me Out

10) Cleaning Windows

11) In the Midnight

12) Baby Please Don't Go

13) Days Like This

14) Moondance

15) St. James Infirmary

16) Goin' Down Geneva/Brand New Cadillac

17) Help Me

18) Brown Eyed Girl

19) Gloria

Concert Review Edmonton 28-Feb-07

Van Morrison's soulful swoon captures crowd

There's nothing quite like Van Morrison's soulful, scratchy pipes to ease the loss of a beloved friend or Oiler.

His bluesy vocals and heartbroken lyrics seemed to embody the city's collective pain as he counselled 12,000 fans at Rexall Place on a cold Wednesday night.

"Little darlin', come with me / Won't you help me share my load," he gargled on the opening song, Bright Side of the Road, a country-flavoured number with hints of Louis Armstrong.

"I can't stop wanting you / It's useless to say / So I just live my life / In dreams of yesterday," he cooed on a show-stopping rendition of I Can't Stop Loving You, featuring a mournful lap steel guitar and '30s-style backup singers.

Yet Morrison, dressed like a classier Blues Brother, also offered touches of lightness -- "Is this a gun in my pocket or am I glad to see you?" he joked -- and tough love.

"No pain, no gain," he barked on All Work and No Play, a quiet, loose song on the verge of disappearing into the air like a puff of smoke.

Well, maybe not always.

Morrison's 97-minute set was far from painful -- except for the fact local fans had to wait more than 30 years to hear him perform classics such as Moondance, Domino, Brown Eyed Girl, and the soul stomper, Gloria, which he saved for last.

It was his first appearance in our city, despite Terry Wickham's best efforts to coerce the Irish legend to play the Folk Fest over the last 10 years.

Thankfully, at 61, Morrison isn't yet one of those nostalgia acts on the verge of decline like some of our younger metal friends, say, Vince Neil and Mick Mars of Motley Crue.

While Van the Man's songs certainly conjured up memories of years and hair follicles gone by, he's still at the top of his game.

He plays sax, harmonica and his voice is sharp and dexterous as ever -- ranging from growly to pillow soft, from mumbly to stuttery, repeating words or phrases for dramatic effect.

"Every every every every day," he bellowed on Stranded, a gorgeous slow dance perfect for '60s proms.

Morrison may not be the most charismatic performer -- nor does he like to be the centre of attention -- but his songs don't require any hammy, 'Look-at-me!" gimmicks such as split kicks or microphone twirls.

Instead, his toe-tapping arrangements, scented with country, rhythm and blues, jazz, Celtic folk, even Hawaiian notes, tend to inspire moments of reverie, when you just want to close your eyes and let Enlightenment's sad harmonica or Domino's trumpet blasts carry you away.

Still, Morrison seemed to be enjoying himself more than he did at recent shows in Calgary and Vancouver, according to reports.

He repeatedly thanked the crowd at Rexall and tried to kid around by picking up a guitar and playing There Was An Old Woman before launching into Brown Eyed Girl.

He also giddily conducted his band of crackerjack musicians, 10 men and women, as they showed off their consummate skills on lap steel, fiddle, organ and guitar.

If only they had played for another 90 minutes.
-Sandra Sperounes, The Edmonton Journal

Van panned?

Divided opinions over Van Morrison's first-ever Edmonton show

an the Man panned? Say it isn't so.

But Van Morrison's concert at Rexall Place on Wednesday night, his first-ever Edmonton appearance, left at least some people unhappy in the sold-out crowd of 12,500.

"That was totally brutal, the longest 90 minutes I have ever spent in that coliseum," writes Clint K.

"I kept thinking, 'When's he going to kick it up a notch?' But that never happened. He played three marquee songs at the end - and butchered them all. And everything at half volume.

"Five bucks, maybe $10 - that's what it was worth, not $250 a pair for nosebleeds. Never again."

Ouch.

Fort McMurray's Robert Ash writes:

"Although I'm a huge Van Morrison fan, I found it hard to believe that this supposedly great singer can put on a show and play little or none of the great songs that fans expect to hear, just because he was in a rush to make his way to another venue.

"Some of the music he played was good, but his failure to do an encore was a blow. For the money fans paid, we deserved more.

"If there is a next time, I'll stay home with a CD."

How good the concert was, it seems, had a lot to do with where you were sitting. The closer and, correspondingly, more expensive the seats were, the better things sounded.

It might also fit into a larger debate about concert sound at Rexall and whether people want it clear or loud. Finding that happy medium between the two represents every sound tech's quest - or nightmare.

And if you took umbrage to Morrison's standoffish demeanour, dearth of hits, "short" show for big money and no encore, maybe you're not a true Van Morrison fan after all. If you were, you'd know to expect all that going in.

"I thought it was great," says Stony Plain Records president Holger Petersen, who had "good" seats. "I can see where people are coming from. He is kind of a polarizing performer, but I thought it was very typical of a Morrison show."

Petersen's seen Morrison a few times now and contends that we saw him on a good day.

"I saw him many years ago and he actually had a hissy fit on stage - he kicked a monitor and threw his mike stand down," Petersen recalls.

"It was very much against the grain of every other show that happens at a venue like (Rexall). The energy is in his voice. It's great that there's room in the industry for a show like that."

Folk fest producer Terry Wickham said the concert was pretty much what he expected.

"It wasn't my favourite song selection," Wickham says, "but he obviously had a tight band and everyone I talked to enjoyed it."
-YURI WUENSCH, SUN MEDIA

Setlist:

It's My Business (Band)
Bright Side
All Work and No Play
Stranded
Whining Boy Moan
In The Midnight
Playhouse
I Can't Stop Loving You
Moondance
Don't You Make Me High
Enlightenment
Domino
One Irish Rover
Goin Down Geneva>Brand New Cadillac
Precious Time
Help Me
There Was An Old Woman>Brown Eyed Girl
Star of the County Down
Gloria

Concert Review Calgary 27-Feb-07

Van cruises the 'Dome
Van Morrison sold out the Saddledome Tuesday night. Attendance: 14,000

Based on his reputation, fans in the know were braced for two extreme scenarios Tuesday when the legendary Van Morrison visited Calgary for a gig at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

Best case scenario, they were in for a truly moving evening, with the poet of Celtic soul delivering on the promise of such brilliant, untouchable works as Moondance and Tupelo Honey in this, his first Calgary appearance.

Then there was that other possibility -- that we'd get the notoriously cantankerous Van. The sullen performer who has been known to rush through sets, aloof from his audience, refusing to play his most beloved songs. With ticket prices hovering around $132.50, that would have made for many a disappointed fan.

To be sure, smiles and warm crowd interaction has seldom been Morrison's style, and they were in short supply Tuesday night. When Van the Man muttered "Thank you" after the second song, an audience member joked "My God, he responded!"

But, thankfully, the 61-year-old Irishman put on a show that would only disappoint those fans who had never listened beyond the singer's radio hits.

Backed up by an eight-piece band plus backup singers, who shifted from country to blues to jazz so seamlessly one could barely notice the genre divide, Morrison -- looking dapper and dark in a suit, shades and fedora -- opened the show with a countrified Bright Side of the Road.

His delivery on that one was fairly unenthusiastic and mumble-mouthed, raising worries this would set the evening's tone.

Next came a bit of bluesy swing, Morrison working magic on the saxophone, the soul power in the room building ever so slowly.

Then, though it was hard to pinpoint exactly when, you realized you were drawn in, because, when Morrison locks into a groove, his voice is a treasure, a gruff emotive growl that somehow evokes romance on par with the finest crooners.

Morrison is definitely indulging his country-soul muse these days, in keeping with his latest album, Pay The Devil.

His rendition of Big Blue Diamonds off that album invoked George Jones-vibes in a major way. His low-key version of the hit Real Real Gone -- in which he tastefully added a few bars of Sam Cooke's You Send Me -- and a tasty take on the jazzy classic Moondance were also cut with country, with a cool, honky-tonk break on the fiddle in the latter tune.

A laid-back version of Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile) brought smiles to everyone in the 'Dome it seemed and, by then, midway through the show, Van Morrison had the audience eating from his hand.

Other highlights included a bit of Irish-flavoured drinking music that had the audience in fighting form, an irresistible, bass-groovy spin through Wild Nights and a run at Brown Eyed Girl that felt rousing given the crowd's enthusiastic response, even if Morrison played it ever so smoothly.

The night ended with a spirited version of the rocker Gloria, from Morrison's earliest days with Them.

Here, the whole band tore into the anthem with fire, raves coming from the backup singers and blazing harmonica licks from Van the Man himself.

When the house lights came back on at the 90 minute mark, the crowd was most certainly left wanting more.

And while some expressed mild dismay there was no encore, the majority seemed to agree they had been treated to a fine and classy showing by one of the all-time greats.
-Heath McCoy, Calgary Herald

Saddledome, Calgary - February 27, 2007

CALGARY - When you have enormous talent, there's apparently no need for the niceties.
Or chit-chat.
Or even for eye contact.

That was the case when Van Morrison hit the stage in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Saddledome last night, for the first Calgary show of his 40-year career.

That the Belfast rock-and-soul artist remains one of the most influential in rock history cannot be argued.

What is more fascinating, however, is his ability to still draw a packed house despite the public admission he's not a fan of the attention.


But Morrison is a pro at hiding his dislike of performing, and in turn puts on a great concert.

Last night's 90-minute show started sharply at 7:30 p.m., surprising latecomers who may have assumed there'd be an opening act.

His namesake band started things off with the blues number It's My Own business, before the lights finally dimmed, and the 61-year-old main attraction hit the stage.

After huffing a moment or two on his trusty harmonica, Morrison belted out a vocally impressive, Bright Side of the Road, which received a standing ovation.

Van the Man's last CD was the country blues Pay The Devil, released almost a year ago, which he followed up this month with Van Morrison at the
Movies: Soundtrack Hits, featuring 19 songs from the nearly 50 he's had in films.

Last night's show was sprinkled with tunes from both, including Wild Night, from Thelma and Louise, and Moondance from An American Werewolf in London ,
and topped off with the crowd-favourites Brown Eyed Girl (a song Morrison refused to play until recently) and the 1964 hit Gloria.

There were also a few surprises, including the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famer's pleasing cover of Ray Charles' I Can't Stop Loving You, and a snippet of Sam Cooke's You Send Me, to conclude Real Real Gone.

The set went over well with the mostly middle-aged crowd, but it did not nor could not adequately highlight Morrison's brilliant catalogue.

While his distinctive voice remains powerful, it was at times overshadowed by that aforementioned dislike for performing live, which was evident from
the start.

Morrison seemed detached, turning his back on the audience and wandering into the wings during his band's solo performances. He rarely acknowledged
the room with anything more than a quick thank you or in introducing the next song.

Morrison seemed more than willing to share all his glory with his 10-piece entourage, which included two backup singers, remaining happily in the
shadows.

While stepping up, he seemed most comfortable showing off his skills on the sax and keyboards.

There were, however, a few moments when the Irish cowboy seemed to find joy onstage.

At times, he appeared overwhelmed by the music, closing his eyes and bouncing to the beat.

This was a feeling certainly shared by his Calgary fans, who waited a lifetime to see the legend live
in our city.

And while another show in another time may have
been more satisfying, this one in this place was a
great taste of what Morrison will be remembered for
-- his ability to move people with his voice and
lyrics, even with his back turned.
- TARA MERRIN

Setlist:

It's Your Business (Band)
Bright Side of the Road
All Work No Play
Stranded
Big Blue Diamonds
Real Real Gone
Jackie Wilson
Moondance
Days Like This
Don't Worry About A Thing
Cleaning Windows> Be Bop a Lula
In the Midnight
Playhouse
Help Me
Wild Night
Star of the County Down
Brown eyed Girl
Gloria

Concert Review Vancouver 26-Feb-07

The Belfast Cowboy delivers a knock-out show

The night started with palpable tension as Van Morrison took the stage at GM Place Monday without a hello or even a smile.

The 13,000 fans filling the stadium applauded politely and let out some brief cheers, but the majority of the sold-out crowd remained seated and sedate as the Belfast Cowboy sauntered on stage and immediately launched into Bright Side of the Road.

Despite his legendary status and his unfaltering fan base, most people in the audience Monday night were likely wondering the same thing as the middle-aged woman lining up to get to her seat promptly by 7:30 p.m. -- as strictly instructed on the tickets: “Which persona do you think we’ll see tonight?” she asked her companion.

Initially, it looked like we were in for a night of reluctant performing from one of music’s most notoriously grumpy artists. Wearing mirrored glasses that masked his mood and a fedora to further hide any emotion, the 61-year-old superstar sounded almost bored and actually looked a tad bitter as he sang the upbeat hit from his 1979 album, Into the Music.

But as much as he’s known for his moods, Morrison is also known to be a consummate professional on the stage.

So while he may have appeared disinterested for the opener, it turned out that he was merely warming up for a knock-out show that moved with unstoppable momentum once it got rolling.

Morrison is perpetually producing new music and has said in past interviews that he doesn’t want to become a nostalgia act that only performs his old hits. So when the second song he and his eight-piece band played was the popular Days Like This, it simply appeared that he was getting the nostalgia tunes out of the way.

And indeed, he moved into the surprisingly comfortable -- but less familiar -- country twang of There Stands the Glass, from his most recent album of new material, Pay the Devil. The female pedal steel guitar player in Morrison’s outstanding band showed off her remarkable skills before the tune moved seamlessly to a gorgeous melancholy fiddle solo.

Morrison showed off the breadth of his repertoire, playing a tune (which I admittedly cannot identify -- he’s released more than 40 albums) that had his two blonde back-up singers be-bopping, giving the scene at GM Place a Prairie Home Companion feel to it. He got bluesy and his vocals loosened with Cleaning Windows, a hit single about one of his first jobs from his 1982 album Beautiful Vision. And further into the show -- a few songs after the crowd showed its appreciation for Moondance, another hit -- he even delved into a bit of funk.

Camera phones were strictly forbidden, which is a rare restriction from concerts today, but lighters could be seen flickering throughout the audience. A white-haired man who looked to be in his 60s lit a joint after Moondance and passed it to the young gay couple behind him and then to a female stranger several seats away.

And by the time Van the Man got to Wild Night -- another of the sing-along hits featured on the recently released compilation, called Van Morrison at the Movies -- the stadium felt a bit like a massive campfire sing-along.

He pulled out his sax and harmonica for some memorable instrumental moments, but it was his strong and distinctive voice that had people uttering comments like, “He’s really givin’ her, eh?”

After Wild Night, he played a string of hits that had the crowd exponentially more excited with each familiar phrase. The saxophone came back out for Have I Told You Lately? while couples reached arms around each other’s shoulders. The clapping became frenzied and the sing-along brought thousands more into the fold with Jackie Wilson Said.

Everyone was one their feet when he launched next into Brown Eyed Girl and the audience’s good luck became almost unbelievable when he began Gloria. But as soon as the audience reached the second or third spelling of G-L-O-R-I-A, Van said a brief “thank you” and exited stage left while everyone kept singing along with the band.

There was no encore and the show lasted just 90 minutes, but if I’m not mistaken, there was a glimmer of a smile from the superstar as he closed out the show with 13,000-strong singing along with him.

Who wouldn’t be pleased to leave a crowd like that only wanting more?
-Amy O'Brian, Vancouver Sun

New DVD By Jools Holland Features Van

Beat Route: Around the World With Jools Holland

Featuring Jools Holland, Van Morrison, The Chieftains, Ruben González, Compay Segundo, Des’ree, Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks

This three-hour DVD presentation of the complete BBC TV series, Beat Route, takes top music television presenter, Jools Holland (The Tube, Later with Jools Holland) and places him in six major cities around the world to delve ‘under the skin’ of each location. The result is a stunning mix of music, travel and culture, with each city revealed through Jools’ inimitable wit and personality. Jools meets many celebrated musicians, listens to their music and jams with the best of them.

From the urban blues of Chicago, the flamenco of Seville and the folklore of Budapest, to the riverside bars of Dublin, 1950s Cadillacs in Havana and girl bands in Beirut, Beat Route paints a vivid and engrossing picture of urban identity. Whether it’s a brief encounter with a dating agency run out of the back of a Chicago cab, or a musical collaboration in an old square in Havana, Beat Route pays homage to some of the world’s most fascinating and diverse locations.

Concert Review San Rafael 23-Feb-07

Beloved tunes redeem aloof Van Morrison at Marin Center show

Van Morrison revisited Marin, his old hometown, for the second time in a year Friday night, turning in a prosaic performance for a sellout crowd at the Marin Center that was rescued at the very end by a couple of old girlfriends - "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Gloria."

The Belfast rocker seemed to have trouble working up enthusiasm for this concert, perhaps a letdown from the night before in Los Angeles, when Al
Pacino presented him with the Oscar Wilde Award honoring Irish writing in film at a pre-Oscar party at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre hosted by the U.S.-Irish Alliance.

Morrison's songs have been featured in nearly 50 films. His newest album, "Van Morrison at the Movies," is a collection of 19 of them, several of
which he sang at Friday's concert in the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium, among them "Wonderful Remark" from "King of Comedy," "Wild Night" from "Thelma & Louise," "Into the Mystic" (sung by
daughter Shana Morrison) from "Patch Adams," "Bright Side of the Road" from "Fever Pitch," "Real Real Gone" from "Donovan Quick" and "Moondance"
from "An American Werewolf in London."

Morrison was last in Marin in March 2006, when he performed an intimate show at the West Marin roadhouse Rancho Nicasio, the first date on an American tour promoting his country/western CD "Pay the Devil." On Friday night, he tossed off the boozy ballad "There Stands the Glass."

For last year's tour, he traveled with a 13-piece band that he has reduced to a still substantial 10, including three backup singers and the exuberant
white-haired keyboardist John Allair, considered Marin's first rock star from his teenage years playing sock hops in the 1950s.


A 61-year-old member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the notoriously petulant superstar began his hour-and-45-minute show precisely at 7:30, early by most standards. There were a lot of empty seats at showtime, with fans straggling in through the first few songs.

He had on what has become his signature ensemble - dark suit and matching fedora. He looks like he has shed a few pounds, but he's still the same old Van the Man - mildly misanthropic, seldom speaking to the audience, turning his back on them, abandoning the mike to noodle on a keyboard, leaving the stage to let his guitar player introduce the band. He does manage small doses of humor, though, doing a Satchmo impression on one song, bleating like a sheep on another.

He joined voices with his daughter, Shana, one of Marin's most popular female singers, on "Sometimes We Cry" and "Wild Night." She beamed at him, and I thought I heard him mumble something like "I love her" when they were finished. I'd like to think I did, anyway.

He never picked up a guitar all night, preferring to punctuate his hornlike vocals with alto sax solos and blasts on harmonica.

Morrison lived in Marin during his intensely creative "Tupelo Honey" period in the 1970s, when his genius was just starting to bloom, but you wouldn't know it from him. He rarely gives interviews and never talks about his history here during a concert, but I can fill in a blank or two.


The first time I reviewed him at the Marin Vets was in March 1973, a long time ago. (Jesse Colin Young opened that show, and Jackie DeShannon sang backup vocals). But some things never change. "Morrison's much-publicized disdain for live performance was evident from the start," I wrote, "stalking off the stage after the first few lines" of "St. Dominic's Preview."

For a man with such a brilliant catalog of mystical, insightful and poetic songs to go with a jazzy singing style that is entirely his own,
Morrison's set list for this show was disappointingly pedestrian, relying on blues shuffles and repetitious bar band solos by the members of his group to fill the time. He can be incredibly hip one moment and annoyingly corny the next, when, for example, his three backup singers chime in with square vocal harmonies straight out of Lawrence Welk.

I, for one, would love to see Morrison be less lazy and assemble a band that could do justice to his deepest material. What a gift he could give if he dug into his greatest songs, showing some feeling rather than just going through the motions like he did Friday night, hiding behind his blas} bluesman facade.

He knows his status as a rock legend is secure, that he can get away with pretty much anything. He got a standing ovation, for instance, for just
walking onstage. His mostly middle-aged fans ate it up when he ended with "Brown Eyed Girl" and a rousing encore rendition of "Gloria." Everyone
seemed to go away happy and satisfied. I wonder if he did.
-Paul Liberatore

Setlist:
1. Own Business (Ned and band)
2. Into the Mystic (Shana and band)
3. Wonderful Remark
4. Real Real Gone/You Send Me
5. I Don't Worry About A Thing
6. Stranded
7. Bright Side of the Road
8. Foggy Mountaintop
9. Dead or Alive
10. There Stands The Glass
11. Cleaning Windows/ Be Bob a Lula
12. Sometimes We Cry (duet with Shana)
13. Moondance
14. I Can't Stop Loving You
15. Wild Night (duet with Shana)
16. Don't Strart Crying Now/ Custard Pie
17. Precious Time
18. St. James Infirmary
19. Help Me
20. Brown Eyed Girl ("this is the money song.. I didn't get any")
21. Gloria


Art was strolling around before the show and look who he bumped into! Thanks again for your excellent photos above!

Al Pacino On Van: "The Soundtrack To All Our Lives" As Hollywood Roles Out The Green Carpet

Van Morrison, Terry George and Bill Monahan honored in LA

Al Pacino Presents Award to Van Morrison, Roma Downey Emcees; Stars Light Up the Green Carpet

It was a fantabulous night to make music and mingle with the stars at the second annual "Oscar Wilde: Honoring Irish Writing in Film" awards party sponsored by the US-Ireland Alliance. Multi-award winning singer/songwriter Van Morrison, 2007 Oscar-nominated screenwriter William Monahan, and writer/director Terry George were honored at the star-studded event at the Wilshire Ebell in Los Angeles, California. Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino, who presented the Oscar Wilde award to Morrison, compared the legendary musician to the Irish playwright, describing the two artists as "visionaries who push boundaries."

Morrison, who treated the party guests to an intimate 45-minute private concert following the awards ceremony, was joined on stage by his daughter, Shana, a fantastic singer in her own right, rhythm and blues legend Solomon Burke, who, with Van, rocked the crowd with a rendition of "Stand By Me," and Chieftains front man Paddy Moloney. Towards the end of the concert, Grammy nominated singer Maura O'Connell came up on stage and sang "Crazy Love," with Van. When Van and his band left the stage, Shana and her band, San Francisco-based Caledonia, took over.

Actress Roma Downey emceed the pre-Academy Awards® party, which drew more than 400 VIPs, despite the rain. Major sponsors of the annual event are Quinlan Private, American Airlines, Culture Ireland and the Irish Film Board. The Oscar Wilde event was created to "bring together leaders in the Irish film community with their Hollywood counterparts at a fun, casual Irish party," according to Trina Vargo, founder and president of the US-Ireland Alliance.

And in keeping with that vision, this year's event brought a host of Hollywood and Irish film heavyweights who showed up to hail the trio of honorees. Some of the stars spotted walking the "green" carpet were: Fionnula Flanagan who presented the award to Terry George, Orlando Bloom, Charlize Theron, Mark Burnett, Stuart Townsend, Andie McDowell, Colm Meaney, Rachel Griffiths, Eric Stoltz, Bruno Maddox, who presented the award to William Monahan, and multi-Grammy Award winning music producer David Foster. Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook served on this year's Host Committee, as did HBO Films President Colin & Elizabeth Callender, Anjelica Huston, Fionnula Flanagan and past honorees Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan and David Holmes (who recently finished composing the original music for Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's 13). Another Academy Award nominated guest was Irish American Mark Fergus, nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Children of Men. Among those over from Ireland were Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Chairman of Culture Ireland, Irish Film Board CEO Simon Perry, and best-selling author Cecelia Ahern, whose book, P.S. I Love You, is currently being made into a film starring Hilary Swank.


Al Pacino jokingly remarked that he didn't understand a word that Van said when they first met over twenty years in London, but noted "somehow I could feel what he meant through his body language and was taken by his sensitivity and kindness." Pacino has recently been in Dublin working on his upcoming docudrama on the life of Oscar Wilde and his masterpiece Salome. In presenting the award to Van, Pacino described the musician as a "descendant of a long line of Irish balladeers: poets and writers whose lyrical words read like music: Wilde, Shaw, Yeats, Joyce, and O'Casey."


A native of Belfast, Ireland, Van Morrison has one of the most enduring and consistently impressive careers in music history. His music is included in nearly fifty films, including the recently released Scorsese film, The Departed, as well as Breakfast on Pluto, What A Girl Wants, The Royal Tenenbaums, Bridget Jones's Diary, One Fine Day, When a Man Loves a Woman, Prelude to a Kiss, Thelma & Louise, An Officer and a Gentleman, Proof of Life, and As Good as It Gets.

Terry George and William Monahan were also recognized for the power of their writing in film. Fionnula Flanagan, who presented the Oscar Wilde award to George, said that Terry "is like a compass that always points true north, true north in the sense of guiding us to the truth." The acclaimed Belfast-born film writer, who wrote the script for Hotel Rwanda, has often woven Northern Ireland themes into his work. Frequently collaborating with Jim Sheridan, his credits include The Boxer, Some Mother's Son and In the Name of the Father, all starring Daniel Day Lewis, as well as Hart's War and A Bright Shining Lie. He is currently at work on Reservation Road - which he wrote and is directing – starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino. George also recently wrapped The Waterhouse, currently in post-production.


William Monahan has received wide acclaim, including a 2007 Oscar and a Writers Guild of America award, for his screenplay for The Departed, the Martin Scorsese-directed film about the Irish American mafia that stars Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg. Upon accepting his award, the scriptwriter looked out at the audience and said, "receiving this award from the US-Ireland Alliance, in this roomful of people, makes me feel like I've made it." Monahan is currently at work on the feature film, Penetration, which will be directed by Ridley Scott. He previously collaborated with Scott on the film Kingdom of Heaven, which was Monahan's first produced screenplay. Monahan is also the author of the acclaimed novel, Light House: A Trifle.

The evening's emcee, Derry, Northern Ireland-born Roma Downey, began the evening speaking of the influence Van Morrison's music has played in her life. Downey is an accomplished actress and producer, best known for her role as "Monica," the principal character in the long-running TV series, Touched By An Angel. She can currently be seen in "A Picasso" at the Geffen Playhouse.

Record company, EMI, presented each guest with a copy of the recently released Van Morrison At The Movies: Soundtrack Hits – a first time collection of Mr. Morrison's best-known songs that have been featured in films. In addition to such favorites as "Gloria" from The Outsiders, "Wild Night" from Thelma & Louise, and "Brown Eyed Girl" from Born On The Fourth Of July, the new collection includes a previously unreleased live version of "Moondance" from An American Werewolf In London, recorded live with strings in 1986 at Los Angeles' Greek Theatre.


Guests feasted on food provided by Kensington Caterer's Richard Mooney, originally from Limerick, Ireland. Other contributors to the event included River Films, Tiffany & Co., Baileys, Lily O'Briens, Food America, Bushmills, Hot Irishman, Boru Vodka, Kerrygold, Guinness, Harp, Sunset Marquis, Le Brea Bakery, Oronoco, Three Thieves and Laura Lee Designs.
We bring together leaders in arts and culture in the U.S. and the island of Ireland.



From Belfast to Hollywood

"I love acting," said a burly Irish dandy quoting Oscar Wilde as he pointed out Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Andie MacDowell, Orlando Bloom, John Lynch and Fionnula Flanagan at the Wilshire Ebell Theater on Thursday. "It is so much more real than life."


Pacino presented an Oscar Wilde award to Belfast-born Van Morrison during an evening that honored Irish writing in film and featured the wee Oronoco "Wilde" mojito.

"I didn't understand a word Van said when we first met," admitted Pacino, who's currently directing and starring in "Salomaybe," a behind-the-scenes look at his stage production of Wilde's "Salome." "But I love Van Morrison."

Morrison was equally brief.

"It's a long way from Belfast to Hollywood, and I'm speechless," he said.

"Thanks!"

Everyone else, including honorees writer/director Terry George and Oscar-nominated screenwriter William Monahan, paid homage to Van the Man, whose music is in "The Departed" and almost 50 other films.

"If there were a soundtrack to my life, it's Van and me in a garden wet with rain," said emcee Roma Downey.


Morrison made up for his short trip to the podium during a 45-minute performance that included a "Stand By Me" duet with Solomon Burke, who sang from his wheelchair in the audience, and had MacDowell clapping her hands and singing along with "Brown Eyed Girl." But what really made the actress/model smile was a banner with the Oscar Wilde quote "There are two kinds of tragedy. One is not getting what you want, the other is getting it."


Andie MacDowell, Van Morrison and Orlando Bloom (Above Pic)


"That's fitting for Oscar week," MacDowell said to a girlfriend.



Van Morrison honoured for his songs' role in film


Willim Monahan, Orlando Bloom, Van Morrison & Terry George

The Oscars awards season took an unusual Irish twist yesterday, as Van Morrison - not a performer immediately associated with the cinema - won a prize from the US-Ireland Alliance in Los Angeles for his musical contributions to film.

The Belfast born star was one of three recipients of an Oscar Wilde award, intended principally to reward Irish contributions to film writing. And while he may never have penned a film score, he has earned a living over the years granting permission to directors and producers to use his songs in more than 60 movies.


His song Wild Night was featured prominently in Thelma and Louise (though sung by Martha Vandella), and his live duet with Roger Waters on the Pink Floyd classic Comfortably Numb was a memorable part of the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's multi-nominated latest, The Departed. Scorsese has used Morrison's songs quite a bit over the years - T.B. Sheets in Bringing Out The Dead (1999) and Wonderful Remark in The King of Comedy (1983).

The US-Ireland Alliance has worked hard for the past couple of years to make its event as appealing and different as possible. As the organisation's president, Trina Vargo, told Variety: "We're told we're the perfect Oscar-week event because no one is trapped at a dinner table, there are only three awards, no long speeches and you can wear jeans."


Hotel Rwanda director Terry George, from Belfast, was also honoured. Other recipients included William Monahan, the screenwriter on The Departed. Morrison was expected to show up to last night's ceremony with his band. Al Pacino was set to introduce him and Michael Moore, the scabrous documentary maker, was set to introduce George.


Also expected to attend were Helen Mirren, the hot favourite for a best actress Oscar for her work on The Queen, and Mirren's director husband, Taylor Hackford. Mirren appeared in the film Some Mother's Son, which Terry George wrote, and Hackford has used Van Morrison songs in his films.

Ms Vargo said the show's purpose was to bring American and Irish film professionals together. "Just by hanging out together, listening to music and chatting, good things can come from creating a bridge between the two cultures," she said.

Van Left Speechless
Van the Man who accepted his award with about 10 words, said he was “speechless”, but later performed for about 40 minutes,, joined by his daughter Shana, who dueted with him. Al Pacino said he met Van in London 15 years ago and found him to be a man of ”huge heart and great sensitivity.”


There was a strong northern accent in Los Angeles when Terry George spoke about coming form east Belfast and hearing the names of streets he played on named in Van’s songs. Morrison’s music has been used in 50 international movies.