Lá Breithe Sona Duit!

George Ivan Morrison Is 61 Years Young Today. Long may he run!

"Do what you like. This is what I like and that's what I'm doing." -Van Morrison

Gerald Dawe On Van Morrison

A Giant At My Shoulder From RTE 1 (Radio Telefís Éireann)

Scroll down to Programme 3: 17th June 2006

An Appreciation of "Madame George" Gerald Dawe talks about Van Morrison (First broadcast 1999)

Also - check out An Appreciation of "Madame George" by Gerald Dawe from Michael Hayward's Excellent Van site.

First Ever DVD Release From Van In October

Van Morrison - Live at Montreux 1974/1980
DVD released 16 October 2006

Update on new dvd
For more then 40 years now the music of Van Morrison has been mesmerizing and captivating audiences around the world. Combining influences as diverse as R&B, jazz, blues, country and Celtic folk, his sound and style has firmly established him as a true innovator of popular music.
Exile Productions are proud to announce the release of the first ever DVD from Van Morrison, titled Live At Montreux 1974/1980, via an exclusive world wide licensing deal with Eagle Vision. Recorded at the world famous Montreux Festival, at which he has performed many times throughout his illustrious career, and personally chosen by Van Morrison himself, Live At Montreux 1974/1980 captures two magical performances over 2 discs that showcase Van at his very best.
Disc one features the complete show from his 1974 appearance and features tracks including I Like It Like That, Foggy Mountain Top, Heathrow Shuffle and Street Choir while disc 2 is the complete show from 1980 and features the tracks Wavelength, Tupelo Honey, Moondance and many more.
Van Morrison – Live At Montreux 1974/1980, scheduled for release on October 16th and following Van’s appearance at this year’s 40th Montreux Festival, is a wonderful look back at one of the greatest songwriters and poets to every grace the worlds stages with his presence and is a must have for all music fans.

Blowin' Your Mind

Van Morrison: blowin' your mind

THERE can’t be many artists to have performed and recorded jazz, rock, R’n’B, blues, country, Celtic and skiffle music. Fewer still, if any, could claim to have received critical acclaim for endeavours in all those genres.
But achieving just that undoubtedly contributed to Van Morrison’s induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
For most artists, writing a timeless hit of the calibre of party standard Brown Eyed Girl would be considered a monumental achievement. But, for 40 years, Morrison has worked tirelessly to create new music, always striving to put his own stamp on each of the genres. Blessed with a distinctive gravelly voice and possessing a lyrical invention shared by few, Morrison has consistently accomplished that.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, ‘Van the Man’ has striven to maintain the quality of his new recordings and refused to rest on his laurels by reeling off his back catalogue at the gigs he plays around the world each year.
Crowd-pleasing favourites
So those attending Morrison’s next concert at Chester Racecourse tomorrow evening should not necessarily expect a volley of crowd-pleasing favourites. He does, however, promise an evening of jazz, blues and soul in the historic setting of Chester’s Roodee, which seems a fitting venue for a performance by an artist of Morrison’s pedigree. It was here the Roman legions arrived to build their fortress Deva and, in the days of the Roman occupation, the Dee washed up to the walls where in modern times thousands stand to cheer on the winner of the Chester Cup.
Tomorrow, 8,000 will watch the first concert ever to be staged at the venue as part of the Chester Live festival.
“It’s a great concept,” Morrison said of Chester Live. “In the summer you’ve got to play outside. I love doing it.”
John Lee Hooker
It will not be the first illustrious venue Morrison has played since his career began in his native Belfast in the 1960s. The son of a shipyard worker who collected American blues and jazz records, he had grown up listening to the music of Muddy Waters, Mahalia Jackson, Lightnin’ Hopkins and John Lee Hooker.
The 15-year-old Van, making ends meet by cleaning windows, began playing guitar, saxophone and harmonica with a series of showbands, skiffle and rock and roll groups.
He toured Europe with the Monarchs before deciding to form his own group, Them, in 1964. They scored a number of chart successes, most notably the rock standard Gloria, and it was while fronting Them he had the opportunity to play an impromptu gig at Los Angeles’s Whiskey A Go Go club with Jim Morrison. He went on to describe this collaboration with the Doors frontman as his “shining moment”.
Fifth decade
Morrison left Them for a return to Belfast in 1966 but was persuaded to return to New York by the band’s producer Bert Berns to kick off a solo career that is about to enter its fifth decade.
During his early recording sessions, Morrison recorded Brown Eyed Girl for the album Blowin’ Your Mind, which he later claimed to be unhappy with.
After Berns’ death in 1967, Morrison moved to Boston and recruited a group of jazz musicians to record Astral Weeks. Released in 1968, it blended Celtic and R’n’B music to create a timeless classic considered by many to be his seminal work. But where Astral Weeks saw Morrison in doleful mood, the early 1970s was a period of renewed optimism. Moondance set the tone and was followed in quick succession by His Band and the Street Choir, Tupelo Honey and Saint Dominic’s Preview, which between them spawned several hits including Wild Night and Domino.
Pastoral sound
A return to Ireland allowed Morrison to explore his native roots and develop the quieter, more pastoral sound recorded on Veedon Fleece. Despite his experience of touring with his backing group The Caledonia Soul Orchestra, Morrison battled with stage-fright in front of large crowds and disappeared from the scene for a while. But he returned to the public eye with A Period of Transition, co-produced by Mac ‘Dr John’ Rebennack in 1977, followed by Wavelength and Into the Music. Morrison’s spiritual influences featured heavily on these recordings and this trend continued on a string of albums during the 1980s.
In 1988, he revisited his roots again by teaming up with The Chieftains on Irish Heartbeat, which was followed by his biggest commercial success for some time in Avalon Sunset. Since the turn of the 1990s, Morrison has explored different genres more and more, first leaning towards blues with Too Long in Exile in 1993, which saw him return to the singles chart by teaming up with John Lee Hooker for a reworking of Gloria. His next collaboration was with Georgie Fame on the1995 album of mainly jazz standards, How Long Has This Been Going On. He ended the decade on a high with a first solo top 40 hit Precious Time, from the Back On Top album.
Pay the Devil
Morrison’s music came full circle as 2000 dawned, when he reunited with his boyhood heroes Lonnie Donegan and Chris Barber to record The Skiffle Sessions – Live in Belfast, at the city’s Whitla Hall. This year it was country music that received his attention on Pay the Devil, an album featuring 12 covers of classics given Morrison’s treatment and three original tracks.
Morrison’s influence can be heard in the music of artists of the calibre of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, Elvis Costello, Jeff Buckley and John Mellencamp. Whatever style he chooses to play, those at Chester Racecourse can be sure they are in for an accomplished performance.
-Andy McFarlane

Jerry Lee Lewis Covers Van On New CD

Last Man Standing After five years and four different record labels, Jerry Lee Lewis' "Last Man Standing" will arrive Sept. 26 on Jeff Ayeroff's Artists First label. Alternative Distribution Alliance will distribute the title. The 21-track album pairs Lewis with such artists as Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, George Jones, Willie Nelson and Rod Stewart.
Produced by Steve Bing and Jimmy Rip for Bing's Shangri-La Entertainment, the album was born after Bing approached Lewis in 2001 to write songs for a movie, appropriately titled given Lewis' history, "Why Men Shouldn't Marry." The movie never was made, but Lewis cut two songs.
Steve said, 'I don't care if we don't have a label. Here's the money, just make the record,'" Rip says. It didn't start as a duet project -- "Even Jerry said, 'I don't need all these people,'" Rip recalls. But as word of the album spread, and after Mick Jagger performed on one of the songs cut for the movie, Rip started asking more artists to participate, and then eager acts started coming to him.
The album was first slated for Lost Highway, then had a stop at another label before landing at Columbia, which sat on a release date so it could coincide with a planned TV special. But when the album's main supporters Steve Greenberg and Don Ienner left the label earlier this summer, it once again was homeless. That's where Artists First stepped in.
The creative and marketing company had already been consulting Columbia on the Lewis project, and once the album was again a free agent, Artists First stepped up. "You feel an obligation and romance in working with a project like this," Ayeroff says, comparing it to how he felt when he and former business partner Jordan Harris worked with Roy Orbison while running Virgin North America.
The project will be promoted through a December PBS "Great Performances" episode. Artists First is in talks with a number of retailers about special programs, although Ayeroff says, "This is a Wal-Mart record if you think about it, given his success on the country charts."
Jerry Lee duets with Don Henley on Van's "That's What Makes The Irish Heart Beat"

Van To Join Rolling Stones "Bigger Bang" Tour

Van Morrison Added to Line-Up of Special Guests on The Rolling Stones 'A Bigger Bang' World Tour
NEW YORK, Aug. 10 The Rolling Stones are returning to North America this fall with 'A Bigger Bang' than ever before, bringing along some of the hottest acts in the music industry. The Dave Matthews Band will thrill fans on October 17th at Qwest Field in Seattle as well as October 20th at Sun Bowl in El Paso. Van Morrison will excite audiences on November 3rd at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver and November 5th at McAfee Coliseum in Oakland, Ca. Dave Matthews Band and Van Morrison join recently announced guest artist Kanye West to the line-up of extraordinary artists who will be performing on 'The Bigger Bang' tour. The Stones are known for working with music's hottest acts boasting such legendary performers over the past decades such as Stevie Wonder, Pearl Jam and Metallica.
Tickets for the October 17th show in Seattle will go on sale Monday, August 21st at 10am and tickets for the October 20th show in El Paso will go on sale Saturday, August 12th at 10am. Vancouver and Oakland ticket on-sales to be announced at a later date.
There are a limited number of Gold Circle seats available while the remaining 90% of the house will average $89 for stadiums and $99 for arena shows. In most cities, students will receive an additional $20 off. (Current ID required.) Buys will be limited to 12 tickets per person. Additionally, 200 fans will have the opportunity to be onstage with the Rolling Stones as part of the stadium set and share in the excitement. These seats will go on-sale at a later date.
Every ticket sold for the tour will include a Virtual Ticket membership to RollingStones.com. 'A Bigger Bang' ticket purchasers are invited to enjoy unprecedented, behind-the-scenes content with the return of Virtual Ticket, the on-line tour companion the band introduced in 2002. Virtual Ticket allows fans to intimately experience the band on the road via streaming video and audio, exclusive photographs and concert set lists.
The U.S. dates for 'A Bigger Bang' tour will be sponsored by RadioShack. The North American leg of the tour will be presented by Concert Productions International and The Next Adventure and produced by WPC Piecemeal Inc.
For Official Tour Information, Fan Club Memberships, Exclusive Merchandise and more, visit http://www.rollingstones.com

Van Morrison In Toronto Concert Review 08-Aug-06

Van Morrison in T.O. TORONTO - You can call Van Morrison lots of things, but predictable is not one of them -- and neither is chatty.
Last night, at his sold-out Air Canada Centre show, the 60-year-old Irish singer-songwriter-curmudgeon played very little from his latest album, this year's country-cover-heavy Pay The Devil, and said barely a word to his adoring audience.
He did, however, surprise and delight them by playing a number of old crowd-pleasers that he hadn't performed in ages.
Why does someone who can write so many beautiful songs insist on doing so many covers?
Why does someone with such a strong and beautiful voice rely so much on his backing singers?
He's not saying, so the best thing to do is sit back and take what you get -- knowing that will at least include a stellar band and a magnificent voice.
Last night, Morrison came out in a straw hat and a dark suit with a saxophone around his neck, which he used to quickly swing into the intro to All Work And No Play, from 2002's Down The Road album.
Backed by an 11-piece band that included pedal steel, fiddle, horns and three backing singers as well as keyboards and guitars, Morrison performed a decorous, laid-back and understated yet soulful program of songs from many stops on his long career.
Interestingly, despite the varied selection, nearly all of them were performed in musical styles from 50 years ago -- '50s jazz, '50s country, '50s rock 'n' roll or '50s soul.
For most of them, Morrison would sing a few verses and then turn things over to the band for a series of solos before winding things up.
Bright Side Of The Road, for instance, had a gentle country swing, with pedal steel, fiddle, keyboard and sax solos, while Stranded had a country-doo-wop flavour, with a lovely sax solo by Morrison himself, and St. James Infirmary went back even further, with a spooky and atmospheric '30s jazz feel. I Can't Stop Loving You and Big Blue Diamonds -- one of very few selections from the new album -- tapped Nashville country-pop without the raw emotionalism.
Crazy Love, the first big oldie of the night, was wonderful, until for some reason Morrison got a female backup singer to do the second verse; the same thing happened in the jazzy Moondance.
They played a few more gems like Cleaning Windows, Precious Time and Sometimes We Cry before thrilling the crowd with a beautiful, un-schmaltzy Have I Told You Lately and a string of rapturously received golden oldies including Wild Night, Brown-Eyed Girl -- featuring a rare acknowledgment of the audience in the form of encouraging them to sing the sha-la-la-la-las -- and, finally, Gloria.
So you could say it was a typically perplexing and pleasing show from the crusty old master of Celtic soul.

The good Morrison showed up First, he is one of the finest male vocalists of his generation, a devil's brew of Celtic soul and unpredictability that has rendered him unique and unmatched in the arena of popular music in the past 50 years.
Second, and unfortunately, Morrison's reputation as a live performer is as volatile as his singing style. On any given day, he may be terse, uninterested, unsociable (he's been known to perform with his back to the audience) or even intoxicated. But on his good days, he's the most amazing performer imaginable, inspiring, engaging and eclectic. With Van Morrison, you pays your money and you takes your chances.
Tuesday night at the Air Canada Centre was, generally speaking, a worthwhile engagement. Backed by a tight, 10-piece ensemble, including three backup singers, that crowded around the singer as if in a rugby scrum, Morrison worked through a set of largely unfamiliar material that included just enough of the sixties and seventies hits to keep the audience satisfied. One often gets the feeling with Morrison that he performs largely for himself, and that the audience is free to take it or leave it. And with recent Morrison's albums exploring the unrelated genres of country music and skiffle, there were numerous examples of both peppered into Tuesday's set list.
Appearing in a large, white fedora with a saxophone hung around his neck, Morrison opened with a Cab Calloway-styled jump number, All Work and No Play, which, as was typical of the night's play list, was about the instrumental almost as much as it was the vocal. Morrison these days comes across as more of a band member than a singer, adding his vocal parts but then stepping back and allowing fiddle or trombone or steel guitar to take their turns in the spotlight.
After a couple more numbers that could well have been included in the recent soundtrack for A Prairie Home Companion, Morrison tapped into a more familiar vein, first with the pleasantly mellow Back On Top, followed shortly after by the hit single Crazy Love.
It was typical of Morrison on this evening that the familiar hit songs he did perform were handled in much the same way Bob Dylan handles his best-known songs in concert. Dylan has been known to mutate his numbers to the point where they are almost unrecognizable, and while Morrison doesn't quite go that far, he does put unique spins on his songs, obviously in an attempt to breathe new life into them. Thus, Crazy Love was done as a duet, with one of the (unintroduced) backup singers taking a soulful turn. Moondance was given a jazzy scat treatment that pushed it back into the 1940s (as was the seventies hit Wild Night), and Brown Eyed Girl was kind of slurred, suggesting that Morrison figures he has sung this one a few too many times.
But there were moments of transcendent beauty. Among the set's real highlights were a soulful take on the classic blues number St. James Infirmary, a slightly countrified version of the Ray Charles classic I Can't Stop Loving You, and the evening's surprise closer, a take on the rock classic Gloria, which was originally recorded by Morrison's sixties Belfast R&B group called Them.
Exactly 90 minutes after taking the stage, Morrison and company were gone. The lights came up quickly, and recorded music informed us there was no hope of an encore. No worries, though. On this night, the audience got pretty much what it paid for. A solid, tightly structured sampler of the Best of Morrison. Given what might have happened, this has to be considered a success.

Van Morrison In Fairfax Concert Review 06-Aug-06

Enigmatic Van Morrison connects in his own way BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Few artists can get away with caring so little about their fans. But Van Morrison can.
For whatever reason, it's OK that the extraordinary Irish singer rarely brings his music to the stage -- Sunday's show was his first Virginia appearance since 1986 at Wolf Trap and one of only six U.S. dates slated through mid-September.
When Morrison is onstage, he could be singing to any random audience in any darkened sports arena in the world. There is no attempt to connect, aside from several husky, but friendly, thank-yous between songs. He doesn't even introduce his fabulous eight-piece band. That's a task for an off-stage announcer.
But Morrison is a famously enigmatic persona, and the rarity of his appearances makes witnessing him in person all the more desirable. It also doesn't hurt that, three weeks shy of his 61st birthday, the man sounds phenomenal.
In his trademark uniform of dark suit, white hat and shades, Morrison began with a jaunty touch, his voice skipping through "All Work and No Play" as he alternately blew on the saxophone.
His ridiculously distinctive voice -- one that still sounds shellacked by whiskey -- follows whatever cadence he is feeling at that second. Structure and canned scripts don't exist in Morrison's world, and his band must be ready to respond to his whims.
"Midnight, midnight," he called to them, signaling the start of "In the Midnight." Morrison's music is an indescribable brew of jazz, Celtic folk, pop and blues, and the theoretical reason behind this itty-bitty tour, his latest album "Pay the Devil," adds country to the pot. Although the second half of Sunday's tight, 90-minute concert concentrated on Morrison's familiar pop/rock tunes, the aching pedal steel guitar of Cindy Cashdollar dominated the band's direction all night -- particularly in her solo on "Playhouse," from the current album.
Morrison appeared keenly interested in his band, usually turning to face whichever member was soloing, his left hand patting his thigh in rhythm. Each song embraced a musical interlude --trombone, organ, pedal steel -- and then Morrison would come roaring back to bring it home, sometimes going deep and Louis Armstrong guttural ("Bright Side of the Road"), sometimes standing solid and pensive ("Crazy Love").
The sold-out crowd of about 8,000 contained mostly boomers ready to marinate in nostalgia and luckily for them, Morrison was on the same wavelength. You get the feeling that he plays his hits not out of obligation to the audience, but simply because he felt like singing "Wild Night" at that moment.
Morrison delivered several gifts to this crowd, bleating the low, creeping notes of "Moondance" on his saxophone before letting his background singers handle the second verse, Manhattan Transfer-style. He approached "Have I Told You Lately" -- one of the greatest love songs ever -- similarly, playing the chorus on his horn and then edging into its soulful lyrics.
A whimsical "Brown Eyed Girl," punctuated by an emphatic "La-ti-da" at the end, launched the audience to its feet, where it remained through the requisite singalong of "Gloria."
Clearly, there were no grudges held against the guy for taking two decades to visit.

Setlist:
1. All Work And No Play
2. Playhouse
3. Stranded
4. Back On Top
5. There Stands The Glass
6. Only A Dream
7. Bright Side Of the Road
8. Big Blue Diamonds
9. In The Midnight
10. Cleaning Windows
11. Crazy Love
12. Moondance
13. I Can't Stop Loving You
14. Precious Time
15. Have I Told You Lately
16. Help Me (with James Hunter)
17. Brown Eyed Girl
18. Wild Night
19. Gloria

Philadelphia Concert Review 05-Aug-06

Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia. Van came on stage around 515p. Show was pretty good, a lot of the older "hits" which pleased the majority of the crowd. Van was in very good mood throughout show and did some marvelous singing. He still has the pipes!

Setlist:
All Work and No Play
Playhouse
Crazy Love
Back on Top
St. James Infirmary
Real Real Gone
There Stands the Glass
Jackie Wilson Said
Moondance
I Can't Stop Loving You
Stop Drinking Wine
Cleaning Windows
Sometimes We Cry
Precious Time
All in the Game
Precious Time
Help Me
Wild Night
Gloria
Brown Eyed Girl

Van still the man, but better with fans
By Keith Harris
For The Inquirer
Advance word suggested that Van Morrison's first Philadelphia show in 16 years would be a full-blown homage to country music, much like his new album, Pay the Devil. And indeed, both pedal-steel guitarist and fiddler were allotted plenty of solo space at the Spectrum on Saturday. Then again, so was the trombonist.
A stout man in a dark suit and hat, Morrison huddled with 11 other musicians center stage during a late afternoon performance that got under way a little after 5 and wrapped up before 7. His heart obviously belonged to oldies like the New Orleans funeral march "St. James Infirmary," yet he didn't slight fan favorites like "Moondance." And he did haul out some country classics, including "There Stands the Glass" (which he recorded for Devil) and "I Can't Stop Loving You" (which he didn't).
The latter was a particularly telling choice, best known as a tune with which Ray Charles demonstrated the similarities between country and R&B back in 1962. When it comes to seamlessly blending so many musical styles, black and white, Morrison is surely Charles' most direct spiritual heir.
Having found a unique voice early in his career, he's been free to experiment for 40 years, to learn tricks from Charles or Muddy Waters or Sam Cooke without sounding like a copycat. In fact, while Morrison now sings "Crazy Love" in a gruff bark rather than a creamy falsetto, his phrasing and emotional range have only expanded.
And Morrison's become a warmer stage presence as well. Though he sometimes shouted abrupt instructions to the band, his legendary orneriness was not in evidence. Leading with two obscure, bluesy shuffles, closing with crowd-pleasers "Gloria" and "Brown-Eyed Girl," Morrison seemed justifiably satisfied. He's found a way to give the people what they want while doing just as he pleases.

Van Morrison & Charlie Gracie get together here WHEN Van Morrison found himself with some free time Friday afternoon, he called pal Charlie Gracie, hoping the local rocker was performing that night.
But Gracie wasn't, so Morrison asked if he would play with him Saturday at the Spectrum, but Gracie told the singer he had his own gigs Saturday and Sunday at Westy's in North Wildwood.
"Aw s---," replied Morrison, who then invited Gracie and family to hang out with him at the Four Seasons.
Gracie; his wife, Joan; daughter Angela; and son Charlie Jr. and his wife, Kim, spent time with Morrison, sharing drinks and memories.
Gracie opened for Morrison several years ago on the West Coast.
The guys plan to catch up when Gracie plays the UK next month.

You Lookin' At Me?!

Steve Winwood, Van Morrison & Robert DeNiro. Backstage At Tribeca Film Festival Concert New York City May 8th, 2004

Tribeca Film Festival
Then Van Morrison took the stage, wearing a black cashmere coat and a black fedora. It was cold out and it was windy. Van, who can sometimes be fuzzy on stage, was sharp as a tack. His set was crisp and professional. He even played sax on "Into the Mystic," sang Sinatra's "That's Life" with bravado and knocked out a beautiful rendering of his first hit, "Gloria" — all the while watching a digital clock on stage that counted down his contracted hour to the second.
When he went a few bars over, one of his staff said, "You can't believe how hard it was to get him to do this show." But by then, Van Morrison, with the voice of an Irish angel, was already in his car and buzzing out the gates, indeed into the mystic.