The Doors and Them
(Ray Manzarek)

HOW DID YOU LAND THE GIG AS THE HOUSE BAND AT THE WHISKY A GO GO? Manzarek: The week before our final night at the London Fog, Ronnie Harran, the booker from the Whisky a Go Go, had come down and fell in love with the band. She asked us after the set, "How would you guys like to be the house band at the Whisky a Go Go?" And we went, "F---ing A. Are you kidding? Of course, we'd love to."

She said, "You'll open the show, then the headliners, then you play another set, and then the headliners. So two sets a night." We said, "How much money?" And she said, "Union scale," which was like $135 per man, per week. It was like, "Wow." We were making like $40 or $50 at the London Fog.


We were going to be the house band at the Whisky a Go Go and Jim Morrison, Mr. Cool, says to Ronnie, "We got to think about this. Why don't you come back tomorrow?" And she looked at him with these big puppy-dog eyes.

After she left, we proceeded to pummel Morrison on the arms and shoulders. "What do you mean we have to think about it?" Jim said, "Of course we're going to take the gig, but you don't want to appear too anxious."

The next week we started, and the band we played with was none other than Them -- Van Morrison and Them. And we jammed during the last set of the night. So Jim Morrison and Van Morrison were singing "Gloria" together at the Whisky a Go Go. What a night.

New Van Dates In Las Vegas & Florida

Van Back In U.S.

30-Dec-06 Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay

02-Jan-07 Kissimmee, FL, Silver Spurs Arena

Van's New 2007 UK Dates

Van's UK Dates
06-Apr-2007 Van Morrison Manchester
Bridgewater Hall
07-Apr-2007 Van Morrison Manchester
Bridgewater Hall
13-Apr-2007 Van Morrison Oxford New Theatre
14-Apr-2007 Van Morrison Cardiff Millennium
Centre

Van To Perform At Oscars Party in February

Van To Perform At Pre-Academy Awards Party On February 22, 2007
Entertainment Legend To Perform

Multi-award winning singer/songwriter Van Morrison will be honored by the US-Ireland Alliance at its second annual "Oscar Wilde: Honoring Irish Writing in Film" pre-Academy Awards party, Thursday, February 22, 2007 at the Wilshire Ebell in Los Angeles, California.

Hosted by the US-Ireland Alliance, a non-profit organization created to foster ties between the US and Ireland, the star-studded event is designed to honor Irish writing in film. Trina Vargo, founder and president of the Alliance, noted that the event, which is co-sponsored by the Irish Film Board, was created to "bring together leaders in the Irish film community with their Hollywood counterparts at a fun, casual Irish party --a great precursor to the black tie and couture evenings ahead."

Two additional honorees will be announced at a later date. Last year's sold-out event honored Neil Jordan, Jim Sheridan and David Holmes and brought out a host of luminaries including Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Anjelica Huston and Disney Chairman Dick Cook.

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 soon-to-be released Scorsese film, The Departed, as well as Breakfast on Pluto, What A Girl Wants, The Royal Tenenbaums, Bridget Jones' 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.

Morrison’s latest album, Pay The Devil, incorporates the deeply soulful sounds of the American South that have inspired him. For forty years, Morrison has drawn upon the greats of Rhythm & Blues to create his own distinctive and influential blend of soul and Celtic influences. On Pay The Devil, Morrison explores his inner cowboy more than ever before, asserting himself as a working musician who simply follows his own musical muse wherever it may lead him.

Van On PBS' Austin City Limits 18-Nov-06

Austin City Limits Presents: Van Morrison

Musical legend Van Morrison wraps his incomparable voice around the soul, blues, folk, jazz and country styles that have been the mainstay of his music for four decades.

Featuring songs from his latest album Pay the Devil and timeless Morrison classics, he delivers a spellbinding one hour performance in his first appearance on Austin City Limits.

Van Morrison Song List
Recorded 9/14/06:

Wild Night
Choppin’ Wood
There Stands the Glass
Playhouse
Not Feelin’ It
Cleaning Windows
St. James Infirmary
I Can’t Stop Loving You
Don’t Start Crying Now / Custard Pie
Brown-Eyed Girl
Gloria

Concert Review Liverpool 21-Oct-06

Van Morrison, Liverpool Philharmonic Oct 23 2006 By Mike Chapple, Daily Post
HE'S been written off as being past his best.
But dismiss Van Morrison at your peril.

He's not called The Man for nothing and on Saturday night the Phil was in raptures as he and his peerless nine-piece backing band staged a full 90-minute masterclass of unmatchable musical versatility.

Looking less like Uncle Bulgaria these days, he cut a sleeker figure than last remembered Wombling on stage, blowing blues harp as the band cruised into Back On Top, no pompous bluster but merely a statement of fact on this kind of form.

One of Morrison's greatest assets is his understanding of various musical styles and the consequent ability to meld them into transforming the shape of songs from his formidable back catalogue.

This ensures that with Van Live you'll never, ever, get a perfunctory rolling out of the greatest hits; he's always tweaking away and changing the standards which make him, and not Rafa Benitez, the supreme Tinkerman.

So, despite this being the Liverpool Irish Festival, in this incarnation we had not so much the Celtic Come Into Parlour Van but the Mint Julep On The Back Porch Man as he put his philanderings with Country and Western to good use with stunning effect.

Fiddle and pedal steel guitar transformed classics such as Moondance into something altogether different.

Another of Morrison's great assets is the ability to control the momentum so that at some stage in the performance there comes a key point which makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand on end, or brings tears welling into the eyes.

This rolling cloud of emotion began somewhere around the typically stylish adaptation of Ray Charles's I Can't Stop Loving You, through Moondance and One Irish Rover, building up to a final downpour during It's All In The Game.

It all ended far too soon with a mass singalong of Brown Eyed Girl and an almost grunge-like encore of Gloria.

It moved even Van, not renowned for being the happy-clappiest of individuals, to sign off with "We've enjoyed our two nights in Liverpool. We had a ball!"

And so did we.

Van The Healer

Van & Chrissy Hynde. Dublin 1993.
Going for a song
Going for a song
Ian Rankin on Snow in San Anselmo by Van Morrison
In 1989, I was living in Thatcher-era, red-braced London, earning a pittance as a hi-fi journalist. I’d had two not very successful novels published and was having trouble finding a publisher willing to take a chance on my third. The maisonette I shared with my hard-working wife seemed cramped. I was spending three hours a day commuting across the city. I was 29 and already starting to feel like a burnout.

One morning, as I clambered aboard the train at Victoria, I felt my heart begin to race. There was a whistling in my ears, and I found breathing difficult. I jumped off the train and stood trembling on the platform, waiting for the heart attack. It didn’t come, but I was worried enough to return home and beg an early appointment with my GP. He diagnosed panic attacks and told me to take some rest. I apologised to my wife and workmates, got on an Intercity train, changed at York and found myself in Scarborough. It was autumn, and the place was dead. I found a cheap hotel room and unpacked my bag, concentrating on my Walkman. A few days before, a large parcel of Van Morrison reissues had arrived at the office. I’d brought half a dozen with me. The first into the machine was Hard Nose the Highway. I headed out and began walking along the seashore, the wind howling, while Van Morrison soothed me with the opening track, Snow in San Anselmo, conjuring a world of harmony, casual friendship and everyday miracles.

I didn’t know where San Anselmo was, but it sounded exotic. Van Morrison sang of an all-night pancake house, so I guessed California. Snow was a rarity there, yet it was falling, as the waitress explained to the narrator. The image conjured was of Edward Hopper’s painting Nighthawks, sleepless souls finding comfort and a kind of communion. Van Morrison seemed to be saying the world was full of possibility. I began to feel better, less stressed, revivified. Maybe out-of-season Scarborough also played its part — there wasn’t much more to do than take day-long walks. I was also thinking that it didn’t really matter whether my third book ever found a publisher; I could always try again. Snow in San Anselmo has been with me ever since. It takes me back to the rocky beach, the low autumn sun and gusts of ozone. It calms me, makes me smile, tells me to take things at my own pace.

Ian Rankin’s latest novel, The Naming of the Dead, is published by Orion

Van Records New Duet With Tom Jones

Tom Jones revealed at a recent concert that he has recorded a duet with Van that will be released as a single. It is a remake of Van's "Cry For Home" which Van originally recorded back in 1983. Van and Tom have also worked together in the past and did a duet of "Sometimes We Cry" which came out in 1999.

The Lost Waltz

News from The Band website of a new DVD, The Lost Waltz, may be of interest to Van fans because it includes footage of Van & the late Richard Manuel doing "Tura-Lura-Lural" which was not include in the official movie.

Manuel turned the piano over to John Simon, and began ‘Tura Lura,’ a song about an Irish lullaby; just as Manuel finished the first verse, Van Morrison made his entrance - and he turned the show round. I had seen him not many minutes before prowling the balconies, dressed nondescriptly in a shirt and jeans, scowling; but there he was on stage, in an absurd maroon suit and a green top, singing to the rafters. They cut into ‘Caravan’- with John Simon waving The Band’s volume up and down, and the horns at their most effective - while Van burned holes in the floor. He was magic, and I thought, Why didn’t he join The Band years ago? More than any other singer, he fit in, his music and theirs made sense together. It was a triumph, and as the song ended Van began to kick his leg in sheer exuberance, and he kicked his way right offstage like a Rockette. The crowd had given him a fine welcome and they cheered wildly when he left.
-Greil Marcus

Concert Review: York 07-Oct-06

Review: Van Morrison, The Barbican Centre, York VAN Morrison has a career that has spanned not only decades but generations, and on Saturday night at the Barbican it was clear to see why.

Without hesitation, Van The Man broke straight into his set, demonstrating exactly how a man born the son of a shipyard worker in 1945 took the influences of music from the likes of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, and made a genre all of his own, with tracks displaying major leanings towards R&B, soul and rock, many of which had a distinct taste of the South.

The performance was flawless, as Van and his band belted out hit after hit, including the classics In The Midnight, What Makes The Irish Heart Beat, Big Blue Diamonds and the amazing Back On Top.
continued...

Personally. I would have loved to have heard a track or two from Irish Heartbeats, especially Ta Mo Chleamhnas Deanta.

But Morrison can still get the audience whooping and dancing after four decades in the business, and Saturday night was no exception.

This was a highly-polished performance which is no less than you would expect from a man who has perfected his art in both America and Ireland.

The tracks that stood out were the timeless Moondance and no Van Morrison set would be complete without Brown Eyed Girl, a track which he closed on, and is as every bit as strong today as it was when he first recorded it in 1967 for his first solo album Blowin' Your Mind.

And that's exactly what he does, every time.

New Van Dates: Zaragoza, November 17 & 18th

Festival de Jazz 2006 Translated by google.
The Festival of Jazz 2006 will tell to east year with the presence of the
mythical musician Morrison, who will delight to the zaragozanos with his talent days 17 and 18 of November. The event will count, in addition, with important new features, like diverse complementary activities or the Jazz pa you, directed to inculcar to the children the liking by this type of music.

The festival will include nine concerts, that will take with the performanceof the pianista Herbie Hancock. In addition to Van Morrison, Aragoneseartists will act, like the group Left Margin or the guitarist MarianoConget. The pianista Chano Domínguez will act Thursday 9 of November. The entrances are worth of 15 to 55 euros and they will be possible to be acquired from Tuesday 17 of October in the tellers of Ibercaja, Fnac or in the ticket offices of the audience. There are 350 installments to a price of 100 euros.

Van's Cover of "Comfortably Numb" In Scorsese's "The Departed"

Movie Review: "The Departed" “The Departed” is entertaining and worth watching for the acting and suspense. But don’t expect any point to it or any easing off on profanity or violence right to the end.

One final note: in the soundtrack, and featured on the film’s trailers, is the seldom heard rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” performed by Van Morrison live at Roger Waters’ July 1900 “The Wall” concert in Berlin. The event drew half a million commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall at the same site seven months earlier. The film is almost worth the price of admission for that alone.

It is taken from this 1990 performance:

Van Sings "Comfortably Numb" in Berlin At Roger Water's "The Wall".