Astral Weeks Live At The Hollywood Bowl
Van Talked To Rolling Stone About Returning To Astral Weeks
Excellent L.A. Weekly Interview With Van
Read Van's Q&A On 'Astral Weeks' With L.A. Times
Read Here On Why Astral Weeks May Be The Best Album Ever Made
Special Announcement from vanmorrison.com:
MUSIC LEGEND VAN MORRISON TO CLOSE OUT HOLLYWOOD BOWL 2008 SEASON WITH "ASTRAL WEEKS LIVE" IN NOVEMBER
Hollywood, CA. - Multi-award winning musical legend Van Morrison will take to the Los Angeles concert stage for "Astral Weeks Live" at the Hollywood Bowl on November 7 and 8, closing out the 2008 season of the famous venue. Van Morrison has over 150 songs featured in major motion pictures--with the latest being featured in the Scorsese film "The Departed". Tickets for the concerts go on sale 10 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 5, with Citi pre-sales beginning 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1 through 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4.
While the first half of the show features Morrison and his band playing the timeless classics that have made him a legend, the second half is a breathtaking cover to cover recreation of the "Astral Weeks" album. The Astral Weeks band will be a different line up and include band members from the original sessions. The seminal astral weeks recordings established Van Morrison as a great solo artist and has consequentially changed the face of music.
"This is a welcomed opportunity for me to perform these songs the way I originally intended them to be," says Morrison. "It's about the world of creation and of the imagination: That is what a song is, a little movie with melodies and music built around it, poetry in moving pictures in the mind…In the 60's and 70's the record companies did not support the music, so I never got to take these songs on tour, and I certainly did not have the money to do it. These songs are as timeless and fresh right now as the day they were written and I am happy about taking them to the Hollywood Bowl."
"Astral Weeks" is timeless music from the soul. It is ranked the #2 greatest album of all time in the Mojo list, and it ranks #19 in Rolling Stone. Britain's The Times lists it #3 in its all-time rankings. Morrison has said the album was "a little about Belfast, but it has never been about any person or thing as these works are channeled works of the imagination.. the keyword being work.. it was a lot of hard work"
The November concerts will be recorded live for the upcoming album "Astral Weeks Live At The Hollywood Bowl." This album will be released on Morrison's new label, Listen To The Lion Records, scheduled for LP / vinyl release in time for Christmas 2008, followed by a CD release in January.
For the concerts, Morrison will be joined by a band that includes world-class musicians including band-leader / pianist Roger Kellaway (former band leader of Bobby Darrin) and guitarist John Platania who has played with Morrison since 1970. Other members, guitarist Jay Berliner and bassist Richard Davis, played with Morrison on the original "Astral Weeks" sessions 40 years ago.
Set 1 -Classic VM Material
The Band:
Van Morrison - Musical Arranger / Director, Guitar, Saxophone, Harmonica, the Lion and Vocals
Roger Kellaway - former Music Director for the late great Bobby Darrin is the Straw Boss and on piano
John Platania - from Van Morrison bands 1970 to present, on Lead Guitar
David Hayes - from Van Morrison bands, 1973 to present on Bass
Paul Moran - on Organ and Trumpet
Rick Schlosser - on Drums
Richard Buckley- on Flute and Saxophones
Tony Fitzgibbon - on Violin / Viola
Set 2- Astral Weeks Live, cover to cover
The Band:
Van Morrison - on Guitar and is The Poet, The Sorcerer and The Arranger
Roger Kellaway - former leader of the late great Bobby Darrin Band and is the Straw Boss for the band and on Piano
Jay Berliner - Guitar - Original Astral Weeks band member
Richard Davis - Bass - Original Astral Weeks band member
Bobby Ruggiero - takes the place of the late great Connie Kaye on Drums
Richard Buckley - from The Common One Band is on Flute
Paul Moran - on Organ and Harpsichord
Tony Fitzgibbon - on Violin (And Possibly Viola)
The string section for both bands is to be announced.
Variety:
The Hollywood Bowl was where the complete "Pet Sounds" concept was birthed,making it a suitable home for Van Morison to revisit "Astral Weeks."
Morrison will perform "Astral Weeks," his 1968 solo album, at the Hollywood Bowl with a band featuring the musicians who appeared on the landmark album. Morrison used a rhythm section of jazz players on the album, among them the great bassist Richard Davis who's now 78.
This event, being held Nov. 7 and 8, is being recorded for an “Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl” DVD. Like Brian Wilson did with "Pet Sounds," it's likely a tour of the work will follow.
-Phil Gallo
07-Nov-08 Los Angeles, USA - Hollywood Bowl
08-Nov-08 Los Angeles, USA - Hollywood Bowl
14 comments:
wow, that's extremely exciting. i can't imagine Van doing an "Astral Weeks" tour though.
Can Richard Davis handle the upright at age 78?
Any word on the 3rd batch of re-releases which was supposed to happen this week...and didn't?
Richard Davis handle the upright pretty well when he appeared on stage with Bruce sprinsteen earlier this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gnWNO0l-y4
THERE IS NO TOUR --- JUST 2 SHOWS ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD....
I WISH THERE WERE MORE SHOWS OF THIS --- BUT I UNDERSTAND WITH 2 BANDS 2 SETS --- THAT TAKES A LOT OF 'DOING'
VM IS DOING A **VINYL LP OF ASTRAL WEEKS** IN SURROUND SOUND OR 7 WAY SOUND...RECORDED LIVE IN HOLLYWOOD...\\ THE LP RECORD WILL BE AVAILABLE BEFORE CHRISTMAS W/ "ASTRAL WEEK LIVE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL" CD FOLLOWING THE `LP `RECORD RELEASE, IN JANUARY...
HE IS NOT DOING JUST A 'DVD'... THATS LATER ON... THIS IS TO RECORD THE RECORD AND DO THE SONGS COVER TO COVER LIVE FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN FRONT OF A LIVE AUDIENCE...
PS RICHARD DAVIS KICKS MAJOR ASS ON THE BASS- JUST LIKE OLD TIMES
3RD BATCH ISN'T HAPPENING...
TAKE CARE
MADAME GEORGE
Looks like 3rd batch of re-releases will be in January 2009.
Hi everybody! First I'd like to say that I'm very happy that I bumped into this web site, as I found out about this performance and I will be there on the 7th!!! Driving all the way from San Jose...6 hours..
Does anybody know if it is possible to meet him after the show to get an autograph or a photo? This is a long time dream of mine. Thanks guys & Gals, Judy
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2008/10/van-morrisons-f.html
I found a van morrison interview from today!!! =D
No chance to meet him...as always!!!
I am a fan who has been to 3 VM concerts and not one of them has he performed moon dance , brown eyed girl or domino let alone tupelo honey or some of my other favorites . Browesing through set list on this site I see he plays the hits quite a bit . I always believed him to be more of an artsy musician of the likes of a ricki lee jones . I am attending friday nights show at the hollywood. Bowland was wondering if any chance he may play some of these songs . I wouls be thirled ! Does anyone out there in cyberspace have a crystal ball ?
I attended the first concert at Hollywood Bowl. Van is magic but the sound was so disappointing. It started very low, you can barely hear anything. The folks start to scream “turn it up” for the first 3 songs. After that the sound came up a little, but still far away from a real concert…
I went to the Bowl show too. The sound was too low for the people in the back - I was up close. They did fix it though. All in all, I was happy to see Van, but the show was very sloppy. I doubt they will use much from this show. Lots of feedback from the Mikes, Van began singing too early in some of the songs, etc. Ballerina was probably the only song he nailed. It was nice to hear stuff like Angeliou, Troubadours...lots of stuff from Into the Music and St Dominics Preview. Saturday night's show will be beter. They only sold 5000 for Fri and 7000 for the second night, I was told. They blocked off all of the back sections by using fake plants. I was told this was for the filming.
Saw Van last night in Waterbury CT (Palace Theatre).
A good show but very, very short. Apparently a warm-up for the New York show and those to follow. He probably booked out right after the show to spend the night in a decent NYC hotel.
Band was very, very tight but Van just sped along. A short encore of Gloria which Van ditched mid-way.
But he performed well enough especially on the Astral Weeks material. Cyprus Avenue was a real highlight followed by MG and TWYLD.
A real treat to see Jay Berliner, original AW guitarist play live. He sat through the whole performance but was not lying down on the axe. Drummer, Violinist and Bassist all excelled too although none of the instrumentalists lagged.
Very expensive, very short but for me worth it.
But many in the crowd who were not familiar with AW felt ripped off. Hey there's a reason it's in the tour title!
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