21-Jun-09 Cardiff Concert Review
South Wales Argus
THE great man was in great form, as was his superb band of highly accomplished musicians.

Sporting his trademark suit, hat and shades, Morrison joined in on piano, saxophone, guitar and harmonica.

There were the old standard crowd-pleasing favourites like Brown Eyed Girl, Moondance, Gloria and Georgia On My Mind.

But where Morrison really came into his own was with more compositions that fuse blues, jazz and Celtic tinges, some of his music is achingly beautiful. He and his band played straight through for an hour and a half without a break to a packed Wales Millennium Centre.

Numbers like In The Garden, The Philosopher's Stone and Heavy Connection were sublimely played and went down a storm.

Van the Man doesn't do audience banter. He and his musicians just let the music do the talking.
-Iwan Davies

Correspondent Mike's report:

Yesterday in Cardiff was a moving experience in a number of ways. Coming off the first show in my previous post I sent some minor disappointment what with the return to the 90 minute format and no Astral Weeks to be found. When I awoke this morning after show two in Cardiff at a magnificent new facility that had tremendous sound
quality (you could hear a pin drop...) I've come away as we all do - wanting and waiting for more. Here's why. My first thought as I rose was that I needed to re-connect to "Veedon Fleece", another of the storied Van classic albums that
keeps coming up along with Astral Weeks as most celebrated, though never selling terribly well and perhaps under appreciated. Since Van is obviously listening to the comments (thank you Johnny G) and perhaps noting that this album is often referred to in a similar vein by we purists as Astral Weeks -- he continued to mine his gold over these past two nights and all I wanted to do was listen again to that album which I did and it was stunning. I've listened twice since early this morning. So Van did his magic, moving off the Astral Weeks train to a new platform and it appeared that we are on another grand non-stop train. Fair Play led off straight away out of both nights following the opening - Van on piano, growling Northern Muse/Solid Ground, lofts into Moondance and then.... real magic. Fair Play was just stunning again and the flair that Jay Berliner lent with Van coaxing him further on ("Yeah, yeah....") -- we've witnessed that exchange in Astral Weeks sets and it's very clear that Van is enjoying his time on stage with Mr. Berliner. It just builds from there and while you may have heard the two setlists by now, in night two we had some very special additions including Streets of Arklow from that same album but rather than Ned's harmonica, it was Jay and Tony and Paul that helped build it and it was magnificent to hear.

Over the two nights we heard some classics from the vault and now that
I've been able to step away from the Astral Weeks phenom, and while I'd still love to see that again (and it's rumoured) in August... Van did as he does and
reminds us why we keep coming back. He takes us back...way way way back and reinvents the music that propels us all forward to the next gig. I'm on that train & now much as I hate to rush the summer, August can't come soon enough. Here's what we got over two nights, in no particular order:

Solid Ground
Foreign Window
In the Garden
Fair Play
Streets of Arklow
Alan Watts Blues (one of MY all-time favs and Paul Moran was spectacular on piano)
Leaves Come Falling Down
The Mystery
Healing Has Begun
Have I Told You Lately
Philosophers Stone
Queen Of The Slipstream
So Quiet In Here
All In The Game
Georgia
Magic Time
Moondance
Brown Eyed Girl(oops - how'd that get in there?)
Mystic Eyes/Gloria.

Now, that's a dream set list if ever there were one and I know some are probably thinking of their own dream tunes to include.
All I might say is that when you wish upon a star....or whatever it is
that you might wish upon (my wife comes to mind...) Whoever thought we'd get Astral Weeks cover to cover. Now that Veedon Fleece is in the mix, No Guru is back after a decade of absence --- hard to know what lies ahead but suffice to say, this briiliant train continues rolling and we're along for a great ride.
-Mike

Setlist:
Northern muse (Solid Ground)
Moondance
Fair Play
Foreign window
It's All In The Game/You Know What They're Writing About
Allan Watts Blues
The Mystery
When The Leaves Come Falling Down
In The Garden
Streets of Arklow
Philosopher's Stone
Georgia
And The Healing Has Begun
So Quiet In Here
Brown-Eyed Girl
Mystic Eyes/Gloria

Big Hand For The Band!
Paul Moran
Richie Buckley
Tony Fitzgibbon
Bobby Ruggiero
David Hayes
Jay Berliner
Sarah Jory

Thanks to Ivo & Bern for setlist!