16-June-2014
Hampton Court Palace
 Surrey, England

Petra sent in her thoughts on the gig
The scenery could not have been more stunning: the courtyard of a medieval palace in Tudor style, formerly owned by King Henry VIII in the 16th century. Auditorium and stage of the open air gig surrounded by ancient brick walls with ancestral crests, moats, towers and chimneys, all effectfully illuminated. Prior to the concert, the beautiful palace gardens were opened to the public for picnics and strolling around. It was a cool summer night, with chilly gusts of wind, the sky overcast but luckily no rain.

At 8:15 pm Shana and Van’s band stepped on the stage: Paul Moran on keyboards and trumpet, Dave Keary on guitars, Chris White on saxophones and clarinet, Alistair White on trombone, Paul Moore on bass and Bobby Ruggiero on percussions. No Jeff Lardner tonight.

Shana did three solo songs before Van joined the musicians. She started with a lovely version of Van’s ‚Astral Weeks‘ classic, ‚Sweet Thing‘, followed by two of her own songs.

Then Van was there – pinstripe suit, trilby, ascot and a paisley pattern shirt. But he was wearing kind of a Barbour country-style jacket over it, olive colour with big pockets, what diminished his elegant attire a bit, but made sense, considering the ugly wind chill. Shuddering ourselves, we pitied the musicians on stage exposed to the cold wind.

Van began with the instrumental ‚Celtic Swing‘ on saxophone, followed by ‚Open The Door (To Your Heart)‘. Nothing special, so far ... But then the first surprise: ‚Higher Than The World‘ – one of the rare gems we like to hear. Next was ‚Rough God Goes Riding‘ with Shana joining him. Van changing the lyrics to ‚.. she gave me that toll-free number to call ..‘ made me smile.

Then I did not trust my ears – Van setting up „So Quiet In Here“ – one of my favorite songs I always longed to hear live ... A lovely version with Van singing: ‚... maybe maybe Baby – we can dream on, dream on ...‘

Before we could recover from this treat I thought all my dreams came true tonight: „Queen Of The Slipstream“, with a nice e-guitar solo by Dave and Van playing harp.

Now the dream faded for a while – Van took his cute little ukulele and went into joking mode: He mumbled: „Billy Connolly (a Scottish comedian) once said: ‚Van is very funny. Can you imagine this? Van is funny ...“ This brought a good laugh to the audience at Hampton Court.
Playing the ukulele, Van sang „Keep it Simple“. Not one of my favorites, but together with the relaxed mood a nice side trip. On it went with „Back On Top“ and „Magic Time“, not on my dream set list either, but decent versions with great sax and trombone solos by Chris, Alistair and Van himself.

„Sometimes We Cry“ was next by Van with Shana and Chris on the baritone sax.

„Whenever God Shines His Light“ is a song I am normally not particularly fond of. But tonight it was one of the highlights – it emitted great energy. Shana sang with Van, and Dave Keary played an absolutely stunning fade-out on the electric guitar. I could do with some more guitar solos in Van’s band ...

Now the „workshop“: „All In The Game“ passed into „You Know What They Are Writing About“. Great solos by the horn section – trumpet, trombone and baritone sax. Ending with „... make it real ... No plan B ... No safety net ... This is it ..“ So far familiar from previous gigs, but then Van mumbled „... right where you are, right where you are ..“, over and over again.

Back to well-known ground then: „Moondance“ ending with some notes of „My Funny Valentine“. A bit dreaded by most Van fans as heard a bit too often, but still a great version tonight with a beautiful upright bass solo. It seemed to me - maybe I was just in this mood because of the magic setting surrounding us – that each instrumental solo tonight sounded like new - sparkling and sophisticated.

„Enlightenment“ followed with Van on harp, lovely version.

Then another dream version: „In The Garden“. Nice solos from Dave on his acoustic guitar, Alistair on the trombone, Paul piano and Chris played the clarinet. An incredible ending from Van: He went into singing ‚... and your holy guardian angel, in the midnight hour ... and I pray to my guardian angel ... help me angel ... in the midnight hour ... in the WITCHING hour ... angel ... angel ...‘ Again and again, leaving us breathless and wanting a break. But no mercy – it went on:

The best „Ballerina“ version ever. OK, up to now, I thought the best version had been the one in Montreux 1980 with John Platania and Pee Wee Ellis ... And now this one. Van’s vocals were unusually intense tonight, followed by an unheard trombone solo by Alistair and likewise unusal sax solo by Chris. Lately, when Van was singing „Ballerina“ he moved into an uptempo mode, which matched the song but was miles away from the initial dreamy version. Tonight, Van found a completely new ending: he sang ‚... living on a lonely, lonely, lonely 22 storey block ...‘, over and over again. But then he went like, ‚... it’s so lonely up here, lonely at the top, in New York City ...‘ . ‚... you better buy your ticket and pay the price if you wanna come up ...‘ After a short break he adds: ‚... and see me sometimes‘. And everybody has a good laugh, understanding he means us now, the audience ... And suddenly I realize that it’s no longer the melody of „Ballerina“ but has become „Lonely At The Top“, one of bonus tracks of the remastered „No Guru No Method No Teacher“ album, a definitely lesser known title. But what an ingenious idea to combine it with Ballerina and the loneliness described there ...

Before we can recover from this tour de force, we hear the first notes of „Help Me“ and we sense, it’s all over soon ...

No „Gloria“, no „Brown Eyed Girl“, but some rare gems and absolute favorites of mine, and even the well-known ‚standards‘ sound great tonight.

After the show we met up with Nosey and Pat and compared our notes and impressions. Surprisingly, our notes were mostly identical and all of us thought that it was an absolutely brilliant concert, in my opinion the best we ever went to – big thanks to Van, Shana and the band !
-Petra Söllner

Setlist (Thanks Petra)
Celtic Swing
Open The Door (To Your Heart)
Higher Than The World
Rough God Goes Riding
So Quiet In Here
Queen Of The Slipstream
Keep It Simple
Back On Top
Magic Time
Sometimes We Cry
Whenever God Shines His Light
All In The Game  >  You Know What They Are Writing About  > 
Make It Real  >  No Plan B  > Right Where You Are
Moondance
Enlightenment
In The Garden
Ballerina > Lonely At The Top
Help Me

Big Hand for The Band!
Chris White (Saxophone)
Alistair White (Trombone)
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)