24-August-2014
Orangefield High School
Belfast, Northern Ireland
I have a confession to make. I'm not really sure it's a wise move to confess it in this newspaper, but here goes. I never really got Van Morrison. When I was young, I took the road signposted punk rock, garage and New York, stuff like Talking Heads and Velvet Underground plus a lot of reggae. R'n'B, Caledonian/Celtic soul and all that sort of thing was another musical highway heading in another direction.
When friends said Astral Weeks, I said White Light/White Heat in the sort of uncompromising, boneheaded arguments that the young have over music.
Coming to Northern Ireland, you have to be careful, though. Van is yours and, no matter how often he has failed to return your affection, that far-away look in your eye when his music is mentioned is a warning sign not to be flippant.
Certainly not to suggest in jest, as I did once, that if Van was playing in my back garden I'd pull the curtains and put on the snooker. People in this office have still not forgiven me for that.
But in recent times I have been fascinated by his story arc. He's given so much back to Belfast lately and gigged so often I think he might actually be due to play my back garden soon.
We'll never know why he's come back to us big-style, because he'll never tell us. But his co-operation with the new Mystic Of The East heritage trail, which takes us to The Hollow, Connswater River, Cyprus Avenue and all the places that formed him and figure in his songs is perhaps a sign that, as we get older, those of us who have spent much of our lives "getting away" at some point spiritually or physically long to return.
We begin to forgive home for the sins we attached to it, recognise that in our impetuous, grab-at-life youth we were partially to blame for our acrimonious separation and start to make our peace. And perhaps Van has now turned this life journey into one of the most artistically poignant performances we are likely to witness.
The chance to see this is why, together with hundreds of others, I am crammed into the plastic moulded chairs of our school-day nightmares as Van plays the last of his gigs at Orangefield School's assembly hall on Sunday night.
Surreal isn't really the word. The place is closing down almost before our eyes, the last pupils having left last term. The fixtures and fittings are being taken down. You half expect the doors to be removed from their hinges by the time you come to leave.
But here we are in the hall where the young Van probably sat dreaming of escape while the headmaster droned on up on the stage. Now we are in Van's place and he is up there. Except we do not take our eyes off him nor refrain from listening.
On the tiny stage he is delivering what might be one of the gigs of his life using a voice of such astonishing lustre and beauty it's like he's stolen it from a man half his age.
He doesn't really acknowledge us, but nobody expected him to. The songs, full of the loving references to this place and its surrounds, are moving even to this sceptic's ears.
Around us all is changing and soon, when the bulldozers come, this gig will join the ghosts of thousands of kids being ordered not to run in the corridors, in detentions, winning sports days, just vague outlines, hazy memories.
Sunday night's audience know how lucky they are to have such a chronicler for their small part of the world. Van's songs are timeless even as buildings are reduced to dust.
Would you still pull your curtains, my companion asks as we head out into the night? Probably not, I admit.
-Mike Gibson
Setlist (Thanks David K.)
Celtic Swing
Got To Go Back
Joyous Sound
Centrepiece
Orangefield
Magic Time
Someone Like You
Northern Muse
Whenever God
Cleaning Windows
Too Many Myths
Talk is Cheap
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm
Sometimes We Cry
Brown Eyed Girl
Precious Time
Enlightenment
Hyndford Street
Ballerina
In The Garden
Big Hand for The Band!
Chris White (Saxophone)
Alistair White (Trombone)
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Special Guest: Dana Masters (Vocals)
23-August-2014
Orangefield High School
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Brendan sent in his thought on the gig
This was the second night of Van Morrison’s three night stint at his old school and the only one of the three officially open to members of the general public who were not former pupils or teachers.With Van’s mother, Violet in attendance and sitting proudly up front to see her son bring it all back home this promised to be a night to remember and it certainly was that and more.
Opening as usual with the instrumental Celtic Swing, Van then drew one of the first of many rousing cheers from the audience as he referenced Orangefield during Got To Go Back. The aforementioned Orangefield song of the same name quickly followed and provided the first of many highlights on this night of nights. The song was particularly notable for the great brass arrangement and some particularly ferocious strumming of the electric guitar from Van mid way through which added to the sheer power of the delivery. Choppin Wood was delivered at a blistering pace before Van brought things to a slower tempo with the beautiful Someone Like You which featured guest backing vocalist Dana Masters singing a couple of verses with a voice as smooth as velvet. The up tempo Cleaning Windows was somewhat disjointed at first but the band pulled it back together so that it eventually sounded as one would hope and expect.A really nice Enlightenment followed with Van on harmonica before a nice surprise followed in Wonderful Remark during which the brass section really excelled. A very strong Retreat and View was followed by Moondance which was notable for a particularly nifty piece of bass playing by Paul Moore.Van then made his way to the piano and delivered a sublime Northern Muse(Solid Ground) which drew a rapturous audience reaction. Van had brought us into the sacred mystical territory that many of us love so much and he followed with a mesmeric Celtic Excavation/Into the Mystic. Van brought the band’s volume way way down as he repeated the phrases “turn around”and “hand on my shoulder”over and over to a hushed audience before bringing the song to it’s conclusion. Magic Time continued the mystical mood before a change of tempo saw Whenever God Shines His Light, Sometimes We Cry and Rough God Goes Riding (the Clint Eastwood impression must have bitten the dust tonight and did not feature) delivered in quick succession.All three songs featured Dana Masters trading vocals in fine style with Van. As the concert headed towards it’s climax Van delivered a strong That’s Life during which he started to giggle and somewhat distracted asking “where was I”which drew a response of “rolled up in a big ball”from some of the more helpful attendees. The song had a rather unorthodox conclusion with Van looking somewhat bemused by the band’s interpretation of how the ending should sound. Van then brought us on a communal journey way way back as he sang/read/chanted his way through On Hyndford Street before exiting the stage chanting and leaving the audience breathless. One sensed that this may the end but Van had other ideas and came back to finish us off with a final coup de grace which was manifested in a magnificent 13 minute In The Garden.When Van had thanked the band and left the stage we were treated to a series of virtuoso solos from the band members who were armed with the raw material of one of the most beautiful melodies ever written by Van or indeed any artist as the audience clapped along wildly. It was a fitting climax to a wonderful concert.
It was clear to the lucky 300 or so present that the young Ivan Morrison certainly learned a thing or two at Orangefield High School!
-Brendan Hynes
Setlist (Thanks Wim)
Celtic Swing
Got To Go Back
Orangefield
Choppin Wood
Someone Like You
Cleaning Windows
Enlightenment
Wonderful Remark
Retreat and View
Moondance
Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
Into The Mystic
Magic Time
Whenever God Shines His Light
Sometimes We Cry
Rough God Goes Riding
That's Life
On Hyndford Street
In The Garden
Big Hand for The Band!
Chris White (Saxophone)
Alistair White (Trombone)
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Special Guest: Dana Masters(Vocals)
22-August-2014
Orangefield High School
Belfast, Northern Ireland
With bottles of water and fizzy pop the only refreshments on offer and a curfew of 9.30pm in place, last night at the EastSide Arts Festival was a decidedly un-rock 'n' roll affair.
But that hadn't stopped a capacity crowd from shelling out £85 a head to see local legend Van Morrison.
The last time Morrison trod the boards of Orangefield High, he would have been ‘Van the Boy', but he returned every inch the conquering hero.
After the customary Celtic Swing intro had set the mood, the first words out of the singer's mouth were the opening lines of Got To Go Back.
“When I was a young boy back in Orangefield,” crooned the portly figure in black, “I used to look out my classroom window and dream.”
Morrison's dreams have certainly come true, and if his choice of setlist is to be taken at face value, he wouldn't change a thing.
“If I had to do it all over, I'd do the same thing again,” he sang on third song Only A Dream.
As for his erstwhile classmates and teachers, several hundred of them had crammed into the school's assembly hall.
The school’s closure is a shame on many levels, not least because the acoustics in the hall were better than those in many purpose-built music venues.
Every note Morrison and the band played was crystal clear, and the main man's vocals have rarely sounded better.
Needless to say, he was hardly Mr Chatty, but he did seem in good form, whether announcing a “comedy section” (“Billy Connolly said I was very, very, very, very funny”) or delivering an impromptu Clint Eastwood impression during Rough God Goes Riding.
Elsewhere, Morrison delighted with a string of hits including Moondance, Whenever God Shines His Light, Days Like This and Brown Eyed Girl.
The highlight of the evening was arguably the 1999 track Precious Time.
The sentiment of the lyrics (“It doesn't matter to which God you pray/Precious time is slipping away”) took on a deeper resonance given the occasion.
Now in his late sixties, it's clear Morrison has fallen in love with his home country all over again. The star has played everywhere from the Harp Bar to Dunluce Castle over the past few years, and he's booked for two nights at the Europa Hotel in October. But for sheer nostalgia and cultural significance, nothing is likely to top last night's school reunion at Orangefield.
-Andrew Johnston
Setlist (Thanks Wim)
Celtic Swing
Got To Go Back
Only A Dream
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm
Back On Top
Someone Like You
Symphony Sid
Moondance/My Funny Valentine
Who Can I Turn To?
Open The Door (To Your Heart)
Keep It Simple
Days Like This
Whenever God Shines His Light
Real Real Gone/You Send Me
Pecious Time
I Can't Stop Loving You
Rough God Goes Riding
Orangefield
Brown Eyed Girl
Help Me
Ballerina
Big Hand for The Band!
Chris White (Saxophone)
Alistair White (Trombone)
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards)
Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)
Special Guest: Dana Masters(Vocals)
03-August-2014
Cambridge Folk Festival
Cambridge, England
Brendan sent in this review
Not being a fan of open air festival concerts largely attended by inebriated talkative audiences,I travelled to Cambridge with no great expectations that this would be any different and it wasn't really despite Van Morrison's best efforts.Starting with Celtic Swing,Van then performed a really nice Little Village before a strong Whenever God Shines His Light brought the crowd to life in a big way.The first real high point followed with Someone Like You being delivered beautifully for the second time in a week after so many years exclusion from set lists.Unfortunately it's delivery also coincided with an outbreak of loud talking and laughing from a particular group of typical festival attendees who were very annoyed at being asked to keep quiet.I really wish these people would stay out at the bar or better still stay at home altogether and let the music lovers enjoy the show in peace!Next up was the highlight of the show for me with a fantastic rendition of Queen of the Slipstream with Van's vocals being complemented beautifully by Shana Morrison's singing.Van brought the band and indeed the audience into overdrive with a thunderous Baby Please Don't Go/Parchment Farm which nearly brought the tent down.Van then informed us that because it was a folk festival he thought he had better play a folk song so he play Dead or Alive which didn't do much much for me I have to say.Normal business was quickly resumed when Enlightenment followed with nice harmonica from Van and a solid version of Rough God Goes Riding but without the infamous Clint Eastwood impression.This left me wondering if Van may be working on some new impressions which he may unleash on us shortly,particularly now that he has discovered that Billy Connolly thinks he is very funny.
At this point the concert went off in a different direction and in footballing parlance it was the classic concert of two halves.We were now transported very much into festival set territory with Playhouse,Days Like This,Moondance,Precious Time(which went down a storm prompting Van to shout "One more time"before leading another chorus)and Real Real Gone merging with You Send Me being delivered in quick succession.I Can't Stop Loving You brought some respite although Shana's vocal contribution midway through was almost totally drowned out by the noisy chattering masses before Van returned to the microphone with a thunderous vocal performance to counteract the audience noise.The inevitable Brown Eyed Girl(ouch!)followed with the singalong crowd in their element.The concert was nearing it's conclusion now and after Help Me was delivered Van thanked the band and left the stage before quickly returning to deliver Gloria.It looked like a fairly predictable ending but there was a surprise in store when Van left the stage as the band cut loose on a 5 minute James Brown style funk routine which was quite magnificent and breathed new life into the standard set closer.
As festival shows go this was one of the better ones but the behaviour of the audiences at such shows continues to be a source of huge annoyance which detracts from the enjoyment for real music lovers and leads artists like Van into tailoring their sets accordingly.
-Brendan Hynes
Setlist
Celtic Swing
Little Village
Whenever God Shines His Light
Someone Like You
Queen of the Slipstream
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchment Farm
Dead or Alive
Enlightenment
Rough God Goes Riding
Playhouse
Days Like This
Moondance
Precious Time
Real Real Gone/You Send Me
I Can't Stop Loving You
Brown Eyed Girl
Help Me
Gloria
