28-October-2014
Royal Albert Hall
 London, England

Van Morrison at Royal Albert Hall,London-28th October, 2014

Van Morrison returned to the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday night to do his third Bluesfest headline concert in just under two and a half years to another capacity audience. Opening as usual with Celtic Swing, Van then followed with a very jazzy Lost John, If You Only Knew and Talk is Cheap before introducing as his guest the one and only Georgie Fame.I thought he would do his party piece Vanlose Stairway duet with Van but alas it was not to be and instead we got New Symphony Sid which is a poor substitute. This had been a pretty mundane start to the show and I was fearing the worst but happily there was much better to come starting with a stirring cover of John Lee Hooker's Think Twice Before You Ago. Sometimes We Cry was powerfully delivered aided in no small measure by Dana Masters on shared vocals.A thunderous Baby Please Don't Go was combined with Parchman Farm and Don't Stop Crying Now to really up the tempo.Rough God Goes Riding was a real highlight, not only because it was a particularly good version, but also because it featured Van doing impressions of Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cary Grant and Clint Eastwood .The Joe Pesci one was particularly good and Van delivered it with such gusto that it left me wondering if he may have aspirations of achieving an Oscar nomination sometime in the future to go with all his music awards. A jazzy Back on Top followed but I have to say that I don't think this arrangement matches the original one. The magnificent Queen of the Slipstream followed and was quite breath taking. The audience cheered wildly after this one and were clearly pretty ecstatic. Whenever God Shines His Light followed and again featured Dana Masters prominently on vocals. I Can't Stop Loving You was followed by a really good version of Real Real Gone which finished with You Send Me featuring the brass section and Dana on vocals to great effect. Next up was All In The Game which Van told us had been recorded by hundreds of artists but not like this. How right he is as this is one cover version by Van that I never tire of hearing as he has really made the song his own and no other version even comes close to matching his.We again got an extended 12 minute version with Van really getting into it and bringing us to the burning ground but no mention of safety nets this time though. Van departed the stage at this point but not to the ecstatic response one might normally expect. Judging by the looks of astonishment on people's faces it was because they couldn't believe the concert could possibly be coming to an end at 8.50 pm which is perfectly understandable as most people going to a concert don't expect to be going home around 9.00 pm and most of the other Bluesfest concerts had scheduled finishing times of 11.00pm. Mercifully Van returned twice to deliver Boogie Chillen, Help Me/Lonely Avenue and the always welcome Ballerina but it was all over far too quickly which resulted in quite a lot of adverse comment afterwards.

One very surprising fact which emerged from this concert is that, when account is taken of the full songs and segments of songs done on the night, half of them were not written by Van but were covers of other peoples work. In the context of the recent publication of Lit Up Inside featuring Van's lyrics it is somewhat ironic that he would choose to spend half the concert doing cover versions of other people's work to the exclusion of so many brilliant songs from his own repertoire which never get an airing(Madame George, When The Healing Has Begun,The Healing Game, Streets of Arklow, Troubadors and St. Dominics's Preview being just a few examples) and which are vastly superior to most of the songs by others that he regularly includes.

In summary, this concert had moments of high quality with Van clearly in great form and the band excellent as usual but the chosen set list largely dictates the real quality of a Van Morrison concert and this one was quite lacking given that the vast majority of the most brilliant songs Van has written were not played which is a real pity as their inclusion would undoubtedly elevate his concerts to heights that few artists could even come close to matching.
-Brendan Hynes

Setlist
Celtic Swing
Lost John
Talk is Cheap
If You Only Knew
The New Symphony Sid (w/Georgie Fame)
Think Twice Before You Go
Sometimes We Cry
Baby Please Don’t Go
Rough God Goes Riding
Back On Top
Queen of the Slipstream
Enlightenment
Whenever God Shines His Light
I Can’t Stop Loving You
Real Real Gone
All in the Game
Boogie Chillen’
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)
Dana Masters (Vocals)