06-November-2017
Edinburgh Playhouse
 Edinburgh, Scotland

Brendan checks in with this report:
This was the first night of Van Morrison's UK tour to promote his Roll With The Punches album but as the setlist indicates this was predominantly a greatest hits show with just three songs off the new album performed. While the hits were efficiently performed as one would expect there were no surprises and nothing among them to excite the more dedicated fans.Thankfully there were several moments of real quality interspersed among the rest of the performance the first of which was Warm Love which Van sang with great gusto aided considerably by Dana Masters on vocals and also by the returning Tina Lyle also on vocals as well as percussion and xylophone. I Can Tell was very strong once more while How Far From God was pretty terrific and featured a great piano solo by Paul Moran which received considerable acclaim from the audience. Little Village got a rare outing and was very impressive while In The Midnight was a particularly good version. In The Afternoon was far and away the highlight once more with Van giving it the full treatment and repeating the line "keep on rocking if it feels good" over and over before "stretching out" and requesting his backing singers to confirm that he was"sitting pretty".It was quite magical. Van also performed a new composition called Broken Record off the forthcoming Versatile album and my initial thought on hearing it is that it is a very apt song title.

The concert finished rather disappointingly with three crowd pleasers in Whenever God Shines His Light,Brown Eyed Girl and unsurprisingly Gloria.
-Brendan Hynes

Setlist
Moondance
Warm Love
I Can Tell
Magic Time
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm/Don't Start Crying Now/Custard Pie
Here Comes The Night
Sometimes We Cry
How Far From God
Automobile Blues
Little Village
Days Like This
Precious Time
In The Afternoon
Cleaning Windows
Wild Night
In The Midnight
Broken Record
Whenever God Shines His Light
Brown Eyed Girl
Gloria


Set Time 1h 40m

Big Hand For The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards/Trumpet)
Mez Clough (Drums)
Teena Lyle (Percussion, Vocals)
Dana Masters (Vocals)