28-October-2018
3Arena
Dublin, Ireland

Brendan reports from Dublin
Van Morrison and Robert Plant at 3 Arena, Dublin, 28th October 2018
This Bluesfest show brought together two genuine music legends on the one bill and they did not disappoint a near capacity audience in what is a very large arena venue.

Van kicked off proceedings with a lively How Far From God which was followed by Days Like This and the fast version of Have I Told You Lately. The usual Baby Please Dont Go medley only included Don't Start Crying Now tonight and was quickly followed by Here Comes The Night. Symphony Sid unsurprisingly made another appearance and Dana Masters excelled on joint vocals to considerable audience acclaim and also on Sometimes We Cry which followed. Real Real Gone raised the tempo before a very strong Carrying A Torch featured both Van and Dana sharing impressive vocals. Talk Is Cheap was followed by the always promising sight of Van strapping on his electric guitar as he treated us to a nice version of Why Must I Always Explain although I would have welcomed a longer finishing guitar solo from Van. Moondance saw Paul Moore being accompanied by an audience clap- along during a strong bass solo before Broken Record had another outing.Van looked very pleased at the audience reaction to the numerous repeated song title references but his good humour unfortunately didn't last beyond the next song which saw the return to the set of Not Feeling It Anymore. Van was clearly unhappy with the band performance of this song or at least how it was sounding to him and stopped the band after about one verse before starting it again which isn't the most impressive of sights. Van was clearly still unhappy and we had the sight of one of his crew members being beckoned on stage a few times and running around the stage much to the amusement of many in the audience. This brought back memories of a similar occurrence In York back in February 2012 but at least this time the song was concluded although it was a pretty short version which didn't really do it justice. Wild Night and Think Twice Before You Go saw the tempo raised again and were followed by Whenever God Shines His Light and The Party's Over. A majestic and extended In The Afternoon was the clear highlight for me and got the full Van treatment which included 'picking up the sack in the midday sun' and Van reciting over and over the phrase "walking and talking with my God and your God" towards the song's ending. Brown Eyed Girl was a clear indication that the end of the set was imminent and it was followed by Help Me with the band thundering along with Van and finally the encore of Gloria which saw the audience in full voice. There was no extended band jam session presumably due to the time constraints of the double bill.

Robert Plant's set consisted of a mixture of his solo work, re-workings of really old blues songs and classic Led Zeppelin material (played with a bit of a twist).Of the blues material, Gallow's Pole which Leadbelly brought to prominence before Led Zeppelin re-interpreted it many years later and Fixin' To Die were particularly impressive with the latter featuring some remarkable guitar work by Justin Adams at its core. Led Zeppelin songs featured included Ramble On, Black Dog, Going To California and finally Whole Lotta Love. It seems impossible that a 70 year old could sing with the incredible power and clarity displayed by Robert Plant and if there has even been a better male rock vocalist I have yet to hear him. He is a phenomenon!

The entire show ran to just over 3 hours and while a collaboration between both artists would have been nice it was nevertheless a really fine evening's entertainment aided in no small part by a great sound system which complemented the vocals of both perfectly.
-Brendan Hynes

Independent
There was a ‘whole lotta love’ at Blues Fest last night.

To my surprise, there is one man who unites the north and south of Ireland, with tremendous applause. Every seat was occupied before 7.30pm and I was surrounded by the northern lilt of all the fans who travelled across ‘no border’ to see Van the Man in Dublin.

Not that Van Morrison needs a review, but here goes. Everything went perfectly well, just a few seconds of feedback which he dealt with efficiently. Poised in his gangster style sparkly pinstripe suit and trilby, his throaty vibe had the audience hooked from ‘Days Like This.’

What really sparked the evening was his duets with Dana Masters, sounding like Aretha Franklin, crooning ‘Sometimes We Cry’ and ‘Jumpin’ with Symphony Sid.’ The glittery vibes of xylophone and Cuban style hand drums came from Teena Morcombe [flashing her tiara].

As someone who has never seen Van Morrison live, I found that the timbre of his voice has not changed from decades ago when we were all into ‘Tupelo Honey’. During the interval a N.I. woman turned to me and said she was speechless. ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘That was the best I’ve ever seen.’ She had been to multiple concerts, and apparently Van was at this most content last night. Times change for everyone.

Paul Moran on piano and Hammond organ made the gospel jazz sound impeccable. The combination of trumpet and sax players, Dave Keary on guitar, Paul Moore on bass, Mez Clough on drums gave a real Rat Pack sound to songs converted from rock to jazz, like ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, ‘Real Real Gone’. Van gave us 23 songs, the biggest cheer came for ‘Moondance’ and he thrilled the audience with several encores and music from his new studio album ‘You’re Driving Me Crazy’, which is released next month.

The Dublin Blues Fest is dovetailed with the London Blues Fest and we were here to see two men in their [early] seventies who had played at the O2 the night before. It had been 50 years since Robert Plant first shared the stage with Van Morrison, and here they were lighting up Dublin. The very fit and curly-haired Plant took to the stage in a burgundy silk shirt and long legged leather trousers, rocking the arena, with ‘Ramble it On’ and shouting ‘C’mon Dublin, ‘Turn it Up.’

In respect for the band, many men in the audience turned up in long ponytails and beards, particularly pairing with Skin Tyson who performed an amazing combination of finger picking acoustic and Spanish classic guitar.

Though Robert Plant is best known for his Led Zeppelin era, he says he is influenced by black America, and cited Buck White, Sonny Boy Williams, Lead Belly and many others as his inspiration. The group on stage, known as The Sensational Shape Shifters combine legendary Led Zeppelin numbers with Plant’s creative interest in immigrant communities.

The group has been evolving for 18 years, playing a combination of African tribal sound, Asian sitar-sounding guitar riffs, classic rock and some folk-like tunes. Last night they included keyboardist John Baggott (Massive Attack), drummer John Blease, bassist Billy Fuller, guitarist Justin Adams, and country fiddle with Seth Lakeman, with a setlist including Black Dog, May Queen, Rain Song, California, Gallows Pole, Carry Fire, Babe, Little Maggie, Fixin’ to Die, Levees, New World, and of course ‘Whole Lotta Love.’

Both Blues Fest performances were like poetry in motion, art of the guitar, art of the musician, art of the frontman.
-Deirdre Conroy

Setlist (Thanks John C.)
How Far From God
Days Like This
Have I Told You Lately (fast version)
Baby Please Don't Go/Don't Start Crying Now
Here Comes The Night
Symphony Sid
Sometimes We Cry
Real Real Gone
Carrying A Torch
Talk Is Cheap
Why Must I Always Explain
Moondance
Broken Record
Not Feeling It Anymore
Wild Night
Think Twice Before You Go
Whenever God Shines His Light
The Party's Over
In The Afternoon
Brown Eyed Girl
Help Me
Gloria

Set Time
90 minutes

22-October-2018
Bristol Hippodrome 
Bristol, England

via Fumiko I.

Brendan was in Bristol for the gig
Van Morrison at Bristol Hippodrome, 22nd October 2018
Tonight's show followed a similar pattern to the recent UK shows in that it started at a very brisk pace and with a broadly similar set of opening numbers with the exception of the inclusion of All Saints Day on this occasion. The Baby Please Don't Go routine saw the return of Got My Mojo Working complete with Van's comedic mumbling and stuttering of the word Mojo. Van also signalled a couple of times with his right hand for the sound of Dana Masters vocals to be turned up and it had the desired effect as her vocal input was very prominent thereafter. I Can Tell followed immediately and was really good with the band firing on all cylinders. Moondance was followed by Steal My Heart Away which included beautiful trumpet playing throughout by Paul Moran and a short piano solo by Teena Lyle on her own small piano. This got me thinking at the time that perhaps Teena could cover for Paul Moran on piano every time he has to jump up to do a trumpet solo but on reflection the question then arises as to who would cover for Teena on percussion and vibraphone while she is covering for Paul on piano so where would it all end? Symphony Sid seems to be always lurking and swung into action at this stage followed by Broken Record which by my calculation included 28 song title references in its latter stages and a really clever loud scraping percussion sound throughout by Teena. I Believe To My Soul was very strong and was followed by a couple of 'hits' in Wild Night and Days Like This. Cleaning Windows went down well with the audience but suffers for me from the absence of its integral brass section sound.All In The Game was the highlight for me as Van took it right down and gave it the workshop treatment while reminding us that there is No Plan B, No Safety Net and This Is It (and for a certain USA based Van fan who likes to keep count Van uttered the word "caress" ten times during the song by my calculation). Think Twice Before You Go increased the tempo considerably before The Party's Over slowed proceedings down again. The opening notes of Help Me indicated that the end was nigh and it was followed in quick succession by a couple of 'hits' in Jackie Wilson Said and Brown Eyed Girl before Van briefly departed only to return one more time for Gloria which saw Dana get the loudest ovation during the band's jam session.

A rather extraordinary statistic from the concert is that out of a total of twenty four songs performed exactly half were cover versions of mainly jazz and blues material by other artists. It's not as if Van has any shortage of high quality material of his own to draw upon but for whatever reason he has largely not done so of late and those of his own songs which are performed tend to be primarily the three to four minute 'radio hits' so the really special moments one always hopes for and indeed expects at a Van Morrison concert are currently in pretty short supply unfortunately.
-Brendan Hynes

Bristol Post
Review: Van Morrison at Bristol Hippodrome - legend excels ahead of Bluesfest performance
Morrison brings his many different styles to Bristol

Even his most ardent fans never really know which Van Morrison will turn up for what are now becoming annual Bristol concerts.

One year it might be Morrison the soulster, the next it could be a performance based around his more mystic, transcendental music. And then there’s Van the jazz man and the blues master.

What we got at this sell-out Hippodrome show was essentially all the different faces of Morrison rolled into one, although the emphasis was more on the jazz and blues, possibly because he was warming up for a headline Bluesfest performance with Robert Plant at London’s 02 later in the week.

Morrison was clearly eager to crack on with things, walking on stage a couple of minutes before the scheduled 8pm start as many fans were still finding their seats in the darkness.

Morrison’s forthcoming new album, The Prophet Speaks, is his fourth in just over a year and his 40th studio album in a career that spans more than half a century. At 73, he’s as prolific as ever and not in the mood to waste time.

Ever the contrarian, he stuck to his back catalogue rather than preview new material, the evening starting at a leisurely pace as Morrison and his six-piece band cruised through crowd-pleasers like Magic Time and Have I Told You Lately.

Dressed in a pinstripe suit and with his wide-brimmed hat and aviator sunglasses covering his face, the 73-year-old singer may resemble a Prohibition gangster but his voice recalls the New Orleans jazzmen and ageing blues singers he was first inspired by.

A master of improvised scat singing, he uses his versatile voice as an extra instrument as he growls and yodels sections of certain songs.

Morrison switched from his gold-plated saxophone to his harmonica, blowing the instrument like a train for the opening railroad-style strains of Baby, Please Don’t Go, the 1964 Them classic with one of the most recognisable intros in pop history.

He also drilled deep into his solo career for Moondance from 1970 and Wild Night from the following year.

Morrison barely drew breath between songs as he shoehorned as many favourites into the 100-minute set: a spritely Cleaning Windows morphed into the Gene Vincent classic Be-Bop-a-Lula and it was followed by Days Like This, Broken Record, Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile) and a stand-out reworking of All In The Game with its mesmerising refrain of ‘no safety net, no plan B’.

As always, the curmudgeonly Morrison barely said a word, other than a mumbled ‘thanks’ but fans, many of whom paid £85 for tickets, were eventually rewarded with Brown-Eyed Girl and an encore of Gloria that saw the house lights being turned on and Morrison indulging in some rare ‘call and response’ with his audience. At one point he may have even smiled.

By 9.30pm, Morrison had left the stage, his superb band staying for another ten minutes to finish an extended version of Gloria, complete with brilliant individual solos.

He may not have stuck around to see the standing ovation or to milk the applause but Morrison’s work was clearly done.
-Mark Taylor

Setlist
Let's Get Lost
All Saints Day
How Far From God
Magic Time
Have I Told You Lately (fast version)
Baby Please Don't Go/Don't Start Crying Now/Got My Mojo Working
I Can Tell
Moondance
Steal My Heart Away
Symphony Sid
Broken Record
I Believe To My Soul
Wild Night
Days Like This
Cleaning Windows
All In The Game
Think Twice Before You Go
The Party's Over
Help Me
Jackie Wilson Said
Brown Eyed Girl
Gloria

Set Time
1h 40m (Van on stage 1h 30m)

17-October-2018
Princess Theatre 
Torquay, England

Brendan's take on night 2 in Torquay
Van Morrison at Princess Theatre,Torquay - 17th October 2018
The second show started with two different songs to those which started the previous night's show in Let's Get Lost and Benediction. The next five songs overlapped with the previous show with How Far From God,Magic Time (a really good version with lovely guitar and trumpet solos), Have I Told You Lately, Baby Please Don't Go medley and Here Comes The Night following in quick succession. Cleaning Windows was well performed and was very well received. Van then announced that the next song was being played as it had been requested earlier (by long time Van fan Pat Corley aided in no small measure by Nell who had travelled all the way from Australia and had approached Van in her role as co-ordinator with the song request and some others put together by co-conspirators Jane and Corinne). This turned out to be When the Leaves Come Falling Down and it was quite exquisite and altered the whole mood and direction of the show. The brilliant Tore Down A la Rimbaud followed to great acclaim before Van kindly acceded to a second of the requests (Corrine's) in the form of Little Village which was really good and featured a great trumpet solo by Paul Moran. Just when the gates to mystical heaven seemed to be opening Symphony Sid arrived on cue to bring some order to proceedings. Bring It on Home To Me was very strong and was followed by Ride On Josephine. The most welcome Steal My Heart Away made another appearance and featured a lovely trumpet solo again by Paul Moran.Days Like This was followed by Enlightenment, Broken Record (still stuck on 29)and Moondance. A really good Carrying A Torch featured Dana Masters prominently on shared vocals. Whenever God Shines His Light included a really good bass solo by Paul Moore which pleased Van greatly as he shared a joke regarding same with Dana. The Party's Over, Brown Eyed Girl and Gloria brought proceedings to a close with the latter included in the main set so there was no encore.

This show was quite an improvement from the previous night aided in no small measure by the inclusion of the two special requests. The pity is that Van doesn't include such quality material in his set as a matter of course rather than only responding to requests to play them. Either way, Van's positive response in acceding to the requests was greatly appreciated by the fans who had made them and enhanced their enjoyment (and that of the rest of the audience) of the show considerably. Van seemed much more engaged and relaxed throughout tonight's show.

One unusual sight over the two nights was that of the several rows of empty unsold seats. This was hardly surprising given that Torquay is primarily a summer seaside resort. I suspect that the individual who felt that it made sound commercial sense to book Van to play two shows at a seaside venue heading into the winter months a mere eleven months after he had played the same venue previously may just miss out on a 2018 nomination for outstanding contribution to the music industry!
-Brendan Hynes

Set List
Let's Get Lost
Benediction
How Far From God
Magic Time
Have I Told You Lately (fast version)
Baby Please Don't Go/Don't Start Crying Now
Here Comes The Night
Cleaning Windows
When The Leaves Come Falling Down
Tore Down A La Rimbaud
Little Village
Symphony Sid
Bring It On Home To Me
Ride On Josephine
Steal My Heart Away
Days Like This
Enlightenment
Broken Record
Moondance
Carrying A Torch
Whenever God Shines His Light
The Party's Over
Brown Eyed Girl
Gloria

Set Time: 1h 45m

16-October-2018
Princess Theatre 
Torquay, England

Brendan was in Torquay for the gig
Van Morrison at Princess Theatre,Torquay - 16th October 2018
The night began on a disappointing note for me as it quickly became evident as the band took to the stage that it was a scaled back version of the band which toured the USA with Van recently. The excellent Jay Berliner on guitar and Tony Fitzgibbon on violin who were so prominent on the USA dates were very conspicuous by their absence. Apart from the obvious diminishing of the quality of the overall band sound arising from their omission there was also little likelihood of Astral Weeks material being heavily featured tonight and this indeed transpired to be the case unfortunately as there was, in fact, to be none in this the year of its 50th anniversary.

The show itself started in fairly routine manner with Van racing through Hold It Right There, Back On Top, How Far From God, Magic Time and the fast version of Have I Told You Lately. All were performed competently as you would expect with How Far from God being the strongest in my view. Raincheck got a relatively rare complete airing and this featured nice backing vocals from both Dana Masters and Teena Lyle.

The Baby Please Don't Go medley was immediately followed by Here Comes The Night which featured Van sauntering over to Paul Moran on keyboards to seemingly complain about the sound being too loud from Dave Keary's guitar. A selection of blues numbers followed consisting of Roll With The Punches, Talk Is Cheap and Think Twice Before You Go and it was the latter which impressed most and featured really good guitar and organ solos.
The most noteworthy thing about Days Like This was that it ended with Van appearing to say to Dave Keary that he couldn't hear his guitar which was somewhat ironic given his earlier complaint. Moondance was included yet again and saw the various band members take solos of which Paul Moore's on bass was the most impressive. Broken Record has become somewhat of a misnomer as the record for the number of times Van sings the title in the song's conclusion continues to be stuck in the groove on 29 with the result that the record, in fact, and somewhat ironically remains unbroken. Enlightenment raised the quality level somewhat followed by Symphony Sid which featured Dana Masters prominently on vocals.

Sometimes We Cry was very strong on a night of few highlights and was followed by Steal My Heart Away which got another welcome airing. A frenetic and powerful Wild Night was followed by the night's real highlights for me in a brilliant rendition of Tore Down A La Rimbaud and then Did Ye Get Healed.

The Party's Over summed the show in general up pretty accurately and it ended in an all too predictable manner given what had gone before with Brown Eyed Girl and Gloria which probably pleased the attendees with the least knowledge and appreciation of Van's outstanding body of work most of all.

This show can probably charitably be described as workmanlike as Van raced through the songs without a word for the audience and his only interaction with the band was to either shout out the next song title or to complain about the sound from the instruments. As the setlist indicates the show was entirely devoid of the spine tingling moments that one associates with a top quality Van show, no 'workshops', a distinct lack of mystical or transcendental material just Van singing and playing the songs routinely as opposed to really performing and there is a world of difference between the two in my view.

One would optimistically hope that the second show at the same venue tomorrow night will provide a marked contrast and redress the balance somewhat.
-Brendan Hynes

Setlist
Hold It Right There
Back On Top
How Far From God
Magic Time
Have I Told You Lately (fast version)
Raincheck
Baby Please Don't Go/Don't Start Crying Now
Here Comes The Night
Roll With The Punches
Talk Is Cheap
Think Twice Before You Go
Days Like This
Moondance
Broken Record
Enlightenment
Symphony Sid
Sometimes We Cry
Steal My Heart Away
Wild Night
Tore Down A La Rimbaud
Did Ye Get Healed
The Party's Over
Brown Eyed Girl
Gloria

Set Time
1h 42m

12-October-2018
St. Davids Hall 
Cardiff, Wales

South Wales Argus Source
VAN Morrison is no fan of onstage banter. The audience at St David's Hall didn't even get a cursory 'Hello.' What they got instead was a back catalogue reinvented by swinging jazz musicians.

With no time for pleasantries, Van the Man adopted his familiar pose at the front of the stage. Standing bolt upright, the Belfast balladeer threw his head back and belted out lyrics.

Dressed in black, with sunglasses and a wide-brim hat, his quickfire, shouting delivery demanded attention. The six-piece band were red hot, lighting up classics like Moondance.

Over five decades and 40 albums, the Celtic crooner has dipped into many genres, including folk, swing, pop and more.

For this show, familiar hits were given extended jazz reworkings, with Van joining in with the improvising on sax. The audience bobbed along to Brown Eyed Girl, his signature 1967 hit.

These new versions mostly worked well, although those who hoped for straight-up recreations of the records would have been disappointed. Bar a single, muttered, "Thank You", he didn't talk to the Cardiff crowd at all.

During the final number, he shuffled off stage, leaving his band to jam for a further 15 minutes. The sold-out crowd waited patiently for him to return, but Van had vanished.
-Declan Harte

Setlist (Thanks Pamela K.)
Hold it Right There
Talk Is Cheap
Magic Time
Baby Please Don’t Go/Don’t Start Crying Now
Here Comes The Night
Sometimes We Cry
Tore Down A La Rimbaud
Foreign Window
New Symphony Sid
Have I Told You Lately
Carrying A Torch
Moondance
Broken Record
Wild Night
Why Must I Always Explain
Days Like This
Precious Time
Steal My Heart Away
In The Afternoon/Ancient Highway/Joe Turner Sings/Raincheck/Sittin’ pretty
The Party’s Over
Brown Eyed Girl
Ballerina

Time
105 minutes

04-October-2018
Europa Hotel
 Belfast, Northern Ireland

Setlist Thanks (Mike S.)
Hold it Right There
Got to Go Where the Love Is
Ain’t Gonna Moan No More
Send You Back To Where I Got You From
The Prophet Speaks
The Way That Young Lovers Do
Roll With the Punches
Laughin and Clownin
Love Is Hard Work
Everyday I Have the Blues
Centerpiece
Magic Time
Goldfish Bowl
Party’s Over
Moondance
Into the Mystic
Gloria

03-October-2018
Europa Hotel
 Belfast, Northern Ireland

Setlist (Thanks Mike S.)
Hold It Right There
Got to Go Where the Love Is
Ain’t Gonna Moan No More
Have I Told You Lately
Laughing and Cryin
Magic Time
Worried Blues Rollin and Tumblin
Close Enough for Jazz
Traveling Light
Miss Otis Regrets
Broken Record
Teardrops
5am Greenwich Mean Time
When the Prophet Speaks
Moondance

02-October-2018
Europa Hotel
 Belfast, Northern Ireland

Setlist (Thanks Mike S.)
Hold It Right There
Got to Go Where The Love Is (From The Prophet Speaks)
Miss Otis Regrets
Gonna Send You Back To Where I Got You From (From The Prophet Speaks)
Teardrops (From The Prophet Speaks)
Dimples/Green Onions (From The Prophet Speaks)
Magic Time
Have I Told You Lately
Broken Record
Rollin and Tumblin (From The Prophet Speaks)
Spirit Will Provide (From The Prophet Speaks)
Moondance
Laughin and Clownin/Lonely Ave (From The Prophet Speaks)
Things I Used To Do
Everyday I Have the Blues