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