~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Josh
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Van came out PROMPT at 8:00 as the ticket reminded us he would. Going to a Van concert these days with all these rules and regs, I feel as if we are going through airport security - albeit we were allowed to bring through water through, which is quite ground breaking when you think about it. *Note to self: wine in a water bottle. Once in the seat you get a meat head constantly looking around for anyone who may have snuck in a biscuit - I do wonder how aggressive they could get to try and steal your biscuits.
At the Camden Round House last year, he just seemed bored with his material. Magic Time Press Launch in London was the last time I heard all new material.
Van was joking with his band throughout, but perhaps that was just nervous laughter on their part as Van would stare directly over them during a solo - I'm sure there are more comfortable situations to play in. It's a pleasure just watching Van conduct his band, so tight.
"Time to bring the comedy to the front" and in he went to All work and No play. St. James Infirmary is brilliant and I have to say becomes stronger as Van gets older. At 22, it is a real disappointment to think that there are not really any younger musicians who will come close to Van in following his musical talents - maybe Glen Hasard is a worthy hope?
New album began with School of Hard Knocks which I think really comes to life live. On How Can a Poor Boy, he brought the band down to whisper and spoke the lyrics - which is always a highlight for me, "when you don't believe a single thing is true?"
Entrainment, Keep it simple, Soul and Lover Come Back are some of the better tracks for me on the album and reaffirm why I listen to him non-stop. I noticed that hand clapping you fellas keep talking about being used in Entrainment and it literally took over the track at one point. She has real energy for the band. Yet I can't help but find it funny that the track is a bit like "oh look Van learnt a new big word".
End of the Land, Song of Home, No Thing all sort of just role into one and at that point I'm really just hoping he does the new classic.
I Can't Stop Loving You was an unexpected one and was sung well with Van pressing a few keys on the piano before wandering over in perfect timing to grab the mic and belt out the last chorus - amazing.
Next came Behind the Ritual which was absolutely brilliant. Sarah got the whole audience clapping in time, then Van brought it down which the audience followed and the claps silenced slowly with Van making it become so intimate and as he grabbed the mic off the stand, you felt as if this was really going to be one of those moments everyone talks about - not to be! Massive feedback on his mic! Van said 'Big hand for the band' and walked off stage. The moment had gone. If he had just said "Ahh for fuck's sake" maybe it could have been forgiven but it was a real shame - just demonstrates how precious and fragile those moments are for the man. I'll have to go again now.
For an encore he came back to sing Brown Eyed Girl with that black wireless mic he should have had on Behind The Ritual.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Times Online - Lisa Verrico
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sally from Oxford would like it on record that the Van Morrison tickets she bought for herself and a friend were “a f***ing waste of money”. Forty minutes into the veteran singer's show, both are headed for the exit, alongside several other disgruntled punters. In the foyer, a well-dressed woman in her sixties is berating her son for even bringing her. He, reasonably, is shifting the blame to the chap on stage in a charcoal grey suit and matching fedora, who has so far failed to play any old songs.
Most of the audience stay the course and, occasionally, politely applaud, but the atmosphere inside the New Theatre suggests a sombre recital rather than a pop concert. Or at its worst, a wake. Which isn't entirely fair.
Admittedly, the start of the show is at best banal, with a newly slimmed-down Morrison leading a ten-piece band through early Noughties numbers performed in the style of a Las Vegas lounge act. Magic Time features cheesy Hammond organ and meandering jazz, while All Work and No Play is an easy-listening homage to Morrison's old friend Georgie Fame.
Then comes a lengthy run of songs from the 62-year-old Irish legend's current album, Keep It Simple. On record, they are tasteful blues tracks in the style of his 1970s classic Moondance, but so simplistically arranged that they feel unfinished. Live, they are a revelation. School of Hard Knocks, How Can a Poor Boy and the album's title track all hark back to Morrison's heyday and are sung in the warm, velvety croon that first made him famous. That's Entrainment, on which he switches from alto sax to ukulele, saunters so close to classic Van the Man that you would swear it was an early 1970s demo that he had recently discovered in a bottom drawer and finally got round to recording.
The Oxford crowd, however, have clearly come to hear hits and, one hour in, they are finally rewarded with Bright Side of the Road. Or perhaps rewarded is the wrong word. The banjo-led rendition is blighted by Morrison's mumbled vocals, which extinguish any trace of the original's joyful jauntiness.
A cover of Ray Charles's I Can't Stop Loving You is dreadfully dull and even closing the set with Brown Eyed Girl can't save Morrison from the fangs of angry fans. As the crowd spill into the street, there isn't a smile to be seen.
Van Morrison plays the Cheltenham Jazz Festival on April 30