Van Morrison has just announced a short series of dates at the London Palladium in spring, and from the blurb on the Palladium website I strongly suspect that whoever was given the job of writing the advance notice said ‘Who?’ before gathering the barest information they could from Wikipedia to paste onto the page. Wouldn’t his management have provided a press release with prose less desperate than this?
The legendary Van Morrison, one of the finest singer-songwriters and hardest working live performers of his era, is coming to The London Palladium for five very special shows next year.
Fans may know him from some of his biggest hits, including Brown Eyed Girl, Have I Told You Lately, Moondance and Into the Mystic.
To date, Van Morrison has released a whopping 40 albums and with new material and projects in the pipeline, he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
https://lwtheatres.co.uk/van-morrison-to-play-a-run-of-shows-at-the-london-palladium/
It´s a typical press release really. They are usually poorly written.
Is Into The Mystic one of his four biggest “hits” then?
Well, according to Spotify, it´s his second biggest. I stand corrected.
likely source for the press release
“He’s showing no signs of slowing down”
No. In recent years he’s become the Barbara Cartland of Caledonia.
“fans may also know he has a tendency to petulance”
“Continue the traditional expression of appreciation at Van Morrison concerts by bringing along your teddy bears and hurling them at the stage with gusto during the first song.”
They should have said “The London Palladium is delighted to welcome back Van Morrison to split his trousers in front of a whole new audience.” They should have also mentioned the gob iron incident.
To say nothing of the gimlet eye directed at the clock during the Joey Dunlop memorial gig on the Isle Of Man!
“Van Morrison, who has been known to play his hit song Moondance so fast that it was assumed to be a tribute to the Electro Hippies”
The use of the word ‘whopping’ is the bit that really sticks in the craw. Could have gone with ‘staggering’, ‘inspiring’ or even ‘impressive’ – but instead chose to use a word that even the person who writes those cutesy ingredient lists on the side of smoothies might shy away from.