Venue:
Royal Albert Hall
Date: 03/06/2024
The bloke next to me started twiddling his thumbs as the band struck up the intro to the third song; The Everly’s When Will I Be Loved; he began fidgeting and looking around as if for valediction; for reassurance; for help. By song eight when Chris Farlowe had joined Van for a brilliant medley of Stormy Monday & Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket, the poor bloke’s body language was screaming, “When will he sing something I’ve heard of?”
Well I’m sorry my friend, if you’ve come to a Van Morrison show expecting to hear Moondance, Domino or Full Force Gale then you’re going to be sitting there a long, long time. These days, it’s all about what Van wants to sing, and showcasing some of the wonderful songs from the ‘40’s and 50’s that he grew up hearing.
In fact it is song fourteen before Van sings a song wot he wrote as we get a great version of Crazy Jane on God from A Sense of Wonder and to be very picky, he didn’t really write that either, just arranged William Matthieu’S music to a WB Yeats poem. Matey didn’t know it anyway. His fidgety, twiddly demeanour changed not a jot.
And then, song sixteen, we get a beautiful version of Days Like This. The poor guy lights up and whispers to his partner, “Finally!” Finally a song he knows, poor sod. His problem is, there’s only going to be five more songs and only two of those will be familiar; Wild Night and Gloria; before Van leaves the stage with Farlowe and the band vamps on Gloria for another five minutes. Then, the lights come up and the poor bloke looks at me in incredulous amazement, saying, “No encore?” I shake my head, really sorry for the guy, “He never does encores these days.”
I had a blast!
Flip, Flop and Fly was so much fun, (I spent the whole hour on the tube and train home wracking my brain for the last time time I heard it played live – a tiny club in Guildford, 1974 and those terrific pub rockers, Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers; ‘Appy daze.)
Lonesome Train was terrific, I Wish I Was An Apple on a Tree was gorgeous and Benediction was a hoot.
However, highlight of the night was Green Rocky Road. Towards the middle of the song Van let the band stretch out a bit, pointing at each musician to solo. He kept making those annoyed hand gestures at the drummer to play quieter before finally throwing to the fiddle player, Tony Fitzgibbon, as the band went almost silent.
For around five seconds during Tony’s solo I was at The Troubadour or The Rainbow and The Caledonia Soul Orchestra were playing Caravan and Nathan Rubin and Tom Halpin play that beautiful violin vamp as Van introduces the band and the goosebumps are standing up on my arms and tears are pricking my eyes and THAT’S WHY WE KEEP COMING.
The audience:
Mostly, whooping, cheering Van-fans.
It made me think..
I’ll keep going to see the old bugger because he’s a good night out.
Hooray!
* You Are My Sunshine (Jimmie Davis cover)
* I Want a Roof Over My Head (Steve Gibson & The Red Caps cover)
* When Will I Be Loved (The Everly Brothers cover)
* The Shape I’m In (Kenny Lee Martin cover)
* Lucille (Little Richard cover)
* Flip Flop and Fly (Big Joe Turner & His Blues Kings cover)
* I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams With His Drifting Cowboys cover)
* Call It Stormy Monday/Take Your Hand Out Of My Pocket( w/Chris Farlowe)but Tuesday Is Just as Bad (T‐Bone Walker cover)
* Lonesome Train (On a Lonesome Track) (Johnny Burnette & The Rock ’n’ Roll Trio cover)
* No Other Baby (Dickie Bishop and His Sidekicks cover)
* Cold, Cold Heart (Hank Williams With His Drifting Cowboys cover)
* I Wish I Was an Apple on a Tree ([traditional] cover)
* Green Rocky Road ([traditional] cover)
* Crazy Jane on God
* For Mr. Thomas (Robin Williamson cover)
* Days Like This
* Benediction (Mose Allison cover)
* Wild Night
* Worried Man Blues ([traditional] cover) (with Chris Farlowe)
* Stand by Me (Ben E. King cover) (with Chris Farlowe)
* Gloria (Them song) (with Chris Farlowe)
What a terrific set – I love him and try my best to ignore the naysayers and the piss takers but they have very loud voices.
I agree with you he is a great night out and I couldn’t give a shit if he doesn’t talk
There are a few out there who should take a leaf out of his book
The six musicians had 350+ years of collective experience so it was brilliant watching the nods and winks between them, (or the terror when Van pointed at the sax player out of sequence.) The choice of music is joyous. Even a ‘throwaway’ song like You Are My Sunshine is transformed in his hands.
Nothing quite like Van on a good night or indeed a bad.
Since the skiffle shows of a couple of years back he seems to
have gotten back into playing live in a big way.
More power to him and to you, Niallb, for the splendid write up
Thank you, kind sir.
Who doesn’t know ‘When Will I Be Loved’?
I’m not wrong about people of a certain age (40, 50, 60 was he?) and their total lack of knowledge about Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Always amusing when a fairweather fan is wrong footed at a gig by an artist. A friend left one of the stellar Nick Mason’s “Saucerful …” gigs to hear another audience member bemoan the lack of anything played from “The Wall”. And they weren’t being ironic.
People are still complaining about Neil Young’s Greendale gigs. Probably Tonights the Night too….
Quite rightly. Greendale was awful. It wasn’t advertised as such when tickets came out. He only did 4 or 5 songs other than Greendale. I’ve seen him at least half a dozen times; this was the only concert I regret attending.
I enjoyed it. I agree it should have been advertised as such in advance though
We’re off to see Nick and his band a week from Monday; I’ll look out for numpties expecting late period stuff!
A good night out indeed! …and a fine review.
My mum invited me (she got two tickets as a present for her 85th birthday), and we both enjoyed it immensely – probably for different reasons 😉
You jammy get, Niall! Brilliant review of what sounds like a fantastic gig. I’ve seen Van many times and only once have I felt a little short-changed, and he was ill that day and brave to even perform. If he swings past this way again, I’ll be there.
Thanks, Foxy. It was a lovely night. I got cramp in my right leg from too much foot-tapping. I am typing this in the RAH restaurant as I’m back tonight for Yes.
Seeth. Green.
Great review Niall, and makes me very jealous not to have seen him on this tour. It’s brilliant that he is doing Green Rocky Road live, and from what you say, matching the recorded version which is the best thing he’s laid down in years. And interesting to hear that he’s added sax and violin to the mix – his band in the last decade have been fine but lacked a bit of colour that I’m sure those instruments introduced.
Green Rocky road is fantastic.