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Van Morrison

 
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Soulsister



Joined: 14 Sep 2010
Posts: 242
Location: Good Old Sussex by the Sea

PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 8:49 pm    Post subject: Van Morrison Reply with quote

Worst gig I ever went to in my life was Van the Man, no contest.

It took us half an hour to figure out which one he was as he stood behind the guitarist most of the night. He never engaged with the audience whatsoever and half the audience walked out.

Since then I've never been kindly disposed towards the miserable old so and so as the tickets weren't cheap and I'd bigged him up to the bloke I was going out with at the time who thought he was crap. Even when I got me oldies played on Steve Wright (when Richard Allinson was depping) - have I ever mentioned that? - one of 'em was Jackie Wilson Said.

So tonight, as I was doing the dishes, I closed my eyes and ran my finger along the rack of CDs and landed on Van. I blew the dust off, on account of not having played it for years and within minutes me and the daughter were bopping around the kitchen. She even put a load of washing in, which is such a rarity I'm still recovering from the shock and can only think it must be down to Van. I feel meself warming up to him again. How can you hold a grudge when the bloke can do stuff like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFF1wJN75Z0
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ColinB
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 9:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I love Van Morrison's stuff - apart from the obvious ones I also like "Have I told you lately" and the fabulous "Real, Real, Gone".

You're right though, he is a miserable uncharismatic old sod on stage. I remember him taking part in a studio interview for Capital Radio with Nicky Horne, who got so frustrated with Van not attempting to communicate at all that he ended the interview early and effectively told him to bugger off!!!
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Lord Evan Elpuss



Joined: 10 Dec 2006
Posts: 3417
Location: Cloud Cuckoo Land

PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 9:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think one of Bob Harris' most notorious (non) interviews on The Old Grey Whistle Test was with Van Morrison.
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Arthur Sleep



Joined: 03 Oct 2010
Posts: 56
Location: Sitting on the couch laptop on knees

PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Isn't Van Morrison the online shopping delivery service from said supermarket Question


I'll get me coat........
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becky sharp



Joined: 01 Dec 2008
Posts: 6845

PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:44 pm    Post subject: Re: Van Morrison Reply with quote

Soulsister wrote:
Worst gig I ever went to in my life was Van the Man, no contest.

It took us half an hour to figure out which one he was as he stood behind the guitarist most of the night. He never engaged with the audience whatsoever and half the audience walked out.

Don't know if it's me that's in a daft mood but that made me laugh....Laughing don't think it'd made me laugh if I'd paid good money to see him though....
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AgProv



Joined: 15 Sep 2010
Posts: 48
Location: Stockport England (physical) Langollen, Wales (spiritual)

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 11:16 am    Post subject: Did anyone see? Reply with quote

There's some very old footage in existance, which keeps getting trotted out for "blooper" shows, which is courtesy of Ulster Television circa 1965.

A VERY young and exciteable Gloria Huniford spends a minute or so telling the world how excited she is that Northern Ireland finally has a rock band whose blues-based groovy music is the equal of anything coming out of Liverpool and London, and the Rolling Stones had better move over as the Them are on the way. And I'm here now with their lead singer, Belfast's answer to Mick Jagger, the dynamic George Ivan Morrison...

Cue a very young and grumpy-looking Van Morrison, looking as if he'd rather be anywhere but there, and cue obvious sweating on the part of Gloria as she desperately spends five minutes trying to get anything more than a monosyllable or a grunt out of the man... this made for hilarious viewing, or maybe that's just my warped sense of humour.

The worst Morrison gig I've ever been to was at the MEN Arena in Manchester. This is normally an ice rink, and was half-empty on the night... the supporting act was most probably off his head on cocaine as he kept snorting, for no readily apparent reason, in mid-line of his songs. You can imagine the atmosphere was chilly, especially when Van came on stage.

Then there was the bit in the set where he tried to get the support act to come on stage with him and do a duet... this was evidently prearranged, as he swept an arm to ther wings and announced

"Ladies and gentlemen! Mr Bobby Bluebland!" (The only time Morrison had directly interacted with the crowd all night, incidentally)

And nobody came on. He tried twice more, getting angrier and angrier. A debate seemed to be going on among roadies in the wings... and then some luckless person who'd evidently drawn the short straw was sent on to whisper something short, frantic and grovelling in Mr Morrison's ear.

VM looked bloody furious. Evidently he'd just been told the support singer was too stoned to come on, or something.

Well, the gig ended early and something told us we'd had it for encores...


Although I've seen VM in the smaller, packed and closer Manchester Apollo and both times he was a delight - good-tempered and getting in tune with the vibe at a smaller, more intimate, venue. Loads of encores, too. So it's swings and roundabouts with him?

Incidentally, I don't make a habit of watching the X(crement) Factor on TV, but last Sunday when the boy bands were lining up. Herself was watching and i was forced to endure. Did anyone notice one of th boy groups has a member who is the dead spitting image of the young Van Morrison (poor sod) , as he appears on Them album covers? It was very, very, apparent...
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ColinB
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 12:08 pm    Post subject: Re: Did anyone see? Reply with quote

AgProv wrote:
"Ladies and gentlemen! Mr Bobby Bluebland!"


Really? Was he supporting? (It's Bobby "Blue" Bland, by the way, a time-served R&B singer/musician from the 50s/60s Chicago blues era).
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Schizoidman



Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 1140
Location: Rural West Sussex

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 9:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And I thought 'Brown Eyed Girl' was the only song he did!
Well, that's the impression given by the dullards who choose the music on Radio Bland.

I loved the three well known songs Them did in the mid 60s: Babe Please Don't Go, Gloria and Here Comes The Night, absolute classics.
The only CDs I have are Astral Weeks which I really like (and it sold very little, perhaps Van had fallen off the radar by 1968) and Moondance which I find a bit bland and forgettable. Avalon Sunset was very good, with the superb Coney Island. What wonderful evocative lyrics:

'I look at the side of your face as the sunlight comes
steaming through the window in the autumn sunshine
and all the time going to Coney Island I'm thinking:
wouldn't it be great if it was like this all the time.'

Pity that Rod Stewart murdered Have I Told You Lately.
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AgProv



Joined: 15 Sep 2010
Posts: 48
Location: Stockport England (physical) Langollen, Wales (spiritual)

PostPosted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 6:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In forty-odd years, and umpteen albums, Van Morrison has experimented with just about every genre of music possible, with the exception of two: I've never heard him do any reggae, for instance, nor has he fronted a heavy rock band. (This is a shame - give Ian Gillan a night off and put VM in front of Deep Purple. I'd love to hear this line-up's version of "Strange Kind of Woman" or "Highway Star" with Van Morrison on vocals. He'd carry it off, too. I'm not so sure on the reggae, though... VM doing "Sensemilla"? I could perhaps see his take on "Israelites" might be worth listeninng to...)

Yup, it was Bobby "Blue" Bland that night at the MEN.
A powerful singer, but those uncontrollable snorts suggested a lot of nasal refreshment had been going on...

the most thankless task in the world must be as support act to George Ivan.

I bet nobody lasts more than one tour: he seemed very cool and off-hand to Chris "Out of Time" Farlow, and as for Linda Lee Lewis - she was the only one who seemed to have the balls to tell him off, on stage and in public, for churlish behaviour! (He initially refused to come back on for an encore - she had to drag him back) Or maybe she'd jusat had enough by then...
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AgProv



Joined: 15 Sep 2010
Posts: 48
Location: Stockport England (physical) Langollen, Wales (spiritual)

PostPosted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 10:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Icidentally, the ideal Van Morrison track for this time of year is not the perhaps done-to-death "moondance", with its line about "the cover of October skies".

I've just been listening to "Autumn Song", off the lesser-known "Hard Nose The Highway" album - eleven mellow minutes that evoke the time and the season and go some way to answering the question as to home much genius this man has, or perhaps had.

If there's a link, I'll post it! (One for Richard Allinson's old and missed "They're not going to play all of it, surely?" feature for very long songs, in the old Wall of Sound saturday afternoon days, pre-Evans and pre-O'Leary/Carr.)

(AFTER EDIT) Jackpot - 'ere' tis!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzKjPPMArvo
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SantaFefan



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 11258
Location: top of the cliffs in Norfolk

PostPosted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 10:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Blimey.. Hard Nose the Highway.. I'd forgot all about that one. I have it somewhere on vinyl.. I'll look it up.
I was inspired to listen to my favourite "Madame George" after reading these posts and still love it... unfortunately I strayed on to hear Marianne Faithfull's version. Oh dear. Rolling Eyes
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