VAN MORRISON – BRIGHTON DOME 30.10.26
One can only surmise how traumatic a time it must have been for former tap dancer and singer Violet Morrison (née Stitt) as she carried her shipyard electrician and avid record collector husband (George’s) baby throughout the tailend of WWII which officially ended on 2nd September 1945. Their bundle of joy had arrived just days earlier on a Protestant working-class street on 31st August 1945, this exact address being 125 Hyndford Street, Bloomfield, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Being traditional folk, the happy couple kept the father’s name and thus George Ivan Morrison had arrived into the world.
Meanwhile, back on 9th January 1933 the nearby state-controlled Elmgrove Elementary School opened its doors for the first time, and by the time George Ivan Morrison attended his first day it was known as Elmgrove Primary School. It was here that his middle name came into play, and the “i” was ceremoniously dropped by his friends and peers and thus the Van Morrison was born!
Clearly the family didn’t struggle too much as George Senior had a fair amount of disposable income which he invested into his passion of record collecting, which as we know can sometimes get a little out of hand. In the early 1950’s George Senior had amassed such a large collection, that it was believed to be one of the largest in Northern Ireland. He had brought a majority of them across the pond from Detroit when he was there. Music was always playing in the Morrison household and during his formative years, the young Van’s ears were picking up on these sounds and so the seed was planted at a very early age!
Various music genres were on offer in the Morrison household such as the blues of Muddy Waters; the gospel of Mahalia Jackson; the jazz of Charlie Parker; the folk music of Woody Guthrie; and country music from Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers, and Van could freely hear tunes by Jelly Roll Morton, Ray Charles, Lead Belly, Brownie McGhee and Solomon Burke. It is believed that by the time Van was old enough to buy a record his selection was that of blues musician Sonny Terry, and at the age of just 11, Van was given his first acoustic guitar by his father. At the age of 12 Van had formed a skiffle group called The Sputniks where he contributed most of the singing and arranging. Knowing this, you can see where the musical roots of Sir George Ivan Morrison emanate.
Rolls the clocks forward 7 years and the Them were born, signed to Decca records, released ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go’ with the famed ‘Gloria’ B-side (1964), ‘Here Comes The Night’ and ‘Mystic Eyes’ (both 1965), and broke Morrison on the international scene. America was calling and a USA tour followed, which included a residency at Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, with The Doors as support act on the last week. But by 1967 the band had imploded and Morrison went out on his own to immediate success as his most played song ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ (from his debut ‘Blowin’ Your Mind!’ album) hit the US Top 10 in June of that year and spent 16 weeks in the chart. The track stood the test of time and in January 2007 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In the time between this, Van’s album output was insane with the release of an additional 33 long-players. A further 17 albums have followed since 2007, with his latest blues record being ‘Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge’ which dropped on 23rd January this year.
Van’s affinity with Brighton & Hove has not gone unnoticed in these here parts, as after his performance with Them at Hove Town Hall on 12th August 1965, he has been back on at least another 34 occasions and another will follow tomorrow night. This evening he’s back at his home, the Brighton Dome, where he has performed no less than 27 times previously! We, Ev and Sal, have followed Van’s career from the beginning and on our regular jaunts to see our family at their nature reserve farm in Yorkshire, Van (and those of a similar ilk) are always our go to listening experience on the journey north. One could say it’s a tradition that we hold. Suffice to say that we have seen him perform live previously, but even this evening we played tunes that we haven’t heard live before which is a bonus.
On the face of it Van can appear to be disinterested or is that just being seriously in the zone, or is it a case of just going through the motions, now that he’s 81 years old? Honestly he has nothing left to prove and so whether the press are interested in reviewing his concerts is probably of no consequence to the man. Indeed photo passes are again refused on this date and probably the whole tour, thus we have to re-use previous shots, but it’s not exactly the case that he changes his look these days, so probably nothing lost there. His crowd interaction these days is kept to a minimum, as is the case this evening, but the band members do get a mention, and these are listed below, but in all honesty we aren’t actually 100% sure if these are totally correct.
Van does however still deliver these days with lengthy performances, this evening there are 21 select cuts, which is rather impressive. Also I heard that for tomorrow’s concert there will be certain changes in the set, which will feature four tunes not in tonight’s performance, these being ‘The Only Love I Ever Need Is Yours’, ‘Full Force Gail’ ‘Northern Muse (Solid Ground)’ and ‘Stormy Monday’. So clearly, despite his mature age, Van still enjoys mixing it up a bit as opposed to playing the exact same tunes in the same order every night.
Tonight’s gig was very good and we both enjoyed ourselves as did the rest of the packed concert hall. He even brought on Chris Farlow to sing a few songs together which were some of the ones we hadn’t heard live before, these were a Barbara George cover ‘I Know (You Don’t Love Me No More)’ and ‘Ain’t Gonna Moan No More’, as well as medley of ‘Flip Flop And Fly’ and ‘Shake Rattle And Roll’ which are also sung. In fact Farlow makes a return for the penultimate number Ben E. King’s classic ‘Stand By Me’. These days there are quite a few covers in Van’s set, but these sit very well with his sound. We get Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson’s ‘Kidney Stew Blues’, Junior Wells’ Chicago Blues Band’s ‘Snatch It Back And Hold It’, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee’s ‘Can’t Help Myself’, Jimmy Kennedy’s ‘Red Sails In The Sunset’, and the traditional ‘Green Green Rocky Road’ composition. In fact there’s even a three-piece brass section who come on stage and bolster the numbers.
Van doesn’t go for any fake encores, preferring to play right the way through, with the signing off being Them’s ‘Gloria’ for which Van (and Farlow) simply vacated the stage without a single word, thus leaving the very capable and top quality musicians to bring the performance to a close by themselves. If we have a gripe, it’s the fact that from our seats, it was at times hard to hear Van’s lyrics clearly. We aren’t sure if this was a sound issue or simply the case of where we were. But overall it was a very enjoyable night out. Sadly we can’t come along again tomorrow, as we have prior commitments, but we are sure that the audience will have a real Halloween ball.
Van Morrison:
Van Morrison – vocals
Dave Keary – guitars
David Hayes – bass guitars
John McCullough – keyboards
Robby Ruggiero – drums
Chris White – saxophones, flute, clarinet
Paul Moran – trumpet
Jolene O’Hara – backing vocals
Katie Kissoon – backing vocals
Van Morrison setlist:
‘Into The Mystic’
‘Kidney Stew Blues’ (Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson cover)
‘Snatch It Back And Hold It’ (Junior Wells’ Chicago Blues Band cover)
‘Can’t Help Myself’ (Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee cover)
‘Haven’t Lost My Sense Of Wonder’
‘Red Sails In The Sunset’ (Jimmy Kennedy cover)
‘Carrying A Torch’
‘I Know (You Don’t Love Me No More)’ (Barbara George cover) (with Chris Farlowe)
‘Ain’t Gonna Moan No More’ (with Chris Farlowe)
‘Flip Flop And Fly’ / ‘Shake Rattle And Roll’ (Big Joe Turner & His Blues Kings cover) (with Chris Farlowe)
‘Goin’ Down Geneva’
‘Green Green Rocky Road’ ([traditional] cover)
‘Precious Time’
‘Down To Joy’
‘Moondance’
‘Enlightenment’
‘Real Real Gone’
‘Bright Side Of The Road’
‘Stand By Me’ (Ben E. King cover) (with Chris Farlowe)
‘Gloria’ (Them song) (with Chris Farlowe)
