Peter Viney's Blog

Van Morrison

Bournemouth International Centre (BIC)

Monday 21st October 2019

SET LIST

I won’t guarantee the exact order for I Ain’t Gonna Moan No More and Have I Told You Lately because my pen ran out.

Gonna Send You Back To Where I Got You From
It Once Was My Life
St Dominic’s Preview
Baby Please Don’t Go / Parchman Farm
Roll With The Punches
Days Like This
Early Days
Three Chords & The Truth
Magic Time
Moondance
Broken Record
Spirit Will Provide
Have I Told You Lately
Ain’t Gonna Moan No More
Sometimes We Cry
New Symphony Sid
I Believe To My Soul
In The Afternoon / Ancient Highway / Raincheck / Sitting Pretty
The Party’s Over
Brown Eyed Girl
Gloria

BAND

They weren’t announced at all. When I looked online “Who are the members of Van Morrison’s band?” is a frequent question! And one with no answers.  Thanks for the information below from Bournemouth Beat Boom, which I’ve added 24 hours after the review. Then I’ve gone through changing “the female singer” etc to names. When I looked up the “suspects” none of them seem to be mentioning the tour either!
Van Morrison – lead vocal, saxophone, harmonica, guitar
Paul Moran – trumpet, keyboards (mainly organ setting / electric piano / MD
Dave Keary – guitar
Paul Moore – acoustic bass, bass guitar, vocal
Mez Clough – drums, vocals
Teena Lyle – percussion, vibraphone, backing vocal
Dana Masters  – backing vocal, duet lead vocal

There’s been a plethora of new Van Morrison albums the last three years, too many, some would say. I’ve found it hard to pay them sufficient attention compared to ten years ago where I would have played each at least a dozen times. This concert comes just four days before the release of yet another, Three Chords and The Truth. That’s the sixth original one after Keep Me Singing (2016), Roll With The Punches and Versatile in 2017. You’re Driving Me Crazy and The Prophet Speaks in 2018,

Five albums in three years and another one is due this week.

Recently the Van Morrison song I’ve played the most has been the great I Hear You Paint Houses, duetting with Robbie Robertson. It’s on Sinematic, Robbie’s new album and on the soundtrack of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. 

This must be my longest time without seeing Van Morrison since the early 1980s. The last time was Larmer Tree festival in 2013. I have greatly missed him. The BIC (Bournemouth International Centre) is a surprise venue. I was told the loathed the hall, which is notoriously difficult to achieve good sound in. He played here on the Jazz Tour in 1995, and I have the bootleg recording Steppin’ On A Dream. I was there and the sound was poor and muffled in the balcony. It’s one where the audience sat on their hands at the unexpected and unfamiliar jazz setlist until they started leaving in droves. They missed out because the ending, Tupelo Honey / Why Must I Explain was superb, mainly because he sounded REALLY pissed off. It’s said he greatly prefers the smaller Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre, and I’ve speculated in the past whether he played there in his Irish Show band days … I saw a few show bands in the ballroom behind the theatre. Anyway, the BIC sound has improved considerably since 1995, though it’s still rarely great … Leonard Cohen and Paul Simon are the only ones I’ve seen get great sound there.

Well, the sound was great tonight from where I was sitting (Terrace dead centre, about five rows directly above the soundboard … a careful choice!). The feel was different. Looking at recent setlists in America, the first six songs are pretty much set (except for the opener which can also be Got to Go Where The Love Is), so there’s not the sense of him jamming around to get the feel which used to prevail. Several songs are set for this tour, though not always in the same order and as ever, no setlist is more than about 75% the same as the previous one.  The way spots uneeringly lit soloists shows much more rehearsed lighting than in the past.

The major thing tonight was two tracks from the new album Three Chords & The Truth. It’s released on Friday 25th, and I was expecting stacks of the CDs and vinyl to be on sale just four days ahead. No music was on sale at all and T-shirts were £25 each (compared to £15 at P.P. Arnold just a few days ago … and she’s prettier in her picture on the front too).  Just lettering VAN THE MAN is not great to look at, and I wondered if Robbie Robertson who famously name-checked Van as “Van The Man” at The Last Waltz concert in 1976 was in for a cut. I reckon at a straight tenner for the CD (£9.99 online) he could have shifted hundreds tonight and a stack of vinyl LPs too.. Why not? There’s no cut to amazon or HMV on those sales!

The band were arranged in a semi-circle around him. He was announced as Sir Van Morrison … and that’s right. He always insisted on the jazzer “Mr Georgie Fame” “Mr Van Morrison (or maybe Georgie did) in the past. Once you’re a Sir you are no longer a Mr. As the band was not introduced at all, I’ll describe the set up. Stage right (i.e. the audience’s left)  or at 9 o’clock, we have the MD, Paul Moran, the hardest working guy in the band. He played trumpet, organ and piano, often all three in one song. This is why his set up was odd. The organ (or keyboard set to a Hammond sound) faced out to the audience. The electric piano was three yards away, and faced in towards Van’s centre mic. Most keyboard players set them up one above the other, or at right angles in an L shape (or just switch sounds on one keyboard). They were totally separate with his trumpet stand between. Next at 10 o’clock was the female percussionist. This was Teena Lyle who has played with him before. She shared “female backing vocals” as well as having an array of percussion stuff, and vibraphone. Vibes were used a lot tonight. Then at 11 o’clock was the “female vocalist” Dana Masters, who has often performed with Van in the last five years. She shared backing vocals early on, and played tambourine sometimes, but her main role emerged later when she took verses of songs on her own, thus she was duetting with Van Morrison, but she never moved forward when she did so. Van Morrison was at the centre of the clock face, and played saxophone, guitar and harmonica. Drums, from Mez Clough, were at one o’clock, moving around the semi circle. Bass guitar and acoustic bass, Paul Moore, were at two o’clock.  Dave Keary, the guitarist was at three o’clock, side on to the audience looking resolutely in to the centre.  We never saw his full face. Everyone had a mic, and the drummer used it quite a bit on backing vocals.

The instruments suggest strongly that the set list was not in concrete. As well as the acoustic guitar that Van played just once, there appeared to be one or two electric guitars next to him that were not touched. The guitarist had what looked like pedal steel or a narrow keyboard next to him, but it wasn’t used. So unusually, Van had no two or three piece horn section, but he played saxophone more than I’ve seen before, and on many numbers, he on sax, and Paul Moran, the trumpet player, did a unison section.

Early on there was little lighting plot, just on the semi-circle, so it was very dark around them. It was about 40% of the way through the show that they started a coloured projection on the back-cloth.

I liked the set list very much tonight. He opened with Gonna Send You Back Where I Got You From from The Prophet Speaks and I missed the prominent Hammond on the album, but instead we got intricate sax / trumpet interplay.

It Once Was My Life is from 1997’s The Healing Game one of my favourite Van Morrison albums, and we got two selections from it tonight. The bass player did wonders, though nothing ever replaces the acoustic bass / electric bass interchange on the original. The two female backing singers, Dana Masters and Teena Lyle, were prominent throughout, which is vital.

St Dominic’s Preview is one I’ve hoped to hear live for years (Tupelo Honey and St Dominic’s Preview spent several earlier years as my favourite Van Morrison albums), and Van Morrison played acoustic guitar. The lead guitar from Dave Keary was lovely work and the bass player switched to electric bass, and our MD Paul Moran got the Hammond sound. I noticed a lyric switch from “The record company has paid out for the wine” to “Warner Brothers are drinking all my wine.” Yes, they say he still doesn’t get paid for his Warner Bros. catalogue. And yes, I know all the words to the song. There were a few recognition crowd noises at “It’s a long way to Belfast City too…” as usual. While the original arrangement is unmatchable, I thought the voice forty-six years on added richness and authority to the lyric. I was also conscious that there was still this tight intimate band, lit well, but surrounded by plain black. I’ve often seen Van with virtually no lighting plot but nowadays it’s unusual. It was to come.

We were into Them with Baby Please Don’t Go, or into Van, as in the sleeve notes to The Complete Them he reveals the stellar session guys on early Them records. I know that makes some Them fans angry, but largely they were according to the notes “Van and some guys.” It breaks into Parchman Farm. I assumed Them would have played it, as nearly every band of the era mined the Mose Allison Sings LP for material. It’s not on The Complete Them nor is it on Van’s Mose Allison tribute album Tell Me Something. The medley was on the BBC Radio Two’s Van Morrison In Concert from 2016. I’d be surprised if he hadn’t played it back in the old days. It’s a killer version with Van playing harmonica.

He segues into Roll With The Punches and just as I do with the album, I think Ah, Hoochie Coochie Man / I’m A Man. But it is Roll With The Punches, title track of the album with the boxing match on the sleeve from 2017.

When it’s not always raining, there’ll be days like this … I love Days Like This which would be on my wish list for any Van Morrison concert. Paul Moran switched to electric piano, facing in to the centre, as the guitarist was doing from the opposite side. Electric bass for this one.

The new album: due 25 October

Early Days actually had Van speak to the audience to say it was from the new album, Three Chords & The Truth, so this is a very early live version indeed and it started off ragged, but soon caught the groove. It’s about getting ‘a shot of rhythm and blues’ too, so Paul Moran stayed on electric piano and gave us some wild rock ‘n’ roll keyboard thumping. Great song in that it appealed on first hearing.

As did Three Chords & The Truth the title track of the album due out in four days time. It feels privileged to be hearing what must be one of the first, if not the first, live performance of a major songwriter’s latest. He glanced at the music stand a couple of times. Lyric checking? Probably not, as his knowledge of such a vast range of his own lyrics is matched only by Dylan.

Magic Time – from 2005.  We’re beginning to see that songs were title tracks because he thought them strongest! The recent reference would be his later jazzy version with Joey DeFrancesco on You’re Driving Me Crazy though. It created a new mood, Let me go back for a while to that Magic Time … that resonates for our age group. At this point they suddenly started projecting an abstract image onto the back curtain.

Moondance always gets the recognition buzz. Is it his best known song, or is that Brown-Eyed Girl? It must be one he’s played most of all. Again, it was intricately arranged.

Broken Record is from Versatile. It stood out as the opening track on a perplexing album that took us through covers. So many older singers start wanting to do an album of the songs their mums sang along with in the kitchen to the BBC Light programme. This was Van’s. Broken Record was a rare original song on there too. It never really fit the album to me (it was also the best track). It sits much better in concert.

Spirit Will Provide is the next up from The Prophet Speaks. It’s a meditation which had not stood out for me on the album, but it did live … I’m finding this with the newer material. Seeing Van performing it adds a dimension. Our MD Paul Moran managed to play piano, organ and trumpet at various points again.

Have I Told You Lately is from Avalon Sunset and the main single from the album back in 1989 (then Rod Stewart had a hit cover). This is another he revived on You’re Driving Me Crazy.

Ain’t Gonna Moan No More is a point where my notes make me unsure of sequence. That’s three from The Prophet Speaks then.

Sometimes We Cry is back to The Healing Game.The powerful melody was accentuated by Dana Masters taking a whole verse on her own as well as echoing his lines brilliantly.  As she sang Like Johnny Ray … I wondered how many people of her age had heard of Johnny Ray. Van must have been thinking much the same. As he stopped suddenly to particularly loud applause he said “Has anybody here heard of Johnny Ray?” and went into a few lines of Cry.

In the pause, Van Morrison turned to the band and called (New) Symphony Sid which indicates that no one was working to a cast iron setlist sheet. This was from How Long Has This Been Going On, not a successful album. It joined Days Like This and Moondance from the set list of that 1995 appearance at the BIC. He’s done it a lot in recent years, and brightened it up too.

Van muttered “Ray Charles” and they started on sax and trumpet … as soon as I heard the name I’d been hoping for You Don’t Know Me or I Can’t Stop Loving You. Actually we were right back to 1974 and  It’s Too Late To Stop Now with I Believe To My Soul and it’s one where he duetted with Ray Charles in 1996 … that version’s on YouTube. Van has always been an extraordinary Ray Charles interpreter. Superb.

For years you went to Van Morrison concerts hoping that he’d get deep into the mystic with a long fifteen minute interpretation which let him emote. Recently it’s a medley of In The Afternoon and Ancient Highway and Raincheck and Sitting Pretty. To be honest, he doesn’t fly into the ether in the way he did in 1980s concerts, but that’s hardly surprising. It still gave the mood.

The Party’s Over. Was it a nod to his old skiffle pal Lonnie Donegan who had an incongruous hit with it? That was one of around a hundred covers from Nat King Cole to Doris Day to Shirley Bassey.  Van Morrison covered it on Versatile in 2017. I never much liked the song after doing lights on it twice nightly at The Winter Gardens, 200 yards away from the BIC, which was demolished after the BIC was built. I enjoyed it tonight, but then I enjoyed every song tonight. The lyric would be a clear way of signalling encores. Except Van has totally dispensed with the encore.

Well, OK, he still finishes with Brown Eyed Girl (the jazzed up version, which I’m finally getting used to) and Gloria but he now totally eschews the pantomime of going off and coming back on … OK, last time it was literally walk to the side, turn on his heel, and come back, but now it’s straight on with the show. I think he’s right actually and everyone else is wrong (and I’ll bet he’d agree with that statement about life in general). It has become a bit of a hoo-ha getting the audience to shout and stamp for two or three minutes or five minutes when the house lights are still down, the stage is lit,  and everybody knows the artiste will certainly be back to perform their best-known song. So like starting fashionably late, even by five minutes (Van started on the dot of 8 p.m. as usual) it’s a game he declines to play. The tickets state clearly NO SUPPORT which again is right for me. At the recent P.P. Arnold concert, we wasted an hour: half an hour listening to a solo supporting artist who we’d never heard of and didn’t come to see, then half an hour shuffling around in an interval we didn’t need after a mere thirty minutes in our seats.

It might not suit all. Old Van fans know that when he moves to the side of the stage and exits during Gloria it means “Sir Van Morrison has left he building” as the band play on. I was told that it’s straight to the stage door and into a car with the engine running. I’ve seen several seven or eight minute play outs (Sir Van Morrison has cleared the town centre) but tonight was twelve or fifteen at my guess (Sir Van Morrison has left the county). It was, as usual, fabulous stuff where the band let their hair down. What they did tonight was do a solo spot, then sit out one by one … Dave Keary first on guitar, Paul Moran did a vigorous prog organ solo, Teena Lyle did vibes, vocal scatting from Dana Masters,  Paul Moore did double bass, Teena Lyle again on  percussion, and finally a drum solo from Mez Clough before they all stood up joined back in.  Dana Masters’ scat singing was outstanding. Brilliant playing all round, which made it sadder still that he hadn’t introduced the band. I’m surprised our trumpet playing MD / announcer, Paul Moran, didn’t do it for him during the solos. Going out I remarked that Van would be well clear of the ring road by now and the bloke next to me said “That was taking the piss!” so I suspect he had been sitting there  in hope of a Van return.

There is always a concert ear-worm. Going to sleep it was St Dominic’s Preview. When I woke this morning it was a surprise one … Spirit Will Provide.

VAN MORRISON REVIEWS ON THIS BLOG:

• Van Morrison 1998
• Van Morrison 1999
• Van Morrison 2000
• Van Morrison 2001
• Van Morrison 2002 Jan.
• Van Morrison 2002 Oct.
• Van Morrison 2003 Jul.
• Van Morrison 2003 Sep.
• Van Morrison 2005 Mar.
• Van Morrison 2005 Nov.
• Van Morrison 2007
• Van Morrison 2012
• Van Morrison 2013