It was a golden autumn day when i woke up on Sunday but cold so i thought i better put on my big grey coat and my Van the man hat for the trip to London.We caught the 10.53 from Westbury and the journey passed uneventfully.The countryside looked beautiful with the colours of the trees beneath October skies.We got a taxi from Paddington to our hotel in posh Kensington.As we drove through Hyde Park there were hundreds of people out enjoying the sunshine.Our room wasn't ready so we walked around the corner to the Queens Arms pub for a spot of lunch and i noticed that one of the beers for sale was called 'Moondance' which was a good omen for the night ahead so i had a pint of 'Moondance'.Then we had a walk around the block and i read the blue plaques on the fashionable houses,'comedian Benny Hill lived here till 1984','Sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein lived here',Lord Baden-Powell founder of the Scout movement lived here till 1949' etc.When we got back to the hotel we had a bit of a snooze until 5.00.
We walked down the avenue again and the leaves were falling one by one and it seemed like a magic night.The pub was packed with Van fans.The cream of the bohemian intelligensia were there plus Nosey who introduced me to everyone.There were people there from every corner of the world.Julia from France,Brenda,Joost,Marion and Diane from the Netherlands,,Somebody from Austria,people from Spain,Denmark,Peter from Australia.Jez, Peter and other English.Lots of other people who i can't remember the names of.It was all a bit hectic for me and i sat in the corner with Kim and then Dail joined us and had a bit of a chat before Sue and Colin arrived.When we went outside for a cigarette who should come strolling along but our old friend Henrik from the Vanlose Stairway of Copenhagen.It was great to see him.On returning inside these nice young American girls asked me if i was called Nosey and i said, " No,but i know somebody who is and i know who you are",It was Stuart and Michelle's stepdaughter from San Diego and her friend and we had a chat and i introduced them to Nosey .
Then it was time for the show and i pulled out my trusty moleskine notebook and my pen as Van walked on to join the other seven band members and launched into Baby Please Don't Go his first hit with Them from 46 years ago and then went straight into Here Comes The Night from 1965 which reached number 2 in the charts and only the Rolling Stones stopped Van from having his only UK chart topper.This was followed by Brown Eyed Girl, the song that established him as a solo artist and made him world famous.The crowd loved these opening numbers which were ok but for the likes of me and the hardcore Van fans we wanted to hear the lesser known transcendental stuff.The first of which was Fair Play from Veedon Fleece.It was supurb.I can't name the band because there were 3 new members.A new brass section of two new young sax,trombone,trumpet players.We met them afterwards and they said they liked working for Van and they had only 4 days rehearsal before the Glasgow gig the night before so fair play to them because they played with a lot of confidence and weren't fazed when Van pointed to them for a solo.I did think though that it showed bad planning to bring in new band members at such short notice.I wondered if Van decided to revert to a brass section because he couldn't hire a first rate violinist.Maybe he should have phoned Toni Marcus who would have been in her element with a lot of tonights songs.I didn't recognise the drummer either who was good but maybe a bit over-enthusiastic at times.I wondered what had happened to Bobby Ruggerio who had seemed to be the music director after Matt Holland moved on.Van filled that role tonight,prowling the stage and coaxing the best out of the ensemble.Anyway i wrote in my notes,'The world stood still' next to Fair Play.I can't remember why i wrote that now but it must have been good!.Keeping Mediocrity At Bay from the Magic Time album was next,not one of my favourite songs by any means but like a lot of Morrison's songs it does grow in stature when performed live.There as some great guitar and harmonica playing on this one.Then it was Little Village another song which was much maligned when it first appeared but has become a concert favourite now amongst the die-hard fans.It was supurb with Van excelling himself on saxophone.After that it was another crowd pleaser Moondance.I have seen some pretty bland performances of this over the years but Van seems to have injected new life into it and the band were relishing the chance to show off their skills during the solos.Then it was time for the Masterclass, All In The Game/You Know What They're Writing About.This was so good that even the audience who had come to hear the hits were converted and Van received rapturous applause when he made it real one more time again.What followed was the highlight of the evening for me In The Garden, and the crowd listened to the heavenly music in hushed silence.There was exquisite guitar playing followed by delicate piano and trumpet.It sent shivers up the spine, you could almost feel the presence of the guardian angels that Van was singing about in the room.This was the transcendental stuff i was on about earlier.Van was really on to something in the 1980's when his music could almost be called New-Age music when the music became more to do with meditation and healing and raising conciousness then mere entertainment.I think thats why he had so many instumentals on his albums because he was getting beyond words into the wordless,and him one of the greatest vocalists in the world.He seems to be getting back to enjoying that type of music recently which is why Celtic Excavation followed, moving seamlessly to Into The Mystic one of the greatest songs ever written.This was another highlight for me followed by Ballerina from Astral Weeks the greatest album ever recorded .Van has reworked it without it losing any of its relentless energy and i wrote 'Funky''in my notes.Well it was getting late, just a little just a little and Van brought the energy level down with Have I Told You Lately and Bright Side Of The Road which the audience seemed to love but it didn't do it for me.I did enjoy Keep It Simple though from his unfairly maligned last studio album.I think it is a poignant song which Van sings with real feeling.I knew we were getting to the end when Van launched in the Sonny Boy Williamson song Help Me which has been in Van's reportoire since time began.I always enjoy it though and so did the crowd who cheered loudly as Van left the stage still playing his harmonica.Then Van returned for a rousing Gloria and all the crowd were on their feet and clapping along.I throughougly enjoyed the show.It wasn't the greatest Van concert i have been to but it did have quite a few moments that remind you why you became a Van fan in the first place.Back at the pub everybody was buzzing with the adrenalin that you get from a concert.Nosey said he rated it 6 or 7 out of 10.I would give it 8 out of 10.The pub closed too early at 10.30 which was ridiculous and when we were standing outside the pub saying cheerio to everyone the barman came out and virtually told us to clear off because of the neighbours.What a cheek.Some of the others were talking about moving on to another drinking place but we went back to the hotel and fell asleep into blissful.slumbers.
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