Van Morrison at Glastonbury Abbey 2004.

Glastonbury Tor

As well as playing at Glastonbury Festival seven times Van Morrison has also played in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey four times. The first time was in 2004 and when I heard he was there I knew we had to go. We loaded up the Fiat Cinquento with chairs and picnic stuff  and headed down the Ancient Highway towards Glastonbury. Kim drove and I wondered what lay ahead. Would the concert be something special as Avalon had been such an influence on Van's work?. When we reached Pilton there was no sight of the 5 mile 12 ft fence that surrounded the site of The Glastonbury Festival. We had been here at the world's biggest Pop Festival only five weeks before. Soon the famous Tor came into view. As we got nearer, tiny figures could be seen walking about on the summit. They weren't the Elfin Folk from the Underworld, they were ordinary people, they just looked tiny because they were a long way away.

The George & Pilgrim.

We arrived at our hotel, The George And Pilgrim, which is about 600 years old and supposed to be haunted. In the bar there was a good crowd of Van fans including Simon from Wavelength magazine who organised the pre-show gatherings in those days. We had a merry little gang assembled and it was great to meet The Dude from North Carolina who is a legend in his own lunchtime. Finally, we walked across the road to the Abbey grounds for the concert.

Abbey Ruins.

The support act Chris Farlowe who I don't like very much was on when we arrived. We had a picnic and then it was time for Van, so we walked down to the front of the stage where we were just a few feet away from Van who was wearing his summertime straw hat..All Work And No Play was the first song which I didn't like much, followed by  Fame, which I wasn't keen on either. Jackie Wilson Says was a lot better. Then Van started singing Sometimes We Cry which is a great song, but Chris Farlowe came back on stage and ruined it. Then the pair of them sang Walking My Baby Back Home which was dire in my opinion. Whining Boy Moan was next and I was disappointed, to put it mildly. I said to The Dude,
"This is crap Dude". 

"Relax man, its the summertime!"

"Oh, Alright"

King Arthur's Grave.

Things got better after that. Baby Please Don't Go was followed by Here Comes The Night. Then a Van classic And It Stoned Me. Everything was forgiven. Back On Top was nice, Then another classic song Tore Down A La Rimbaud followed by Wonderful Remark and In The Afternoon. We walked back to where we were camped and listened to Precious Time which was followed by It's All Over Now Baby Blue, then Brown Eyed Girl and finally Gloria. The crowd loved it. It had been a great night with Van in Glastonbury. We did see Van once more in 2004 on November 26th at the Brighton Dome, but it was one of the most uninspired shows I have seen and I can't remember anything worth reporting about it, but the following year 2005 we went to eight Van shows and some of them were really memorable.

Van Morrison at Glastonbury Abbey 2004.