Van Morrison. Philharmonic Hall Liverpool, May 24th 2022.

This was the second time in four years that I have seen Van Morrison in the wonderful city of Liverpool. The previous occasion was at the outdoor Irish music festival at the Pier Head organised by Vince Power. I arrived at the venue as soon as the doors opened and hung around the entrance hoping to meet some of my Van fan friends. The days of big pre-show meet ups seem to be over, but it is always great to see Brendan from Ireland, and Alan McGinnity who I hadn’t seen for at least ten years, and also meeting Sofia from the USA for the first time. After the very positive reviews of Van’s recent American tour I was really looking forward to this concert, especially as I had said on Facebook that Van’s forte these days appears to be live shows rather than recordings.

I had a great seat in Row D right in front of the stage, and Van and the band shuffled on stage promptly at 8.00. The last time I saw Van in Oxford back in October I thought he had lost a lot of weight, but now he looks even thinner. He was wearing a suit that was the colour of a terracotta flowerpot. The band were Teena Lyle, Elle Cato, Colin Griffin, Paul Moore, Dave Keary, Chris White, and a new keyboards/piano player who I hadn’t seen before, (more about him later). The first song was the title track from his previous album Latest Record Project which is a catchy ditty to put the audience in a good mood, and I like the backing vocals of Elle and Teena. My Time After A While followed which I quite like, and I must say it is great to have Chris White back in the band. Both he and Van played sax during this number. The electric piano playing was also excellent. Up County Down is a jolly upbeat song which isn’t one of my favourites, but I bet people from Northern Ireland love it. 

Thank God For The Blues is another of Van’s more recent songs. What’s It Gonna Take? is the title song from the brand-new album. I don’t like it very much. What made it worse was that Van was clearly reading the words from a lyric sheet on his music stand. He obviously didn’t know the words to his own song. Another rant from the new album followed which was Dangerous. This was also read from his music stand. It was only enlivened by some tasteful playing by Chris and Dave. It was a blessed relief to hear the next song Days Like This. Another great song from the past is Someone Like You which was originally a wonderful ballad, but it has been given a new upbeat arrangement which highlights Teena on vibes and Elle on backing vocals. 

The medley of Baby Please Don’t Go / Got My Mojo Working brought the audience to life and Elle and Teena played tambourines and injected some fun into the proceedings. Think Twice Before You Go also involved some dance routines from the backing singers. Sam Cooke’s song Laughing and Clowning was one of the better songs of the evening for me. Dave on guitar and the organ solo were excellent. You can’t fault the band for trying, they were all doing their best. The audience clearly loved Precious Time which featured Dave on pedal steel guitar. I enjoyed Carrying A Torch which featured Elle. After the show Brendan said to me that he thought Elle Cato is Van’s best backing singer since Katie Kissoon and I think I agree with him. The piano solo was also wonderful on this song. The Ray Charles classic I Can’t Stop Loving You didn’t quite reach the heights of when Van had the Crawford Bell singers with him, but I still enjoyed it, and Dave played more pedal steel. Ain’t Gonna Moan No More featured a solo by Teena which brought spontaneous warm applause from the audience. Van excelled himself on sax as well. I should mention that Van’s voice sounds as good as ever. 

Broken Record again starred Teena, all the band had a solo, but I really don’t like this song, it irritates me. Wild Night improved matters and then the perennial crowd pleaser Cleaning Windows/ Be Bop A Lula. The Oscar nominated Down To Joy from Belfast was possibly my favourite song of the evening. I love the backing vocals which remind me a bit of Dylan’s backing singers around the Street Legal period. Chris again excelled on sax. I knew the end was nigh when Van sang Help Me which has been in his repertoire since the year dot. He then left the stage but returned for Brown Eyed Girl and Gloria to send the crowd home thinking they had got their money’s worth. The band played on after Van exited stage left, but I had heard enough by now and headed for the door.

Afterwards, I had a couple of drinks in the pub with Brendan and Alan. I think we all agreed that it was a pretty disappointing concert. I don’t know if Van is still tired after the American tour, or they wanted to play safe because of a new band member, but the concert just felt like a contractual obligation which he wanted to get out of the way. We all know that he can still perform great shows when he is in the mood and wants to show off how good he is. He knows what his best songs are, as he proved in Llangollen four years ago. There was no attempt in Liverpool for an extended workshop medley of great songs. Anyway, Dave Keary was sitting at the bar in the pub, so I asked him who the organ/piano player was. Dave told me that his name was John McCullough from Ireland. I thought he performed very well indeed, so I hope he stays in the band. Finally, I said cheerio to Brendan and Alan, and that was the end of my evening with Van Morrison in Liverpool.