Review: Van Morrison At Nell's 16th February 2017.

Van Morrison seems to like playing at Nell’s in West Kensington. Last night when I was leaving the club I thanked the owner Vince Power for a great evening and he told me that it was the 18^th show Van had played at Nell’s. That is quite amazing when you think it has only been open since November 2014. I think it is because Van likes playing small intimate venues when he gets the chance. Maybe it reminds him of when he began his career at the Maritime Hotel in Belfast over 50 years ago. This is my story of yesterday.

I arrived in London Waterloo Station at about 1.00 and as it was a nice sunny day I took a leisurely stroll across the river to Embankment underground station. By the time I crossed the river I was singing Van’s latest song ‘Every Time I See A River’ in my head. Then it was just a short journey on the District Line to West Kensington. As soon as I came out of the station who should I meet but top Van fan Kerrie Brown. Kerrie had seen Van the night before and had got a signed CD and photos with Van so she was well chuffed. I told Kerrie I’d see her later and found my hotel which was only a couple of minutes away and had a snooze for a couple of hours.

It was 5.00 when I woke up. I had a look at the queue outside Nell’s and Kerrie was right at the front of it. She told me that our friend Yves-Michel ‘Burning Ground’ Balin was in the pub so I went to the ‘Famous 3 Kings’ to see him. It was great to catch up with him again and we had a good chat for about an hour. Eventually Yves-Michel went off to get in the queue but I stayed and had another drink. About 7.00 I thought I had better go as the doors were opening. In the queue it was brilliant to see my Spanish friend Miquel Rovira and his lovely wife Elena and their friend Thomas. I hadn’t seen Miquel since the ‘Lit Up Inside’ show in 2014.

Once inside, I spotted Brendan from Ireland which was the first time I’d seen Brendan since I was sat next  to him at the Van fans party for Van’s 70^th birthday in Belfast 2015. Brendan always writes great reviews on the Mystic Avenue site so I am looking forward to seeing what he thought of this show and see if he agrees with me. Also, tucked away in a corner at the back, relaxing before the show I spotted three members of Van’s band, drummer Mez Clough, guitarist Dave Keary and singer Dana Masters. I don’t want to sound sexist but Dana looked stunningly beautiful. I had a little chat and they were very polite but I bet they just wanted to have a few quiet moments. I asked if it was ok to take a photo and they obliged. I had turned flash off on my camera so the photo isn't that great.

Then it was Showtime. It was nice to see Sumudu back, sharing backing vocal duties with Dana. The last time I saw Van in Nottingham 3 months ago was Sumudu’s first show with Van. The opening song was Goldfish Bowl which isn’t one of my favourite songs by any means but in this tiny venue, up close you don’t mind so much. Symphony Sid  followed. It isn’t a favourite of mine either but Dana added some really nice vocals. Do you know that Symphony Sid is mentioned in my favourite book of all time which is On The Road by Jack Kerouac.

“Dean took the wheel and drove clear the rest of the way to New York, and we began to hear the Symphony Sid show on the radio with all the latest bop, and now we were entering the great and final city of America.” (Jack Kerouac, On the Road, pt. 3, ch. 11) See photo of Symphony Sid.

Then it was Keeping Mediocrity At Bay, another of Van’s lesser songs in most fans opinion but Van seems to like it. Maybe he is trying to tell us something. Beautiful Vision was next and this was really nice and it was 35 years to the day since that great album was released.I wonder if Van realised that or if it was just coincidence. Tear Your Playhouse Down followed and again I think this is one of my least favourite Van songs but it allowed Dave Keary to show what a great guitarist he is. In contrast Sometimes We Cry is a classic Van song and Dana added some wonderful vocals to this song.

Van then added to his vast repertoire of instruments I have seen him play by picking up a pair of maracas. This is the first time in about 60 concerts where I have seen him play maracas, he said,” This is a Jazz & Blues club, so I’m gonna play some Bo Diddly”, I think the song was called ‘I Can Tell’. It was ok I suppose but when you are sat about 12 feet away from your favourite singer of all time you don’t care.

Then Van said, “I’m going to sing some songs that we used to do in the Maritime Hotel in Belfast back in 1964”, and sang Baby Please Don’t Go, Midnight Special, Parchman Farm, Don’t Start Crying Now and Custard Pie. It was great, I think Van is quite nostalgic for the olden days in Belfast when he was young and just starting out. There was a complete change of mood then for In The Midnight in which Dave Keary played some wonderful pedal steel guitar. The song had a sort of 1950’s doo-wop feel for me. This was followed by Think Twice Before You Go and then Precious Time which I know some of the Vanatics don’t like all that much but Dave on pedal steel and Paul on trumpet were excellent.

The show went from really good to sublime then, when Van put on his electric guitar for Why Must I Always Explain. It was fabulous and was followed by Ray Charles’s I Can’t Stop Loving You. Dana & Sumudu were great on the backing vocals for this song which reminded me of when Van had the Crawford Bell singers in the band about 10 years ago. The brilliance continued with In The Afternoon. Van  stopped the song to have a little mini-rant about BBC Radio 2 presenter Steve Wright who has a show called ‘Steve Wright In The Afternoon’. Van said he had met him about 20 years ago and he still has a grudge against Van now. Van said, “ Anyway, up your’s Steve Wright”. I agree with Van, I can’t stand the pillock either. Apart from that the song developed into Raincheck and it was great.

The show was coming to a climax now with All In The Game in which Dave on guitar and Paul on trumpet were magnificent and the song evolved into You Know What They're Writing About /No Plan B No Safety Net. This is the transcendental stuff that keeps us die-hard Van fans coming back for more. Van left the stage but came back for Help Me which was good but I’ve heard it many a time before. When Van left the stage again I was heading for the door because I knew the band would be playing away for another ten minutes. That’s how I managed to have a chat with Vince on the way out.

Outside on the pavement in the rainy London night I said cheerio to Kerrie who had to rush off and then me, Burning Ground, Miquel, Elena & Thomas went to the pub. Marcel-Yves was buzzing from the concert. We all agreed it was great. They were playing bass and drum dance music in the pub and Marcel-Yves couldn’t stand it after seeing Van so he headed off. Eventually the pub closed and I said goodnight to the others and headed back to my hotel.

This morning it was a beautiful sunny warm Spring day in London town and I went for a nice walk along the river. I was early for my train so went in a pub near Waterloo called The Hole In The Wall. Guess what music they were playing ? Only Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison. The perfect end to a really nice trip to London to see Van the man. Let’s do it again soon !

Review: Crazy Dancing Days by Keith Christmas.

It has been a long wait for a new album from Keith Christmas since Live At The Pump in 2012 so I was very pleased when Crazy Dancing Days popped through my letter box yesterday. The twelve songs on the album are all written by Keith and I think this is the first album of completely new material that he has produced in decades.

On opening the package which incidentally arrived only three days after I had ordered it, (I wish everyone I bought stuff from online was this prompt) I discovered a most attractively designed CD featuring a Mud Dance drip painting by Frank Marino Baker. There is also a photo by Tony Lock and Keith had also taken the time to sign my copy.

The opening track Crazy Dancing Days demonstrates what a virtuoso guitarist Keith is, as does every track on the album. In the lyrics, he mentions playing at Les Cousins. This was a folk club in Greek Street in Soho where everybody who was anybody in the folk music world of the 60’s played. It was famous for its all-night sessions. The song is a nostalgic look back to those heady days. There is quite a political message to this album as shown by the second song Cross The Water which is an impassioned plea for us to be more sympathetic to refugees. Sadly, a message that I fear is falling on deaf ears these days, especially in Brexit Britain. Flow Through Me is a great song which as I interpret the lyrics is about Keith getting the muse again during a trip to France and after years of writers block suddenly starts channeling songs. I often think that with artistic people that the inspiration doesn’t come from them, it flows through them and often even they don’t understand where it comes from. I suppose in the old days the next song Welcome To The End Of The World (One More Time) would be called a ‘Protest’ song. I think we could do with a few more protest songs these days.

 I am glad that the next two songs, Haul It Up and Sail With The Sun sit next to each other on the album because they seem to complement each other very nicely indeed. Both are awash with nautical references. I think you can tell that Keith lives by the coast. Talking To The Dead (Again) is a wonderful poignant song with Keith reflecting on the life of an old friend.

The political themes return in the next three songs. When The New Man Comes To Power seems very topical to me with the unspeakable one about to be installed as USA President. After watching the news about what is happening in Aleppo at the moment I think that King Of The Ruined Castle could easily refer to Assad but that’s just my interpretation. I have seen Keith perform If The Young Don’t March at the Village Pump fest and thinking what a great song it is. I’m not sure if I exactly agree though. It wasn’t the young who voted for Brexit, also I think there are a lot of marches and demos going on but it doesn’t get the coverage in the biased media. Jeremy Corbyn certainly got huge crowds of youngsters at his rallies during his leadership campaign.

Cover It Up features some frenetic guitar playing and sounds like quite an angry song. By complete contrast the last song Small Brass Box is a beautiful mellow ballad inspired by mementos of his parents. I loved this song on first listen. If a retrospective best of Keith Christmas album is ever issued in the future then I think this song would certainly deserve to be included on it.

I have really enjoyed listening to this album the last two days and Keith should be really proud of his achievement. If you would like to find out more about Keith Christmas then go to his website here-

 http://keithchristmas.com/

Fifty Years Ago Today. November 5th 1966.

I know exactly what I was doing on November 5th 1966 because it was Bonfire night and I had some money left from my 15th birthday but I wasn't going to spend it on fireworks. I had a much better idea of what to spend my money on. That afternoon I made my way to Boots store in Bridge Street which had a record department up at the far end and looked at the Top 20 for that week.
1) REACH OUT I'LL BE THERE Four Tops
2) STOP, STOP, STOP Hollies
3) I CAN'T CONTROL MYSELF The Troggs
4) DISTANT DRUMS Jim Reeves
5) WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL New Vaudeville Band
6) HIGH TIME Paul Jones
7) NO MILK TODAY Herman's Hermits
8) GUANTANAMERA Sandpipers
9) BEND IT Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich
10) TIME DRAGS BY Cliff Richard
11) SEMI-DETACHED SURBURBAN MR. JAMES Manfred Mann
12) I'VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN Four Seasons
13) IF I WERE A CARPENTER Bobby Darin
14) A FOOL AM I Cilla Black
15) GOOD VIBRATIONS Beach Boys
16) I'M A BOY The Who
17) ALL I SEE IS YOU Dusty Springfield
18) ALL THAT I AM Elvis Presley
19) HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR MOTHER, BABY, STANDING IN THE SHADOWS Rolling Stones
20) YOU CAN'T HURRY LOVE Supremes

I knew exactly the one I wanted. I had been a Beach Boys fan for two years already since hearing I Get Around in an amusement arcade in Cromer in 1964. The Beach Boys had already had three top ten hits in 66 with Barbara Ann, Sloop John B and God Only Knows. The new song was straight in the charts at Number 15 and I hadn't heard it yet. "Can I have Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys please", I said to the girl, handing over a ten shilling note, and paid 6/8p (six shillings and eight pence). I pocketed my 3/4p change and hurried back up Bridge Street clutching my precious record. There was a man on the corner of Cathedral Square selling the Evening Telegraph and the Pink 'Un.

" How did Posh get on?",I asked him."They drew 1-1 with Bristol Rovers",he replied. I crossed the square and headed up Long Causeway and Broadway, past the Odean Cinema which was showing 'Finders Keepers' starring Cliff Richard. It was rubbish, we had seen it that week because I had won free tickets in the 99 Club in the Evening Telegraph. I ran up Park Road past the The Kings School  kicking the fallen chestnut leaves along the pavement. It was a dark and windy evening now with just the odd rocket exploding in the gathering dusk. I got home and went straight to the front room and put on my new record and lay on the settee to listen. I was amazed. It was the best song I had ever heard in my life. I couldn't believe it. After one listen I knew that music had taken a quantum leap to another level. Nobody had made a record this sophisticated before. It was a mini-symphony of three and a half minutes. If Mozart had been alive in 1966 he would have listened with admiration to this song. When it ended I played it again, lying on the floor with my head near the speaker listening intently to sounds I had never heard before such as the theremin which was an instrument I had never even heard of. It was enthralling. Rolling Stone magazine put this song as number six on its list of the 500 greatest pop songs of all time. I would put it at number one. Then I played it again... and again...and again. Then played the flipside which was called Wendy and was a track off the All Summer Long album of two years earlier. It was alright, but not a patch on Good Vibrations which I played again about five more times. With this song Brian Wilson had thrown down the gauntlet to the Beatles. He had assembled the record from 90 hours of recording tape and spliced the various parts together. Nobody had attempted this modular approach to recording before to produce the perfect song. There would have been no Strawberry Fields Forever or A Day In The Life if it hadn't been for Brian raising the bar in such spectacular fashion.

On that fateful evening of fifty years ago today my music appreciation had reached a new level. Brian Wilson had become my music god and my life would never be the same again. Shortly afterwards I had saved up the 32/6p to buy Pet Sounds which I thought was the best album ever until I heard Astral Weeks seven years later.

Review: Keep Me Singing By Van Morrison.

I like to support my local music shop if I can so on Friday morning still buzzing from Van’s great concert on the BBC the previous night I caught the bus over to Warminster where I picked up the CD of Van’s 36^th solo album Keep Me Singing from Raves From The Graves record shop. Then I met my friend Sian in the Bath Arms pub and eagerly opened the package. The artwork is by Justin Helton who apparently designed the posters for some of Van’s shows in the USA earlier in the year. I was really pleased that the CD contained a booklet with all the lyrics because I like poring over the words to see what I can glean from them. Later that afternoon I played the album for the first time and immediately decided that this is Van’s best recorded work in 20 years. I have been guilty in the past  of being over-enthusiastic on hearing a Van album for the first time so I waited till today before writing a review. I must say though after a few listens that I think it is possibly his best work since Down The Road in 2002. Let’s have a look at the songs.

Let It Rhyme is a great opening track. Van complained in an interview recently about the length of time it takes to do the mixing after the recording is complete but I think the wait has been worth it because Enda Walsh has done a great job in the mixing and adding Fiachra Trench’s strings. One thing that this album shows is that Van’s voice is as great or even greater than ever. Van plays some really nice blues harp and Paul Moran’s Hammond organ playing deserves a mention as well.

Every Time I See A River is a collaboration between Van and the famous lyricist Don Black and I think it is destined to be a Van classic and I can imagine it being part of his live repertoire for years to come. Dave Keary shows what a fine guitarist he is on this song.

The title track Keep Me Singing is next. Here we find Van on the corner where the homeboys welcome him back which is an image Van has conjured up before in his long and illustrious career and the great Sam Cooke gets another mention in a Van song. Watching boats from the hillside also reminds me a bit of previous Van songs such as So Quiet In Here. It’s nice to see some old faces from a previous Van era reappearing on this album such as Johnny Scott, Nicky Scott & Liam Bradley. Van plays more great harp on this track as well.

Out In The Cold Again is another great song. It only features one member of Van’s present band who is Paul Moran but really nice to see Kate St John return on the Cor Anglais. There is some very nice acoustic guitar played by Nigel Price. When I read the lyrics before hearing the song I thought the words were quite depressing but you don’t get the feeling of rage on this album but more like world weary resignation in the cold black night. I think this song will be great in concert.

Memory Lane is well named because it reminds me of Van songs from another time mentioning Autumn and leaves in all their splendour. I think it must have been recorded at the same session as the previous track because it features the same eight people. Another great song which the fans will love.

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword is a complete change of mood and quite funky and you can have a dance to this one if you want. The lyrics are a bit repetitious but that doesn’t matter. Dave Keary and Van play some great guitar on this track.

Holy Guardian Angel might prove to be my favourite track from the album in time. It is very spiritual as you would imagine from the title. I think this song might have evolved from Van’s concert performances because in the past when stretching out In The Garden he has often referred to guardian angels and the witching hour. It is very nice to see that John Platania another of Van’s old friends from the past playing acoustic guitar on this song. In the lyrics van sings ‘Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, nobody knows my sorrow’, this is taken from an old slave spiritual published in 1867 which has been recorded by Louis Armstrong, Sam Cooke and many others which Van has cleverly worked into this song.

Share Your Love With Me is the only cover version on the album and was written by Alfred Braggs & Don Robey. Van originally recorded it for a Bobby Bland tribute album which never happened so he decided to include it here. Van’s admiration of Bobby Bland goes back a long way with his band Them recording Turn On Your Love light and Van’s live version of  Ain’t Nothing You Can Do. This song is a nice rhythm & Blues song with a hint of country. No wonder Kenny Rogers had a hit with it.

In Tiburon is next and I loved the lyrics of this song when I first heard it because it mentions a lot of the Beat Generation writers who I admire such as Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It also mentions City Lights Bookshop and it was City Lights who published the American edition of Van’s book of lyrics ‘Lit Up Inside’. Ferlinghetti is still alive actually aged 97, I wonder if he knows that Van has mentioned him in a song. He read one of his poems at the Last Waltz concert where Van stole the show so they do know each other. This song is dripping with literary and music references. I think I noticed a typo error in the lyrics booklet. It mentions the ‘Hungry Eye’ club, I think it should read ‘The Hungry I’. Also the song mentions another of Van’s heroes Chet Baker playing at The Trident. It was outside the Trident that Chet Baker while trying to score some heroin got beaten up so badly that all his teeth got knocked out which ruined his embouchure so he couldn’t play his horn for a long while till he got his mouth sorted out.  Cast Your Fate To The Wind by Vince Guaraldi which is also mentioned got to number 5 in the UK Charts in 1965 when recorded by Sounds Orchestral. Anyway, all that besides, this is a great song and one of my favourites from the album and has foghorns a plenty which Van also likes to mention occasionally.

Look Beyond The Hill I think is one of the lesser tracks on the album but I might change my mind after a few more listens.It was originally an instrumental called Yo and was a B-Side to one of Van's singles but he has revisited it and added lyrics.

Going Down To Bangor is the fun song with Van getting aboard a charabanc with his bucket and spade for a day at the seaside. I think his Northern Ireland fans will love all the local references to the Pickie Pool, Napoleons Nose, Cave Hill and Donaghadee.

Too Late is the token pop song and the first single from the album. I thought it was Dave Keary doing the backing vocals as he does live but he is not credited on this track so I think it must be Lance Ellington who sings backing vocals with Dana Masters.

Caledonia Swing is the instrumental track which brings this excellent album to an end. Van has had an obsession with the word Caledonia all his life even to the extent of it being his daughter Shana’s middle name. I think it is because he is proud of his Ulster/ Scots background and Caledonia is the old Roman word for Scotland. Anyway, it is quite a jolly romp and it’s nice to see his old fiddle player Tony Fitzgibbon make a welcome return.

I highly recommend this album which is a great addition to the finest body of work of any singer in the world. To make an album of this quality at the age of 71 after a career of over 55 years is quite an amazing achievement.

                                                             The End.

Van Morrison - Too Late

Down By Avalon on August 6th 2016

Van Morrison on Cyprus Avenue was undoubtedly the Van gig of 2015 but Van's concert at Glastonbury Abbey must be a contender for the Van concert of 2016. This is what happened. When I woke up on Saturday morning I opened the curtains and the light came shining through. "Brilliant", I thought to myself. It was a hot sunny day and I kicked my heels for hours waiting for the afternoon. Finally I met the others in the pub and fifteen of us set off in a minibus from the Market Place in Westbury at 4.15. There was me, Sian, Colin, Sharon, Mark, Angela, Chris, Chrissie, Jacquie, Phil, Marty, Ann, Phil, Tommy the driver and his sister & her husband. I got Tommy to play the Into The Music album by Van and we passed the time chatting and drinking wine.

In next to no time we arrived outside Glastonbury Abbey where about 10.000 people were still pouring into The Abbey grounds. As soon as we set up camp Jacquie served up a picnic while we listened to the Wells Cathedral School Big Band. I didn't avalot of food, I concentrated on the wine. After a while me and Sian decided to go for a walk and see if I could find any of the other Vanatics. It was great to bump into Howard and his family and Sue & Colin who I hadn't seen since Belfast last year. It was really nice to meet Simon & Sandra in the George & Pilgrim pub and we had a chat with them out the back of the pub for a while. Finally time was getting on and we returned to the Abbey.

Jamie Cullum was just finishing his set when we returned. I wasn't all that fussed about seeing him but a lot of the others later said he was really good. There is a Van connection with Jamie because when he was only 16 he was credited as an assistant engineer on Van's Days Like This album which must have been a valuable experience for him.
Finally I heard the familiar sound of Moondance  and said to Sian, " Come on, he's on, lets get down the front". Half way to the front though she didn't want to go any further saying it was too crowded, so that's where we stayed for the rest of the concert. I was pleased that Van had changed the intro to the concert though. Then Van introduced Clare Teal who actually lives in Glastonbury these days so she must have enjoyed singing to her neighbours.  They sang Way Young Lovers Do from the Astral Weeks album and Carrying A Torch which was one of the highlights of  the Duets album from last year. Clare departed and Van sang By His Grace  which was very spiritual and fitting for the mystical surroundings of the abbey. This theme continued with When Will I Ever Learn To Live In God? from the Avalon Sunset album and the lyrics of the song are perfect for this concert, ' The sun was setting over Avalon, the last time we stood in the west'.

The mood was much more up-beat then for Precious Time which went down a storm for those in the audience who just wanted to party and have a dance. Then Van said, "This might blow your mind", and introduced Joss Stone. Joss is local to the West Country as well. I think she lives in Devon somewhere. Some people I spoke to afterwards thought her performance was too over the top while others thought she was great. Anyway, They sang Wild Honey also from the Duets album and the classic Crazy Love. After Joss left the stage the dancing started again with Wild Night  and then the audience sang along with Have I Told You Lately in which Dana got the chance to show she is just as good a singer as Clare or Joss.

The medley of  Baby Please Don't Go/ Don't Start Crying Now  followed and Here Comes The Night. I thought Van's choice of songs for this gig was perfect with songs for the party people and also songs for those who preferred the less well known music. Haunts Of Ancient Peace was another brilliant choice of song for these surroundings which inspired Van to write some of his most spiritual music in the first place. Van played the keyboards on this song. Van even mentioned the church of Saint John which is actually in Glastonbury High Street which shows how familiar he is with this town.

Dana got the chance again to show how good she is when Van and herself sang Sometimes We Cry. This was followed by Whenever God Shines His Light  which isn't one of my favourites but this audience loved it. In The Afternoon/Ancient Highway/ Joe Turner Sings Flip Flop And Fly was a great medley of songs and included  Raincheck  which shows Van has no intentions of fading away anytime soon.
Think Twice Before You Go and Rock Me Baby were next and then Van played sax on I believe To My Soul which was great. Brown Eyed Girl and Gloria brought the proceedings to a close. When Van left the stage during Gloria the band played on as fireworks started erupting in the sky and we went back to base to collect our stuff. It must have been about midnight when we got back to Westbury after a brilliant night. It wasn't the greatest Van concert but for a great night out in nice weather with some great friends it was perfect. Thank you very much to Michael Eavis for organising such a great event.

Van Morrison Have I Told You Lately- Live at The Glastonbury Abbey Extra...