Van Morrison, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Chief Sports Writer

Monday 24 September 2012

THE notice on the televisions in the foyer states that Van Morrison will be on from 8pm to 9.30pm.

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Hugh MacDonald

Concert Hall staff tell patrons before, during and after entering the auditorium that there is to be no photography and no "live'' mobile phones. Direct eye contact with Van The Man is presumably also prohibited, though as a safeguard the pride of Belfast wears shades.

The prickly precision of Morrison extends to his advising his drummer "to watch my fingers'' as he dictates a beat, informing his guitarist that he "cannot hear him" and keeping a "drinks roadie'' on the sort of schedule that constitutes a training regime for an iron man competition.There is nary a complaint from the audience. The band is brilliant – with trombonist Alistair White extracting a raucous ovation with one coruscating solo – and Van the Man is in the driving street, belting through the past and, as ever, keeping a mordant eye on the present.He starts with Brown Eyed Girl and ends with a Gloria in excelsis but demonstrates throughout that he is still the same Belfast boy who was entranced by his father's LPs in the 1950s. Thus there is jazz, boogie woogie, blues and ballads. There is I Get a Kick Out of You from the songbook of Cole Porter and a breathtaking Ballerina from Astral Weeks.The chat is minimal, the musicianship exemplary and the singing passionate, even inspiring. Morrison asks for requests which he seems to ignore and goes his own way. He usually does.At 9.30pm, Morrison strides off the stage to a waiting roadie with a towel, the band hits a shrieking climax and the lights go up. The crowd bays in pleasure but there is no encore. To be fair, the telly had warned us. HHHH

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Van Morrison, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

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