Sir Van Morrison has dropped a legal challenge to a ban on live music being played in Northern Ireland.
The ban was part of a suite of measures introduced by the Stormont Executive to stem the spread of coronavirus, but ministers agreed to allow the resumption of live music in July.
In a statement on Tuesday, a spokesman for Sir Van said he has discontinued his judicial review proceedings at the High Court in Belfast.
However, while the singer welcomed the relaxation of coronavirus regulations, he “remains concerned by the failure of the NI Executive to share with him at any time the medical evidence that could ever have supported the need to maintain a blanket ban of live music”.
Sir Van cancelled concerts at the Ulster Hall which had been due to commence on July 23 amid uncertainty over whether rule changes would be approved.
He asked why a ban on live music remained in Northern Ireland longer than the rest of the UK.
Sir Van’s solicitor Joe Rice said his client had “sought to engage constructively with government” over how to bring back live music.
“I know that Mr Morrison was disappointed by the failure on the part of the NI Executive to engage with him and that he was ultimately compelled to bring legal proceedings in order to achieve the lifting of the ban on live music for the benefit of fellow musicians, performers, the live music sector as a whole,” he said.
“He also believes that had the NI Executive engaged meaningfully with both Mr Morrison and the industry from the outset, more pre-planned events, such as his Europa Hotel and Ulster Hall concerts, could have proceeded as planned.”
Sir Van hit the headlines during the pandemic after writing lockdown protest songs.
He also clashed with Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann, criticising him at a dinner event at the Europa Hotel in June, in response to an interview Mr Swann gave to Rolling Stone magazine criticising Sir Van’s anti-lockdown songs as “dangerous”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here