Monday 24 September 2007

Saturday 22 September 2007

My Van Morrison playlist

January 12th 2008 News Update
Van Morrison videos purged from Youtube. Youtube has not only removed all of my recordings of Van Morrison from the 2007 Glastonbury Extravaganza but has also removed many videos posted by other Van the Man fans and has even suspended a couple of accounts of active Van fans.



I first started to listen to Van Morrison in 1971, and though I had heard him sing in Them a few years earlier, I did not at the time know he had been their singer. Astral Weeks was my introduction to him as a singer and poet and it is still my favourite album of his. I lived in Leeds at the time and big Dave upstairs had this LP and used to play it for me. I recorded it on an old Aika reel-to-reel recorded I used to have and I played it for years after that.

I lost touch with Van - and much music - for a few years and it was only after I moved up to Sunderland some years later that I caught up with him again, This time the record was Veedon Fleece - my mate Fred introduced me to it. I wondered what happened to Fred?

No Guru, No Method, No Teacher is I think my second favourite, and then probably Moondance. You'll find songs from all of these and more on my playlist below.