Review: Van Morrison – Live At Orangefield
Van Morrison – Live At Orangefield
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital / Label: Orangefield Records
Release: 2024
Text: Tom Wouters
In 2014, Van Morrison returned to the school of his youth in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was there, in 1959 at Orangefield Secondary School that Van Morrison performed for the first time in public with his skiffle group Midnight Special.
Morrison returned to perform three shows as a farewell to the school, which would close its doors for good that year in 2014 and be demolished three years later.
With his excellent backing band, consisting of Dave Keary (guitar), Paul Moran (keyboards), Paul Moore (bass), Bobby Ruggiero (drums), the horns of Alistair White and Chris White and the outstanding backing singers Dana Masters and Jolene O’Hara, Morrison mainly played songs that looked back on his youth in Belfast in the late 1950s.
He wrote and sang two songs specifically about the Orangefield school, the ode Orangefield and Got To Go Back, in which he explains why he had to return to the school of his youth. The spoken childhood memory On Hyndford Street about “the days before rock music” is also a direct reminder of that time.
Furthermore, ‘Live At Orangefield’ contains inspired versions of Morrison classics, such as Moondance, That’s Life, Rough God Goes Riding and Sometimes We Cry.
‘Live At Orangefield’ is a beautiful ode to the school of Van Morrison’s youth and perhaps the best live album Van The Man has ever made.
Tracks:
01. Celtic Excavation/Into The Mystic
02. Cleaning Windows
03. Orangefield
04. Moondance
05. Precious Time
06. That’s Life
07. Too Many Myths
08. Got To Go Back
09. Real Real Gone/You Send Me
10. Rough God Goes Riding
11. Enlightenment
12. Sometimes We Cry
13. Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
14. On Hyndford Street
15. Ballerina
16. In The Garden
Website: https://www.vanmorrison.com/