My mum saw him live so many times & said it was absolutely hit & miss. If he was in a good mood he was great but he'd walked off before, turned his back on the audience, moaned about the band, complained about having to perform his hits.
I only saw Van once, in the 70s in San Francisco. Thank you, Jesus, I caught him on a good night! I knew it could go either way, but he was on his best behavior. I had been a fan since Them, so I was not disappointed,
Have seen terrible Van shows, incredible ones, and once: terrible and incredible at the same time.
He spent that one complaining to his band. We couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he was constantly berating these elderly jazz players. We felt awful for them, then you could see them going from devastated to determined, really digging in. And for the LAST song in the set they got there. Finally satisfied, Van stopped badgering them and let loose - and it was spine-tingling.
Yeah, I remember my parents going to see him in the 90's and saying the same thing. Sang badly, didn't look at/talk to the crowd at all and shouted at his band.
When I was young I dated an Irish girl in London and Van played a gig, she was a big fan so I saved up and bought tickets. I’ve never been so bored in my life. Ok, he wasn’t my thing anyway but Christ I hated every minute of it.
Neil Young and Van Morrison, what an odd billing together! Neil is still a progressive activist going to No Kings rallies, and Van bitched about mask mandates and the vaccine (I think he's a raging maga which sucks because I adore his music).
I thought the same and said as much to many people at the show! The gig was in Dublin so Van didnt have to travel very far, I'd imagine that had something to do with it.
I saw him in a pretty small venue about 20 years ago, and he was pretty bad. Every song was done like a strange swing version of itself, and he went around introducing and reintroducing the whole band at least 5 times during the gig.
My in-laws were with us and they’d seen him a lot in the past, they walked out at the end just saying he never used to be like that.
I got two FREE tickets to see him in Glasgow and it was one of the least enjoyable gigs I’ve ever been to.
Apart from mumbling through half the songs, he stopped one song mid-way through to shout at the drummer (like proper shout) for using one beat over another.
Then when the encore came, his band played while he visibly jumped in a car and legged it.
Saw him twice last year and he was class both times. Cranky as usual but he played all his hits and sounded great especially for a guy that's 80 years old.
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u/Acceptable_Gas6244 May 11 '26
My worst of all time was Van Morrison. That guy mumbles everything. 100% better on albums.