There are certain songs that when you hear them, you could almost believe you were living in a film; they make a soundtrack to your life; the songs of Van Morrison must accompany many such life scenes. Driving through Thetford Forest on a summer's evening listening to And It Stoned Me, I thought to myself, 'This film of my life isn’t at all bad.' Dream better than realityLater on, watching one of popular music's great all-rounders perform just 20 feet away, I couldn’t help thinking that, as ever, the dream was better than the reality. In fairness to the great man, his vocal cords have not seized up like Dylan’s - he is still the owner of a powerful, at times unintelligible, tenor. And he's one of the few musicians who can pick up a saxophone without sounding schmaltzy. But it feels at times as though I'm watching The World's Most Accomplished Wedding Singer, and were it not for the fact that the singer wrote most of the classic songs, the band would be unexceptional. Half Vegas glitz, half Social Club naff, the roughness and world-weariness you'd expect from a soul man's backing band is sorely lacking. Van The Man himself, wearing shades, a straw bowler and a creased suit, is more like Hannibal Lecter than a pop icon: dispassionate, objective, detached. Where is the love?Safe standards like Wonderful Remark, Moondance and Bright Side Of The Road are given up skilfully, but not lovingly. More dynamic numbers like Jackie Wilson Said and Domino also lack conviction.  | | Van Morrison takes a breather by Claire Borley. |
One gets the impression of a man who's grown tired of his back catalogue and is going through the motions. The one saving grace is: the canon is so strong, hearing it sung live and in person is just reward enough. But for a few hundred hardcore fans at the front, the audience - most of whom have descended from Middle England - is sitting on the same green camping chair, and is politely appreciative, but never wild; the lack of enthusiasm seems to irk Van somewhat (pot, kettle, black, anyone?). As usual His Irksomeness doesn't play an encore, finishing effortlessly on Brown-Eyed Girl: a stock classic that's become tedious through DJs' lack of imagination - it fails to satisfy the taste for danger. On the night the weather is pleasantly mild, the performers disappointingly dreary and the music frustratingly tame. What’s that saying about how you should never meet your heroes? Van Morrison played at Thetford Forest on Saturday, 9 June, 2007. | 
