Van Morrison, St David's Hall (From South Wales Argus)

Van Morrison, St David's Hall

2:40pm Sunday 25th September 2011 in Entertainments By Steven Healy

Van Morrison made a no frills enterance at 7.45 prompt,strapped on his sax and from the start, left the audience in no doubt as to who was running the show.

He directed his technically perfect seven-piece band with no more than a hand-movement, and from the first riveting notes of Moondance, to his finale,Gloria, when he made a James Brown, prompt exit with no encore we knew we were in the presence of a master.

What had come between those two songs two songs was something else. Indulging himself and his band and turning St David's Hall into an intimate jazz club, the set-list was nothing short of impressive.Hhe included Song of Home, Real Real Gone, Plan B, and of couse the classics, Crazy Love, Brown Eyed Girl and Have I Told You Lately The spiritual In the Garden was amazingly good, with Van just breathing into the microphone for over a minute whilst the band played on. An impromtu rant at Twitter and Facebook provided a tinmely extra verse to Talk is Cheap.

At 65, this is a man firmly at the top of his game, the concert was nothing less than extraordinary.