“Be just and fear not”: this was an inscription cut out on a school desk Van Morrison immortalized on his forthcoming concert album for that has been a tenet the grumpy Irishman lived by all his life and the onstage recording in question is a document of the veteran’s return to his old Belfast haunt, Orangefield Secondary School, in August 2014. Van’s three performances there, tied in with the educational institution’s closing, felt right for Morrison who first played in front of his alma mater’s audience 55 years earlier, in December 1959, fronting a band called MIDNIGHT SPECIAL.
Not that “Live At Orangefield” which will be issued on August 2nd on CD and vinyl, delves into the material of yore; instead, the platter focuses on Van’s classics, yet of course, “Orangefield” from 1989’s “Avalon Sunset” is present alongside such evergreens as “Moondance” and “Ballerina” plus less popular, if equally compelling, numbers. Given there’s been no Morrison concert recording since “Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl” from 2009, this one feels important – although why a whole decade had to pass before best moments of those three outings were compiled for release remains unknown.
Live At Orangefield
1. Celtic Excavation / Into The Mystic
2. Cleaning Windows
3. Orangefield
4. Moondance
5. Precious Time
6. That’s Life
7. Too Many Myths
8. Got To Go Back
9. 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
