30 Mar 74
In the last week of March of 1974, Van Morrison returned to Ireland
to play a series of sold out concerts at Dublin's Olympia Theatre.
Shackled with a flu virus, Van slogged through the first shows of the
gig.
His strength returned, however, on March 30th, and he took the stage
for
an inspired and elevated performance. That show is presented here for
the
first time and anchors Volume 2: The 70's of the Millennial Tree.
Rounding things out are a number of other rare, notable performances.
>From August 1976 comes a 3 song guest spot of Van with Eric Clapton
including a Slowhanded "Into The Mystic." Two novelties appear: a guitar
rock version of "Gloria" from 1978 and a disco-leaning "I've Been Working"
from Scotland in 1979. Lest you suspect that Van had derailed, the
same
show featured the first ever appearance of Van with The Chieftains
for a
surprising encore long before the "Irish Heartbeat" tour of late 1987
and
1988. From that show, "Rolling Hills" concludes our look back to Van
in
the 70's.
A note on the sound: these are historic archival efforts from a
period in which audience recording produced only marginal quality.
Every
effort has been made to present these shows in the best possible sound.
The Dublin show in particular presented many challenges including level
changes often several times per song. The guest spot with Clapton is
from
the best available source, but do not expect soundboard audio. This
series
is a document not a DAT--at least not from the 70's. The muse is, however,
richly intact.
Ignatz