Top Of The Bill! cover
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Top Of The Bill!
(bootleg CD)

Doberman 093
(Released 1997)

  1. Rough God Goes Riding (5:47)
  2. Domino (3:23)
  3. It Once Was My Life (4:45)
  4. Whenever God Shines His Light (3:39)
  5. Days Like This (3:14)
  6. Sometimes We Cry (5:58)
  7. Fire In The Belly (6:10)
  8. In The Afternoon (8:00)
  9. Jackie Wilson Said (3:53)
  10. Vanlose Stairway (4:07)
  11. I'm A Fool For You (3:48)
  12. Summertime In England (8:09)
  13. Burning Ground (7:15)
  14. The Healing Game (6:27)
    Total time: (74:35)

All songs recorded at the Fleadh Festival, Finsbury Park, London on June 7, 1997

Review by Jon Strand:
This is another Doberman DAT recording (aside: one could mistakenly start thinking that the "A" in DAT stands for "Audience.") It's one of their two best Audience recordings I've gotten so far, as far as recorded quality goes. You might want to compare this to CIB's On The Burning Ground, recorded a week later on Long Island. Both are Guiness Fleadh Festivals. Both have 14 songs with 9 in common. This British audience is, happily, maybe more reserved, or more sober, or maybe this just had better microphone placement.

Van doesn't quite reach the vocal heights of OTBG's "A Fool For You" but this is an awfully good show. Van here is a full-throated R'n'B singer/screamer using few of his vocal mannerisms. His mike is mixed a bit forward. He's having a good time and could sing the directions to his hotel and make it sound good, which he does, actually, on "Summertime In England."

There's the subtle lead guitar intro to "Vanlose Stairway," and Van's harmonica here and there. There's light, elegant piano on the quiet numbers, and Georgie Fame's organ fills -BUT- instrumentally, this is a horn CD with Pee Wee Ellis leading the section in tight ensemble work. Pee Wee takes a lovely, understated solo on "Fire In The Belly," and there's Matt Holland's trumpet on "In The Afternoon." There's a stop-the-show sax solo on "Sometimes We Cry."

The audience is not intrusive but they're there singing along with "Jackie Wilson Said." At about the 5 minute mark of "In The Afternoon," it occurs to one Brit that the song is about shagging.

No musician credits are given, but Matt Holland is credited after his solo, and on the last track credit is given to "Katie Kasoon, Brian Kennedy, Georgie Fame, Pee Wee Ellis and the Van Morrison Orchestra."

Note "Domino" should really be listed as "Domino/Shot Of Rhythm And Blues."

Part of the van-the-man.info unofficial website