Shows in History: Van Morrison – Rotterdam, The Netherlands (03/30/91)

I’m going to try this again. I do like this idea. I like looking at what shows were played on any particular day. There is a part of me that loves stats. I love seeing if there are particular days that have a lot of shows or others that have very few shows. When I am good at this sort of thing, you can follow a tour and see how often the setlists change, etc.

But really, right now, I like listening to shows that happen today. I have a lot of shows, and it is always difficult to know what to listen to. Finding a show that was performed on this day sometime in history is easy. And fun.  And here we go.

As much as I love Van Morrison, I’m not well versed in his different eras. I know about Them and the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, his time with Pee Wee Ellis, his brief stint with Linda Gail Lewis, etc. But I unlike with the Grateful Dead or Bob Dylan, I couldn’t tell you my favorite year for Van Morrison performances or anything really about a specific time period.  For me with Van I’m usually just picking out something at random and giving it a listen. I should work on that. 

I mention this to say I don’t really know what was going on with Van in 1991. I know he released Hymns to the Silence this year, and that’s a good album. But I don’t know if this is considered a good year for Van or not.

Listening to this show, I suspect it is a good year. The liner notes indicate the bootleg Pagan Streams was recorded around this time, and that one’s a killer.  This is a long show with something like 29 songs being played and running just over three hours in length.

Most of the first disc isn’t really my thing. I don’t tend to like his bluesy numbers. Songs like “Stormy Monday” and “Baby, Please Don’t Go” are fine, not bad, but they don’t really do it for me. 

Things pick up toward the end of Disc 1 with “And the Healing Has Begun” and the rest of the disc finishes out strongly. Disc 2 begins with “Help Me” which is another song I tend to not gravitate toward, though I’ve heard some good versions. This one is certainly energetic.

But then we get to “Orangefield” and I’m in heaven. The rest of the set is wonderful straight through. “Summertime in England” lasts a full twenty two minutes, which I think is the longest one he ever played. Certainly the longest version I’ve ever heard. 

Van is in good spirits throughout. He talks a lot, and the conversations are interesting.  

The sound quality is mostly good. The liner notes talk about how there was a low quality AUD that circulated for a long time, but then they found a new source of a much better quality. Unfortunately, that source doesn’t have all the songs, so they are spliced in, which can be a little jarring. Especially in the middle of “Summertime in England” which I guess got cut off in the best-sounding tape. 

If you don’t already have this, email me, and I’ll point you in the right direction.

Just for kicks I played around with it today and managed to upload “Whenever God Shines His Light” to YouTube. I really just wanted to see if I could do that.

Here are the full show notes.

Van Morrison
March 30, 1991
De Doelen – Rotterdam, Netherlands

Source: Daud clone, except for the three Georgie Fame selections, the conclusion to Summertime in England starting at approximately 17:00, and Caravan through end of show , which are from unknown generation cassettes > CD

The Complete Show

CD 1
1) You’re The One
2) Out of Sight
3) Ain’t That Loving You Baby
4) Stormy Monday,
5) Baby Please Don’t Go
6) We’re Gonna Groove > Who Do You Love (Van with Howlin’ Wilf and the Vee Jays (James Hunter)

7) Parchman Farm
8) Yeh Yeh
9) Green Onions (Georgie Fame and band)

10) And The Healing Has Begun
11) See Me Through
12) Moondance
13) Youth of 1000 Summers
14) Whenever God Shines His Light

CD 2:

1) Help Me
2) Carrying a Torch
3) Orangefield
4) It’s All In The Game > Make It Real One More Time
5) Northern Muse(Solid Ground) > When Heart Is Open
6) I’ll Go Crazy
7) Enlightenment
8) Summertime In England

CD 3:
1) In The Garden
2) Vanlose Stairway > Trans-Euro Train
3) Caravan
4) Send In The Clowns
5) I Can’t Stop Loving You
6) Why Must I Always Explain
7) Gloria (Cuts. Tape apparently gave out at 3-hour mark)

Band: Haji Ahkba, trumpet; Richie Buckley sax; Dave Early, drums; Georgie Fame, organ; Howard Francis, piano; Steve Gregory, sax; Ronnie Johnson, guitar; Nicky Scott, bass.

Notes:
Many years ago I received two Maxell analog cassette tapes containing this show.
The sound on the tapes was very muffled and sounded like the show was duplicated on a boom box with dirty heads.
Oh, those were the days.
Despite the sound quality caveats, Van and the band’s performance was a treasure that I cherished and studied because of its depth and length. I believe the Summertime in England is the longest ever performed by Van. It runs almost 22 minutes. Morrison talks about Christianity, psychiatry, and cults, among other things.
I searched and searched for a good quality recording of this gig for years, and finally one surfaced, but it ended 17 minutes into Summertime, then cut abruptly. The entire rest of the show involving an additional 7 songs was missing.
Recently, in a true labor of love, a friend and Van archivist and my brother helped prepare this complete version of the show, which contains the original nearly two hours of good quality recording, plus the rest of the show from a higher quality analog cassette tape.
I remember that on my original cassettes of the gig, the final song, Gloria, cut, as it does here. It appears that the taper just “ran out of road” as the show went just over the 3-hour mark!
The show has never been uploaded in as complete a condition as this project. This upload runs just a few seconds shy of 3 hours, and contains the opening set of Van with Howlin’ Wilf and the Vee Jays. Georgie Fame then performs for three songs before Van takes the stage again.
Rotterdam was the first show of a legendary 3-gig run that also included The Hague and then Utrecht, made famous as Pagan Streams.

Here are some other shows that were performed today in history.

Eric Clapton & Friends – Malibu, CA (03/30/76)

10,000 Maniacs – Our Time In Eden Tour Rehearsals (03/30/92)

Pink Floyd – Miami, FL (03/30/94)

Bruce Hornsby – Williamsburg, VA (03/30/99)

The Dead – New York, NY (03/30/09)

Adele – Milan, Italy (03/30/11)