Van Morrison
Carre Theatre
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
September 29, 1986

Tracklist:

1. Celtic Swing
2. Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
3. Cry For Home
4. She Gives Me Religion
5. Tore Down a la Rimbaud
6. Vanlose Stairway
7. Beautiful Vision
8. It’s All in the Game>Make It Real One More Time
9. Domino
10. Cleaning Windows
11. Oh the Warm Feeling
12. Here Comes the Knight
13. Dweller on the Threshold
14. Help Me
15. And the Healing Has Begun
16. Gloria
17. In The Garden
18. Full Force Gal
19. Rave On John Donne

Neil Drinkwater – Keyboards
Ritchie Buckley – Saxophone
Jerome Rimson – Bass
Arty McGlynn – Guitar
Martin Drover – Trumpet
Ray Jones – Drums
Helen Bradley – Backing Vocals
June Boyce – Backing Vocals

Source 1:

Artwork

SHN Lineage: CDR > WaveLab (digital remastering) >CDR >WaveLab (DAE) > shorten v3.3

Known Flaws:

t8 – 2 seconds frequency interferences inbetween 0:03 and 0:05

Comment:

These shn files decode to the original remastered wav files as received from wolf himself.

Source 2:

FM Stereo Broadcast

SOURCE: DATA DVD (FLACS)

CDDA Test shows Tracks to be between 42/43% CDDA. Most probable cause for this is a DAT Transfer

somewhere in the linage using 32 kHz at 16 bits instead of 44.1 or 48 kHZ. This has ocurred on

some Dylan Bootlegs and they become mistaken as Lossy.

If I had any doubt that this recording was Lossless I can assure you it would not be in my collection.

Front Artwork (Adapted) and Rear Artwork by JTT

Source 3:

Here’s another of my favorites. This one re-mastered in 2001 by the legendary Wolf. I’m not sure of the linage but it sounds like a SB or FM to me. The first song of the concert was not included in the recording. (Moondance) (inst.). Please correct me if I’m wrong. I’m just in this to share what I have.

Enjoy, twofthrs

I also have some random artwork that doesn’t come with any of the sources. I don’t remember where I got it. But you can have it too (click here)

The Midnight Cafe’s review:

This is a very good show with superb sound, but not a great one. It begins with a nice version of “Celtic Swing”. Vanomatic indicates they played an instrumental version of “Moondance,” but none of my sources have that. My post on the old blog also has “Moondance” on it, and that was definitely something he was doing regularly at the time, so I think it is safe to say he played it that night, but again I don’t have a copy of it.

The next three songs, “Northern Muse (Solid Ground)”, “Cry For Home”, and “She Gives Me Religion” are played very quickly. I don’t mean the tempo is fast; they just don’t last very long. They are each under three minutes. There are times when Van would basically play a medley of his hits at the start of the show, almost like he was trying to get through them to satisfy the casual fans before moving on to what he really wanted to do. This isn’t that. Those songs aren’t his greatest hits, and they aren’t quite a medley. But it does feel like he’s just trying to get through them. They aren’t bad performances. Van and his band are too good for that, but they feel rushed. Most of the show is good, but it feels a bit lacking. It doesn’t have that little something that makes his best shows so special. It lacks that Celtic Soul we all come for. Again, it isn’t bad. In fact its quite good. Had I been there in person, I would have raved about it. This is a very good band putting on a very good show, but for the most part Van just doesn’t seem to be in that special place he sometimes goes to.

“Tore Down A La Rimbaud” isn’t much longer; it clocks in at just three minutes and eight seconds, but it has some jaunty horns and a terrific little sax solo. The horns are really what stand out in this show. They really bring these songs to life. “It’s All in the Game/Make It Real One More Time” is where Van finally does seem to be feeling the spirit move him. He does that thing where he starts repeating himself as if thrown into a trance. It is glorious.

“Oh the Warm Feeling” has this lovely xylophone-esque intro. Probably just keyboards sounding beautiful. I’m terrible at instruments. ”Dweller on the Threshold” has some fantastic horn sections.

“And the Healing Has Begun” is where it is at. It is one of my favorite Van songs, and they just nail it here. There is some really beautiful guitar picking accompanied by some fine keyboard tickling. In my notes, I literally wrote: “Oh yeah, this is the stuff.”

I’ve probably underrated this show. It is a very fine performance. Indeed, Van doesn’t quite move into transcendence very often. Those early songs do feel truncated. But the sound quality is great, and non-transcendent Van is still wonderful. And there are a few moments where he gets the spirit, and those are very fine indeed.