In Ireland (1981)

Original title

Van Morrison in Ireland

Directed by

Michael Radford

Genre

music

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

56 min

Rating

10.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This film captures Van Morrison performing a concert in Northern Ireland in 1979, with footage of the band traveling and images of Belfast. The setlist mixes songs from his 1978 album "Wavelength" with older material from the 1960s and 1970s.

live-concert-feelnostalgicintimatereflectiveenergeticatmosphericmusically-texturedregional

What happens

Van Morrison in Ireland is the first official video by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1981 of a concert Morrison recorded in Northern Ireland in 1979. It was directed by Michael Radford who later became a noted filmmaker. The video includes footage of the band whilst touring in Ireland and images of Belfast, including Hyndford Street and Cyprus Avenue. Tony Stewart of the NME states, "The band display a range of textures reminiscent of The Caledonia Soul Orchestra, first with the dark resonance of Toni Marcus' violin, then Pat Kyle's bright sharp tenor sax and finally Bobby Tench's prickly electric guitar". This concert featured the band with which Morrison recorded his 1978 album Wavelength, augmented by a horn section and violinist. The concert included two songs from Wavelength, the title track and "Checkin' It Out". The rest of the songs had originally been recorded at least seven years earlier, the latest of these being "Saint Dominic's Preview" from 1972. Also on the video are two songs Morrison had recorded when fronting the band Them in the mid 1960s — "Don't Look Back" and "Gloria". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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