Did you see Van on this tour? He used to be a regular visitor to Sheffield City Hall from the late '80s right through to when I left the city in early 2003. Several of us from work used to go each time. Each time it was more or less the same. Somewhere about the fourth or fifth song, Van would make a little gesture and the band would seem to kick up a level, and you'd wonder if, perhaps, on this night, they were about to "turn it on". But invariably it would be a false alarm, and they'd cruise their way through 80 or 90 minutes, pop back for a quick encore, and then disappear without ever getting much above third gear.
We discussed this pattern at work, and, when the gig on 5 March 1994 was announced, Jim O'M said he'd had enough of seeing the same lacklustre show, and he wasn't going to go this time. After what I'd witnessed with the Chieftains in 1988, I explained that I had to go, just in case he came anywhere near that experience.
I could only get a ticket in the circle on this occasion. (Perhaps word had got round that this tour was different.) It was quickly apparent that some things were different this time. The backing band, featuring Teena Lyle and Kate St John had trodden the same boards once or twice before, as had Georgie Fame, but the addition of Brian Kennedy and Shana Morrison was new. However, it wasn't until probably 45 minutes in — I think when Van started singing about his mobile phone in Soldier of Fortune that the spirit came to visit… and hung around for the rest of the show. Yes, they went off after 90 minutes as usual. But after that they came back and played two lengthy encores, totalling a further 90 minutes, packed full of show-stoppers. Several thousand people gaping in astonishment at what they were witnessing.
I went in to work on Monday morning and Jim asked me how it had gone. I told him Van had played for over three hours, including two long encores, and had lifted the roof off the place, going on until after closing time. He simply refused to believe me, and thought I was teasing him. When he read the report in Friday's Sheffield Telegraph, corroborating mine, he was really pissed off.
So I hope you didn't miss it too.
When I heard they were putting out an album from the tour, I was delighted, imagining a reprise of Too Late to Stop Now 20 years on, and I snapped it up from Our Price on the Moor as soon as I could. But it's not up to the standard of Too Late… and it doesn't capture the excitement of that night for me. Why not? It might be that Van wanted the San Francisco show because of the extra guests it featured (Candy Dulfer, Jimmy Witherspoon, Junior Wells, John Lee Hooker) even though the show didn't have the extra sauce. It may be just the length — disc 1 of this album is only 15 minutes shorter than discs 1 and 2 of Too Late… together — which is just a bit too much when the band aren't in the room with you.
"Ballads, blues, soul, funk & jazz" reads the legend on the back of the album, and its more apparent from the recording than it was from the show that this was conceived as a kind of revue, demonstrating how Van's original songs are woven from the same fabric as the songs by Sly Stone, Ray Charles, Billy Myles, Sonny Boy Williamson, Gene Vincent, Sam Cooke and even Rodgers & Hart, which Van covers and quotes.
And guess where I am tonight. Yep, San Francisco. [Update: in fact I had a couple of pints with Ethan from Songbird in the very building shown on the cover of the album.]
 MusicBrainz entry for disc 1disc 2 |
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