Brown Eyed Girl

(Van Morrison, Buxton Opera House, February 8th 2002)

Van Morrison sings, 'It's all in the game'.
Though older now, sharp suit and trilby hat
disguise the fact he's bald and getting fat.
Like honey spiked with broken glass, the same
sweet, soulful voice transforms a trite love song
into the mystic, as if to you alone
he's whispering. A husky saxophone
catches the refrain, mellow yet headstrong.

I think of those late Summer days we drove
the Cotswold's quiet byways listening
to 'Veedon Fleece'; my love, do you remember -
we watched the last few swallows flit above
the languid Windrush, your dark hair glistening,
my brown eyed girl, that golden September.

In the 25 years or so that I've lived in Buxton I suppose I could have familiarised myself with a good portion of opera and ballet's standard canon if I'd opted to become a regular at the Opera House. Actually, I'd be surprised if I needed the fingers on both hands to count the number of times I've been there. Not that I have anything against either opera or ballet, it's just that in a busy life we prefered to be at home with the kids and kept any spare cash to spend on travelling with them as and when we could.

One exception we did make was back in 2002 when the one and only 'Van the Man' dropped by. I remember being quite 'underwhelmed' by the earlier part of the set; Van seemed distracted, sometimes hardly bothering to try, the material 'retro', cool understated renditions of R&B standards. Towards the end things loosened up, I recall a long spacey rendition of 'It's All in the Game'  followed by a crisp, funky version of 'Jackie Wilson Said' and, somewhere amongst it all,  'Brown Eyed Girl' - a special song - it was great to sit and watch it together with my own brown-eyed girl.

It's always interesting to speculate when you re-read things you wrote years ago - how much was fact, and how much poetic licence - the sonnet was posted within a couple of days of the concert so it was written immediately after the event. I wonder if I was trying to finish it for Valentines day maybe. So far as its accuracy is concerned, then it is remarkable with a bit of 'cyber-archeology' just how much of that particular evening is spread across the internet. A site specialising in 'set-lists' records the running order and the same line-up appears on video from a concert in Spain later in the same year.

Van Morrison
02/08/02 (Fri) Opera House - Buxton, England

Set 1: Think(*NE), Celtic Swing, Back On Top, Days Like This, Whatever Happened To PJ Proby, Sometimes We Cry, Ain't That Loving You Baby(JH), Lucky Old Sun(JH), Cleaning Windows > Boppin' The Blues, In The Afternoon > Ancient Highway > Raincheck, Jump Jive And Wail, Roving Rambler, Stop Drinking, Don't Worry About A Thing, Have I Told You Lately 2001, It's All In The Game > You Know What They're Writing About > Make It Real One More Time > Rainbow '65, Out Of Sight(JH), Brown Eyed Girl, Jackie Wilson Said, Gloria..
     This shot from the video does show, I think, that the description in the sonnet was spot-on, his suit and hat did disguise Van's age and portly figure. I'm also left thinking that the concept of 'growing old' is a moveable one. It's somewhat salutory to consider that Van in 2002 was exactly the same age as I am now. Interestingly, I've taken to wearing brimmed hats too!  The video clip of 'It's All In The Game' illustrates nicely that his voice was like 'honey spiked with broken glass' and I'm pleased to have captured it in that phrase. Van Morrison's music is special for us, as the sestet reveals. In 1978, for our honeymoon, Gill and I hired a banana-yellow Citroen 2CV6 and spent a week touring  Shropshire, The Cotswolds and Chilterns staying in pubs. The car had no radio but we'd brought a portable radio cassette with us and a few tapes. We'd recently taped an album by Van Morrison, 'Veedon Fleece' and I remember driving sedately through the empty lanes around Stow-in-the-Wold listening to 'Linden Arden Stole the Highlights' and 'The Streets of Arklow'. Happy times.



Our hired 2CV reflected in the river Windrush at Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire.