Since playing last year’s BluesFest with Sir Tom Jones, Van Morrison has got his own knighthood. The title underlined his senior status at this double bill of British blues.
Jeff Beck, 72, was very much the support to Sir Van, 71, who permitted the guitarist a brief appearance in his set. Beck’s earlier performance of blues-rock bluster and ponderous instrumentals was never in the same league.
Morrison can be a mercurial character, though, and he seemed to be holding back on the blues that you might reasonably expect at an event called BluesFest. Apart from his screeching saxophone, it got off to a smooth start on jazzy renditions of Have I Told You Lately and Magic Time. Every Time I See a River, a new song from his 36th album, was a lovely, nostalgic ballad.
But you could sense something special was coming as Morrison, wearing his trilby and sunglasses, barked instructions at the band. Sure enough, the show suddenly ignited with his growling voice and blasting harmonica on Muddy Waters’s Baby, Please Don’t Go.
“Why do you like this so much?” he asked the whooping fans, though he seemed to be enjoying himself. The famously grouchy singer even cracked a smile during a duet with Chris Farlowe. Perhaps the lyrics to one mid-Nineties song recalled David Brent at his most toe-curling (“Wanna make love to you, in the afternoon”). But the blistering Gloria was the perfect finale to a weekend festival of blues.
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