Van Morrison brings London Feis 2011 to a close

Thin Lizzy take top billing in last minute change

John Bownas - 20 June 2011

Monogrammed brass mic stand or not, Van Morrison is still the cantankerous old so-and-so he's always been.

With a stage regime that can see his sessions musician band fined for simple transgressions and a habit of not sticking to any pre-ordained set list, the jazz crooning Irishman took the stage at London Feis 2011 not as the advertised top of the bill, but rather playing second fiddle to a surprise headline slot courtesy of Thin Lizzy.

Chances are it was a cunning plan to let Van-the-Man fans get away in advance of the impending RMT tube strike, but there were a good few raised eyebrows as people examined their programmes and noticed the swap.

Segueing ‘Please Don’t Go’ into ‘Here Comes The Night’, Morrison sidestepped (or just completely ignored) the significant issue of singing into a microphone that wasn’t switched on and then surfed blithely through a jazz-lounge version of ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ that was beset with bass feedback.

Running through ‘Moondance’, ‘Have I Told You Lately’ and ‘In The Garden’, he continued with a set that kept the majority of fans transfixed to the Finsbury Park stage with scant regard for how they might get home.

So for anyone wondering about the number of lost-looking Irishmen wandering the streets of London tonight – you know who you have to blame.