From Dublin Up To Sandy Row

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2024

Label: ZIMA Records

This is the first of THREE different packages used for this release (note: content is identical across the three versions).
Described in the marketing blurb as 'the definitive live Van recording' which 'ultimately gets the professional release it deserves' - prior to these releases were all CD-R - this now, finally, arrives on a 2CD set.

Produced/Manufactured in Europe 2024 in extremely limited quantities'.

BACK COVER CREDITS:
ZIMA.Records@mail.com
Produced in the EC by ZIMA Records Limited
Owned and Operated by Al & Ad Proprietors

SLEEVE/LINER text:
“Please give a nice warm Dublin welcome for the one and only Van Morrison”.
So begins this incredible show ……

For those entering Dublin’s Point Depot that Sunday, December 17th 1995, few had any lofty expectations for the show that would unfold before them. Sparse 12 or 13 song setlists had preceded this show. Additionally, nobody realised that the RTE recording mobile was on site and the show would later emerge as a once-off FM broadcast which went largely unnoticed due to lack of publicity. This is the entire set as broadcast (it omits the opener from Georgie Fame and commences with his introduction of Van to the stage with ‘the warm Dublin welcome’.

THE REVIEWS:

…. And so on to Dubin, to The Point which is almost THE place to see Van now, as his shows there are almost always exceptional. With Brian Kennedy as the only ‘guest’ (he was also the support act), Van delivered a two-hour show of what can only be described as a pinnacle of his career to date. Mixing new songs from last year, jazz songs, with the very earliest material and the surprise additions for the home-based crowd such as Irish Heartbeat and The Start Of The County Down, the setlist reads list the Van afficionados’ poll result! Singing at the absolute best of his form, ably supported by some of the finest musicians he has ever play with in what was to be their last gig together, the whole show was quite simply SUPERB. Hopefully, one day we shall all be lucky enough to hear this when Irish Radio decide to broadcast the known-to-exist FM recording.

So, what were the highlights from this show? They are far too many to mention! Well, look out for the run of That’s Life through to Ballerina stopping for a Slim Slow Slider to die for. Listen out for the dynamite horn riff in the rarely performed I'm Not Feeling It Anymore, an almost last minute addition in Madame George (with Van still singing ‘Madame Joy’), a superb reading of Saint Dominic's Preview which hopefully will now be a standard in the set and a wonderful bass and horn part on Listen To The Lion. How great to hear a double bass on these songs again, played by the master of the instrument - the whole effect actually recreating those early Astral Sessions for the mid 90s.

Local reaction was ecstatic. The Irish Times noting that ‘the performance last night was revealing in its scope of material – in itself a celebration of eclecticism – and depth of feeling’. Meanwhile The Irish Independent delivered the verdict that ‘the musicians’ favourite musician delivered a magical mixture of blues, ballads, good old-fashioned rock, and jazz to the full Point Depot last night’.



CREDITS:
Recording: Ariel X. Bender
Mastering: El Genio
Production: Nonchalant Studios
Design: RedQueen

With Thanks: The Double ‘A’, The Russian Eagle, CBS Daly, Barney K. & Paudie.