George Ivan Morrison is 60 today [biography here.. wikipedia page here]. And we should be very grateful for him.. and his music. There are some great sites detailing the career of The Man, the official web-site, and this comprehensive fan-site, which includes some of the less difficult interviews he’s given. As this BBC report notes, BBC Radio Ulster is marking his musical legacy with a Morrison track every hour, and some dedicated programmes including a two-hour celebration at 8pm, hosted by Stuart Bailie who celebrated the occasion in the Belfast Telegraph at the weekend. There’s also a great [but short] snippet of conversation from Van in the Radio2 songlibrary speaking about his musical influences[RealPlayer sound file] Happy Birthday Van.
A slightly inhuman presence that bans bad comments and works late at night to remove the wrinkles in Slugger’s technical carpet. You will need to know about the comments policy to stay off the fightin’ side of me and there is a bit of background about me here. You can email me using this spam-proof link if you really need to, and Slugger is @sluggerotoole on Twitter. But above all, remember, Play the ball and not the man.