Van the angry man hits out at gig restrictions

AN angry Sir Van Morrison has called on other singing stars to join him in a “fight to save live music” and overturn coronavirus restrictions on the size of audiences at gigs.

In a blistering statement on his official website, Sir Van (right) urged artists including musicians, writers, promoters and producers to stand up against what he branded the ‘pseudo-science’ and speak up.

The Bloomfield-born blues legend is due to perform at socially distanced gigs in September at Newcastle on Tyne’s Gosforth Park, at the Electric Ballroom in Camden and at the London Palladium.

But his statement said: “This is not a sign of compliance or acceptance of the current state of affairs.”

The world renowned superstar, who celebrates his 75th birthday in nine days’ time, said he was doing the gigs “to get my band up and running and out of the doldrums”. But he added: “It’s not economically viable to do socially distanced gigs”

And he continued: “This is also not the answer going forward. We need to be playing to full capacity audiences going forward.

“I call on my fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this.

“Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudo-science and speak up.”

Last week pictures were released of the pop-up Gosforth Park venue where Sir Van will play on September 3.

Promoters said it will be the world’s first socially distanced concert venue, named the Virgin Money Unity Arena.

The venue will see fans in groups of up to five watch the concerts on 500 separate raised metal platforms.

Tonight the group Supergrass are due to play at the venue and other singers scheduled to perform over the next few weeks include Ronan Keating and Alfie Boe.

The promoters SD Concerts said the safety of the audiences would be protected with each viewing platform having its own table, chairs and fridge.

Multi-millionaire composer Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber has already called for theatres to reopen as soon as possible and he’s offered to take part in tests on a vaccine to speed things up.

“I’ll do anything to prove that theatres can re-open safely,” he said,

In his statement Morrison said it appeared that he and Lloyd Webber were the only people in the music business trying to get it back up and running again.

He added: “Come forward now, the future is now.”

The Morrison statement went on: “We would like to publish a list of names of all those who are supporting the industry. If you would like your name included contact us at webadmin@exileproductions.net.”