You should never not listen: parts 1 & 2

WE read that Michel Barnier has made the Border the “central plank” of his negotiating strategy. And while I don’t have a negotiating strategy, as regular readers will know I have a central plank, which is that “you should never not watch a football match”. Now this doesn’t mean you should simply watch every football match that is available to you, it is more subtle than that — it is more about eliminating any foolish thoughts from your head which might lead you to not watch a game because you don’t think it’s going to be any good. Clearly the Republic playing Wales, or the Republic playing anyone these days, is going to be a bit of a tester in this domain, and yet even this can sow the seeds of contemplation. Since there was nothing happening in the game, as such, I got to thinking that I don’t like the Aviva at all. I don’t like the pitch, or the atmosphere. I don’t know why I don’t like it... but as I was trying to figure that out, I was lifted out of these feelings of intense disenchantment by turning off the sound and listening again to that documentary on the making of Astral Weeks to which I may have alluded a few times on this page. And there it was that I again heard the very lovely contribution of Janet Planet, explaining how Van was called into Immigration and asked if he would serve in the military — to which he replied: “Absolutely not!” (or words to that effect).

Janet felt that the decision to deport him was not helped by the fact that he chose to represent himself and “his manner... his manner came back to get him again”.

Yet she not only enabled him to stay in America by marrying him, she could see things that those who wanted to deport him — which would be quite a lot of people eventually — could never see. She spoke of his mother Violet, an extrovert with a fabulous singing voice, and his father who was extremely, agonisingly introverted — and she felt that Van had inherited both of these personalities in large measure.

Yet unlike so many commentators or interviewers, Janet was able to look at these photos of Van back then, and say that “he just radiated this beauty... in person it was there too… he was just a beautiful man... he really was absolutely a gorgeous man… I loved him to death”.

And when you thought of all the trouble that Van came through, to make this great record, you wondered if it might get better for the Republic, as they went a goal down to Wales.

But somehow you knew it wouldn’t.