Forget the vaccine roll-out, forget the final days of lockdown – the pandemic didn’t really end until Van Morrison went skiffle. In 2020 this legendary polymath of Celtic soul, folk and R&B made headlines by releasing anti-lockdown singles which placed him at the forefront of music’s anti-authoritarian fightback alongside Eric Clapton, Ian Brown and Right Said Fred. His Clapton collaboration Stand and Deliver attacked fear-mongering politicians and the “police state”; the science-baiting No More Lockdowns – basically Toby Young gone blues – was a musical Eat Out to Help Out.
Two albums full of Covid denialism and mind control conspiracies followed, until this year’s Moving On Skiffle – his 44th album – saw Morrison abandon politics to cover traditionals and evergreen classics by the likes of Hank Williams and Lead Belly in the style he’d last extensively dabbled in on 2000’s The Skiffle Sessions.
