Van Morrison: Live at The Rainbow (1973)

Van Morrison’s classic 1974 live album It’s Too Late to Stop Now is generally considered to be one of the greatest concert recordings of all time. For it, he was backed by probably the best band he had ever (or would ever) assembled. The eleven-piece Caledonia Soul Orchestra, which included strings and a horn section. The group was a finely tuned rhythm and blues machine, able to stop and start on a dime. The Rainbow show was taped by the BBC. The following year, after the album came out in February–lavishly packaged in a triptych fold-out cover– the concert was simulcast on BBC 2 television and on Radio 2 in FM stereo for “stereo TV” on May 27th, 1973.

Production

BBC