Van Morrison: The Great Hall, Exeter University

MAN. VAN. THE. UNTIL NOW THE ONLY WELL-KNOWN PHRASE or saying into which these three words could be re-assembled has been a synonym for irascible genius. Indeed, the word curmudgeon might have been invented for a man who once berated his audience for clapping. A man who took legal action against the Belfast Blues Society for trying to put up a plaque in his honour. A man who, when inducted into the American Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame, didn't attend the ceremony. In Exeter, though, something seemed to have warmed the cockles of his heart.