I am truly happy that so many on this thread had a positive experience with "Van the Man".
It makes me feel better that my experience was so crummy. He could have been having an off night. We all do. 
@berdie I wish I could remember the name,but several years ago there was a special show on PBS about rock musicians and music that was filmed in Ireland. Van Morrison and I THINK the chick who sang "To Sir With Love" (LuLu?) were the organizers. The concept was to invite famous rock/blues singers to this big,pretty open,wooden building,and let them sing one of more of their original songs with only non-electric instruments played by themselves or their bands. ONE TAKE ONLY. If it sucks,sucks goes down in history as their no-frills,no-fine tuning live performance.
I THINK the building may have been a church at one point in time,to give you some idea about the open space for sound to travel in.
I was almost as surprised at some of the people who showed up for it as I was the ones that turned the offer down.
And to be fair,both Van Morrison and LuLu did one of their numbers live so people at home could judge them.
I think what pushed this was Van Morrison was ticked at all the musicians (probably punk rockers) he was seeing on the road who couldn't really sing on play without a truck load of electronic "help".
I tuned in after it started,but I am here to tell you the people that showed up,showed up to play!
I have often wished I knew the title of that show so I could watch it again from the beginning. Besides the music,it recorded the various musicians playing songs with each other during breaks,talking,and just generally having a good time. I think someone was even cooking for them.They had all known each other for years,and were obviously having a blast.