Beginnings

"Van the Man" had it's beginnings in the rocking pub trio "Hogan & The Beckettes." Many nights were spent belting out "Moondance," "Brown-eyed Girl" and "Gloria," to name a few,at such venues as "The Alley Cat," "Brewer's Elbow" and "Dr. Redbirds." It only took me 19 years to realise that the people who asked for and danced to "Van Morrison" were really the people that we loved to play for. Certainly the people who requested "Van Morrison" music were just plain fun-loving people. (The girls weren't bad looking either! - I should know, I married one.)

I was tired of belting out songs like "Moondance" with only an acoustic guitar, lead and bongos. One man bands with sequences were swallowing up all the venues and it was time to make a brave move and go against all trends in live music in Sydney. "And that was?.." you may ask. Well, big band - all live instruments, all live entertainers.

Has it been successful?

Well, in it's first full year as an up and running band "Van the Man" had a residency at "Star City" (Bridie O'Reillys,) played at the "Sydney Olympic Official Homebush Celebration," sold out "Harbord Diggers" for the first time in 5 years and was sponsored by Guinness to tour the North Island of New Zealand for 3 weeks in October/November 2000. We're hoping the future will be even bigger for "Van the Man" and their supporters.

The Band Itself

I certainly knew that the material we were about to play could stand alone in it's popularity, but the key ingredients for a successful venture such as this are the people in the band itself. Music is about emotion, love, sorrow and all the fun things in between. The people needed to produce this music had to be willing and able to share this myriad of emotion on stage in public and at the same time, love every minute of it. (A tall order in anyone's language). Sounds deep? Sure there have been times when this musical marriage has been a little unstable, but we're talking about teamwork here, in it's rawest sense. The people who surround me on stage are not only magnificent musicians but truly great friends. I hope their dedication to "Van the Man" will reward them in all the ways they hope for themselves. These musicians don't build bridges in the physical sense but, in fact, span generations and cultural backgrounds and create moods covering the full range of human emotion in a split second (It's here and it's gone.) It takes a special kind of person to do that and five of them surround me when I sing in front of "Van the Man."

Steve Hogan, Founder & Frontman for "Van the Man"