Hills Shire Times
Sept 25, 2007
Hogan channels Van
Close your eyes at The Australian Van Morrision Show and it's hard to
believe the Irishman is not on stage. Van the Man will perform at Dural
Country Club on Saturday, November 10.
The success of this show isd attributed to the uncanny vocals Steve Hogan. A
long-time Van Morrison fan and sucessful performer, Hogan said he was
consistently amazed by the reaction he recieved whenever he performed a Van
Morrison tune. Van The Man performs all the hits and classic songs from a career
spanning three decades. Expect to hear all-time favourites such as Moondance,
Bright Side Of The Road, Brown-eyed Girl, Gloria, Domino, Baby Please Don't Go
and Have I Told You Lately That I Love You.
Hogan said that he was given his first guitar when he was six. "I went to two
guitar lessons but the teacher hit my fingers with a ruler so I spent the next
four weeks sliding down a grassy hill near the studio in my cardboard guitar
box," he said.
"My dad eventually caught me wagging lessons and that was the end of my formal
guitar training. I picked the guitar up again at age 22," Hogan said.
Hills News
June 3, 2003
This Van is the man
Van Morrison is held in such awe by other musicians, it would deter most from
even considering a live tribute to his work. But Van the Man have taken up that
challenge. The ban has fast established its credentials as a wonderful exponent
of Morrison's music. The appropriate mix of gravel and polish in Steve Hogan's
vocals is suited to the songs from Into The Mystic and Have I Told You Lately
That I Live You to the classic rock of Bright Side of the Road and Brown-eyed
Girl.
Van the Man exudes a stage presence and has the skill to perform in a multitude
of arenas including large cabaret concerts, pubs, dance clubs and corporate
events. The band has performed at the 2000 Olympics, State of Origin rugby
league matches, Hilton hotels, Sydeny Turf Club, the Guinness New Zealand tour
and the Sky City Auckland Casino.
Van Morrison is one of the world's great singer-songwriters, and one of Ireland's
favourite sons. His albums feature on charts all over the world. In Australia,
his No. 1 album The Best of Van Morrision has spent more than 360 weeks (that's
6 years) on the charts and re-enters the top 40 regularly.
Van the Man also performs classic hit songs by other performers in the tribute,
giving them that special Van Morrison treatment.
The Manly Daily
Nov 24, 2000
Rising to the voice of Van
Van Morrison is the most successful and prolific popular songwriter in the world
and his music transcends a number of genres - from blues to country, rock to
jazz.
And while the man himself is not comin to Manly, a tribute show called Van the
Man is and will be at the Harbourd Diggers tonight. Holding the microphone in
Van the Man is Steve Hogan, a gruff voiced 47-year-old singer who has earned
rave reviews with a sound resembling the real thing.
"We've just come back from a tour from New Zealand and it went really well," he
said. "They want us back which is great."
Steve and the band have been doing the Van the Man show for about two years but
the singer carries no illusions of grandeur about it. "People come up to me and
say, 'Oh, you sound so much alike', but I can hear the difference. I'm not
trying to be him (Van)," Steve said. "I know people who have done shows and
almost become the guys they are covering. I love the tunes and the way Van puts
his songs together."
Steve said that one of the unique things about Morrisions voice was the way he
dropped into a note rather than rising to it, like most singers. Steve addmitted
that copying Morrison was difficult enough. "If you had John Farnham singing Van
it wouldn't work because it's a completely different sound," he said. "Van uses
a lot of 'sha la las' and 'der der der dup dup' and things like that. But I like
all that stuff."
"Some people in the audience will have all of his (Morrison's) last 30
albums whilst others might have the Best Of album," he said. "That's what makes
it diffult for us; Van covers such a wide range."
"Where we play most people want to dance so we do numbers like Jackie Wilson
Said, Domino, Brown-eyed Girl. That kind of thing."
The Age
Jan 20, 2000
Van the Man
By Richard Jinman
Who are they supposed to be? George Ivan Morrison (aka Van Morrison)
Belfast's legendary, albeit grumpy, soul mystic and his band.
Doppelganger rating Low. Steve Hogan (aka Van the Man) sports a black
trilby, black shirt and matching strides a la '90s Van, but says, "I'm not
trying to be Van Morrison." His finger snaps and handclaps look like they've
been cribbed from a concert video, but frankly Hogan's just to trim and (sorry,
Van) decent looking to fool anyone. Bass player Dave Hatton subverts the band's
blackish dress code with a Volkswagen shirt and jumps up and down suggesting a
familiarity with punk. Sax player Karen Parker swings in a sharp suit. Frankly,
you'd have to down a hell of a lot of Guinness to mistake these guys for the
real thing.
Sound right? Oh, yes. Despite competing with a tanked up pub audience,
Van the Man do the business. Hogan has got Van's jazzy vocal phrasing and gruff
Irish burr down pat. He's just at home on ballads such as Have I Told you
Lately as uptempo hits such as Brown Eyed Girl and Jackie Wilson
Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile.) The band are great. They can do
note-perfect facsimiles or stretch out and improvise.
Finest moment Into The Mystic. Hogan straps on an acoustic guitar
and, amazingly, this mysterious meditation from the Moondance album
softens the audience's beery blah. Their stops-out version of Full Force Gale
ain't bad either.
Worst Moment The insertion of songs from the Blues Brothers soundtrack.
It's not really Van the Man's fault. The average tribute band audience wants
hits and it wants them fast and loud. You're not going to hear Astral
Weeks or St Dominic's Preview. Van the Man have even been known to do
Khe Sanh - "Van Morrison's favourite Cold Chisel song," apparently.
Crowd There are a couple of schooner-clutching Van fans on the perimeter
of the room, but most are in their early 20s. They've heard The Best of Van
Morrison CD and go ape at the mere whiff of Moondance.
Hit or Miss? Hit. These guys have managed to turn Van Morrison's music
into a good-time experience without coming off like a Celtic version of The
Radiators. Van the Man play Cronulla Leagues Club on September 25.