Walsh’s new book Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 unearths the time and place behind the music. “I’ve Been Working” (Alternate Version)ġ7.Ryan H. FRANCE Pre-order: The Essential Van Morrisonġ6.GERMANY Pre-order: The Essential Van Morrison.CANADA Pre-order: The Essential Van Morrison.USA Pre-order: The Essential Van Morrison.UK Pre-order: The Essential Van Morrison.ITALY Pre-order: His Band and the Street Choir.FRANCE Pre-order: His Band and the Street Choir.GERMANY Pre-order: His Band and the Street Choir.CANADA Pre-order: His Band and the Street Choir.USA Pre-order: His Band and the Street Choir.UK Pre-order: His Band and the Street Choir.His Band and the Street Choir remastered and expanded The Essential Van Morrison is out now, while Astral Weeks and His Band and the Street Choir will be reissued on 30 October 2015. But for now they are kicking things off with a double-disc set The Essential Van Morrison.

In fact, Sony have specifically said that deluxe Legacy Editions of Saint Dominic’s Preview, It’s Too Late to Stop Now, Hard Nose the Highway and Enlightenment are part of their plans, as well as a new career-spanning single CD compilation.

They now have the rights to the early Them albums (and compilations) and more or less all the solo work from 1972’s Saint Dominic’s Preview onwards. In terms of the other news, Sony will now get to work planning their own Van Morrison reissue campaign having acquired “more than 50 years of music”. The new expanded editions of the albums that originally sandwiched 1969’s Moondance are more modest affairs since they will be single disc reissues. You will still get remastered audio of course and each album will also feature previously unreleased versions of several album tracks. Rhino put out a reissue of Moondance back in 2013 in quite some style, with a top-of-the-range 4CD+blu-ray set and a two-CD deluxe. There has been a fair bit of Van Morrison activity in the past week, with the news that Sony’s Legacy Recordings has acquired the rights to much of the man’s back catalogue and also that 1968’s Astral Weeks and 1970’s His Band and the Street Choir (both still owned by Warners and not part of the Sony deal) will be reissued and expanded by Rhino in October.

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