Van Morrison to do three SoCal concerts, concluding in San Diego

April 29, 2019 10:44 AM PT

Legendary Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison will perform his first San Diego concert in nine years as part of a three-city Southern California tour swing. Gospel-music legend Mavis Staples will be the opening act.

Morrison will appear Oct. 8 at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre (the venue formerly known as Mattress Firm Amphitheatre). It will be his first show here since a 2010 San Diego Civic Theatre date, which — in turn — was his first area performance since a 1973 concert at the San Diego Sports Arena.

Prior to his Oct. 8 San Diego date, Morrison will perform Oct. 5 at Santa Barbara Bowl in Santa Barbara and Oct. 6 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. All three shows are in support of his 40th and most recent album, “The Prophet Speaks.”

Tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Friday at ticketmaster.com.

Ticket prices for Morrison’s San Diego concert range from $25 to $250 each. plus service charges. A pre-sale for American Express card holders will begin Tuesday at 10 a.m.

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George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a double first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”