The only child of George Morrison, a shipyard electrician, and Violet Stitt Morrison, a former vocalist and tap dancer, George Ivan Morrison was born on August 31, 1945, at 125 Hyndford Street in Bloomfield, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The home’s previous owner was the author Lee Child’s father. Morrison’s family belonged to the working-class Protestant Ulster-Scots community that was established in Belfast.
Was Van Morrison’s mother a Jehovah’s Witness?
In a previous interview, the singer acknowledged that for a brief period of time, his mother had been a Jehovah’s Witness. He claimed to have attended a few gatherings and “thought them extremely nice.” He said in a different interview that his mother fit the description of a free thinker.
He participated in various Irish showbands as a youngster in the late 1950s, performing songs from the time period on a range of instruments, including the guitar, harmonica, keyboards, and saxophone. As the main vocalist of the Northern Irish R&B and rock band Them, Morrison, better known to his followers as “Van the Man,” achieved success in the middle of the 1960s. He recorded “Gloria,” a garage band classic, with Them.
