Clare Teal: Apologies for absence but Van’s a man you don’t say no to

Sorry I missed you guys last week – the strangest thing happened. The morning before I was due to write my column, having battled our way home through the raging storms after Sunday’s radio show, finally getting to bed around 3am, I received an email from Mr Van Morrison’s manager requesting my presence at a very nice recording studio in London the very next day.

I looked down at my to do list – write column, address small mountain of paperwork covering desk, build two-hour radio show, learn 20 new songs by Thursday – after a millisecond’s thought I did drop everything. Singing a duet with one of your songwriting heroes, having met them for all of three minutes beforehand, is a little daunting, but it was an amazing experience and one that I’ll treasure forever.

I left the studio in a daze, pinching myself at regular intervals. From there I made my way across a beautifully autumnal looking London, to the residence of Mr Ian Shaw, good friend and jazz singer extraordinaire. We had a two hour show of classic duets to put together from scratch in less than 48 hours. Not only is Ian an incredible singer he’s also a fine pianist. We spent a good deal of time giggling and eating chocolates and macaroons. He was in good form despite being manically busy, having literally just taken part in a highly acclaimed performance of Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels as part of the Southbank’s The Rest Is Noise Festival.