Sir George Ivan Morrison (born August 31 1945) is a Northern Irish Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer, whose recording career is in its seventh decade. He began performing as a teenager in the late 1950s, covering the popular hits of that time. Known as “Van the Man” to his fans, he rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B and rock band Them.