Pop Ray Charles / Van Morrison Wembley Arena

Orchestration of a team, leadership, inspiration and sustained passages of genius were in evidence by both sides at Wembley on Saturday. Alas, it was not at the stadium and the Euro 96 match between England and Scotland that these qualities were most conspicuous. They came four hours later across the car park at the Arena when 50-year-old whippersnapper Van Morrison shared the bill with Ray Charles, allegedly 65. It was an obvious, yet adventurous double-bill offering the African-American R&B root and one of its longest, strongest tendrils.

Morrison, a Belfast-born singer/ songwriter, has built a cherishable body of work since the mid-Sixties but had had quite a week of it, starting with tabloid exposure of a severed relationship with Michelle Rocca, his partner of three years, and ending with an OBE. He started in upbeat mood, as though determined to celebrate the latter, though I doubt it matters a jot to him. And ended in familiarly grumpy fashion when a curmudgeon in Row M appeared to get his goat about matters of the heart. Or perhaps it was a reference to the longer-lasting Troubles which that morning had reared their devastating head once again.

Van The Man's set rummaged through the songbook, brisk business-like versions of "Full Force Gale" and "Moondance" mixing with longer, looser extemporisations on ruminative themes such as "Vanlose Stairway". In his best songs, melody flows easily and lyrics seamlessly blend story-telling and poetry but they are bedded in R&B and gospel and he is referring back, more than usual of late, be it through gospel call-and-responses, quoting Sly Stone or using James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World".

His latest band, 13 pieces, clearly has the potential to become as good as the great Caledonia Soul Orchestra of 1973.

In stark contrast with Morrison, Brother Ray's entourage exude a practised, swinging professionalism harking back to The Apollo, Harlem, 1962, rather than Las Vegas, as some have mistakenly suggested. Less churchy and wild than when he set the Fifties R&B world on its ear by using a large, permanent horn section and gospel tunes to presage Sixties soul, Charles's show holds fast to the basis of an older-style R&B show.

His all-seated big band warmed up with four songs by Barbara Morrison, a jazz-blues singer, before Charles's still extraordinary voice - rich tone, phrasing so subtle it's easy to miss and an armoury of expressive whoops and screams - took command. He did the hits, such as "Busted", "Georgia" and "I Can't Stop Loving You", but just as rewarding were the idiosyncratic treatments, turning "Oh What a Beautiful Morning", Rodgers/ Hammerstein's waltz from the musical Oklahoma into a jazz-blues celebration. He even found a way for the Raelets to discover something new in that flogged mare of a Sixties soul staple "Knock On Wood".

GEOFF BROWN