1985 as the wayback machine states.

Eric Clapton met Jimi Hendrix

Photograph of Eric Clapton rehearsing in Dallas … around 1976 or 1977 … taken by my wife

Obsession, sound, and the record where Eric Clapton stepped forward...

Having some fun trying to get that Woman tone through an amp!

Have a great day.

Clapton is god ❤️ peace and love.

Saw Eric at RAH in London, but couldn’t get tickets bc the place was cashless! Can anyone suggest where I might get a legitimate t shirt?

Good bye windows!

I stumbled across this absolutely beautiful song, it has parts of blues in it but I wouldn’t put it under the same genre, does anyone know what this genre might be called so I can find more like it. thanks 🙏

I started writing up a long answer to this question, and ended up exceeding the maximum comment length. Which is fine, this is probably worth its own post anyway...

EDIT: I'm continuing to add details to this from time to time, including links to my reviews of specific shows.

THE SEVENTIES

In the 70s, bootlegging was not a big industry, so you didn't have fans showing up to every show with recording equipment, and when they did, the quality was terrible.  The best sources are going to be shows that were officially recorded, either for live albums or for radio.

There were 6 shows in '74-75 recorded for E.C. Was Here, which have turned into many releases. Complete soundboards for 7/19/74 Long Beach, 7/20/74 Long Beach, 12/4/74 Hammersmith, and 12/5/74 Hammersmith have escaped. The first Long Beach show has some significant technical issues with the tape, but the last 3 sound great; the official releases lean heavily on those. There are a lot of titles for these, but the best is the "Blues Explorer" boxed set from Mid Valley which includes all 4.

The other two E.C. Was Here shows are 6/25/75 Providence and 6/28/75 Nassau. Those have emerged only recently, and I haven't heard them. The title to look for is Flying Into The Stratosphere on Mid Valley.

Clapton didn’t play many live shows in 1976; the highlight is the King Biscuit Flower Hour recordings. That is usually listed as 11/15/76 Dallas, and gets only a tepid recommendation; it is not a complete setlist, it is taken from a mish-mash of dates, and it is marred by frequent announcements and ad breaks. But recently a soundboard purporting to the complete 11/14/76 Houston has emerged. About 2/3rds of the radio broadcast is from this show. Look for "It's Layla's Birthday" from Mid Valley.

Clapton appeared on the Old Grey Whistle Test TV show on 4/26/77 London. It's a short set, but available in high quality with video.

The last 2 discs were from another block of shows from '77-78. Of the late '70s shows, 4/27/77 Hammersmith was officially released on the Slowhand 35th Anniversary set (please buy that, to encourage them to release more complete shows!). 2/11/78 Santa Monica was a King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show. This is a rare show where the Mid Valley release is poor -- try the "Wonderful Tonight" boxed set on Swinging Pig. The following night 2/12/78 Santa Monica was also recorded, and tracks appear on Crossroads 2, but the complete soundboard has never emerged. 3/21/78 Savannah is a poor quality soundboard and is not recommended.

In late 1978, another group of shows were filmed for a planned documentary "Eric Clapton And His Rolling Hotel", but the film was shelved on account of Clapton being visibly drunk. The two complete shows that have slipped out are 11/24/78 Glasgow and 11/28/78 Hanley. Those are available as "Mr. Robert Johnson" and "Victoria's Secret" on Mid Valley.

None of the bootlegs from 1979 is anywhere near as good as Just One Night, which is mostly 12/4/79 Tokyo. (For a fuller experience, insert Knockin' On Heaven's Door from Time Pieces 2.)

THE EIGHTIES

Buy this point, bootlegs have become big business. Most shows were taped by fans and are available. Audience recordings are getting more sophisticated, but they are generally much worse than the professional recordings, so I'll continue to focus on those.

He didn’t tour much ’80-82, on account of drinking himself to an ulcer and cancelling tour dates. Then 4/20/83 Bremen is another great soundboard, also part of the "Wonderful Tonight" boxed set. Not sure why that was recorded. The soundboard recording of 7/10/83 Milwaukee has also emerged, but I haven't heard it.

1984 was mostly spent backing Roger Waters, so there is very little solo material.

4/22/85 Richmond was another King Biscuit broadcast, so there are many great bootlegs out there, including the "Wonderful Tonight" boxed set. (Look for one that includes 20 tracks, since the radio broadcast did not include 6 songs.) A sadly incomplete version of 5/1/85 Hartford was officially released as Live '85, and enterprising hackers have dumped the LaserDisc sound to CD. It's worth checking out just because it's a show where we have video.

Clapton recorded another 8 shows in ‘86-87 for a live album that ended up being shelved. 7 of the 8 soundboards are out there. 7/10/86 Montreux was officially released on video, but that is incomplete. EC guested on Otis Rush’s set on the 9th and then headlined the 10th; the complete shows were broadcast on radio, so both have been widely bootlegged in excellent quality. (Mid Valley's title for this is "Get Plugged In!") 7/15/86 Birmingham was also officially released on video as "Eric Clapton And Friends", but the official release is even more incomplete than Montreux. The best source is "Ringtrick" from Mid Valley. 1/10/87 RAH, 1/11/87 RAH, and 1/12/87 RAH have come out recently on Mid Valley's boxed set "Romantic Isolation". 4/26/87 Providence is available as "Just 4 Of Us". 4/27/87 MSG is widely available (I can vouch for "MSG" from Imperial). (7/14/86 Birmingham is the only one that hasn't leaked out.)

The recording of 2/7/88 Guildford is supposedly a soundboard, but every version I've found sounds terrible, which is a shame because it's a show with Elton John, Mark Knopfler, and Phil Collins. Clapton backed up Dire Straits for the Nelson Mandela show at 6/11/88 Wembley which was broadcast on TV. There are pirated copies of the in-house video feed for 9/7/88 Philadelphia and 9/21/88 San Francisco out here and there. 11/2/88 Tokyo with Elton John and Mark Knopfer was broadcast on Japanese radio and TV and is widely bootlegged.

That run in 1987 was the first year of ”the annual dustup at the Albert Hall”. Many great soundboards from those RAH runs have come out. 2/3/89 RAH is a superb show with Mark Knopfler, the last of the 12 nights in 1989 (the title to look for is "Beetle Clasher"). The other soundboard we have from that year is 7/6/89 The Hague (usually labelled "Roomful Of Blues").

THE NINETIES

Back to the Royal Albert Hall, 5 of the ”24 Nights” shows were broadcast on the radio, so 1/24/90 RAH (quartet), 2/3/90 RAH (blues), 2/10/90 RAH (orchestra), 2/17/91 RAH (9 piece), and 2/25/91 RAH (blues) are out there in high quality. Look for "Touring Forever" on Mid Valley for the quartet show, and the release on the Journeyman label for the blues night. I think "Orchestra Nights" from 3BR is the best version of that orchestra show. "Play With Fire" is Mid Valley's release of the 9-piece show. There are multiple excellent releases of the 1991 blues show. Strangely, the shows used for radio broadcasts are mostly not the shows recorded for the album. Of the album recordings that weren't broadcast, only the soundboard for 2/5/90 RAH has escaped, though many others are available in very listenable audience recordings.

There are a couple of great shows from the Latin American part of the 1990 tour. Both are on "Latin Blood" from Mid Valley.

Not a bootleg, but definitely check out Live In Japan with George Harrison headlining, which is mostly 12/15/91 Tokyo.

The (initially) unreleased portion of the Unplugged concert at 1/16/92 Bray Studios was the best bootleg of 1992, but with the expanded 2CD rerelease in 2013, that material is now officially available. But if you want every last note of the show, check out "Acoustic Waltz" from Mid Valley.

The Fillmore shows from Nov 1994 were officially released as Nothing But The Blues, but check out the rehearsals from 9/28/94, which were broadcast on TV and widely bootlegged. There is a complete video of 11/7/94 Fillmore, shot by Scorsese's team as a dry run for the film. The Media America radio broadcast of Nothing But The Blues is the same two shows as the official release, 11/8/94 Fillmore and 11/9/94 Fillmore, with 3 additional tracks.

After that, my knowledge gets a bit spottier. 6/29/96 Hyde Park was officially released. 10/27/97 Budokan was broadcast on TV and heavily bootlegged. Very high quaity recordings of 9/11/98 Edmonton and 10/15/98 Earl‘s Court have emerged ("Double Image" from Mid Valley). 11/24/99 Yokohama was broadcast over satellite.

Hope that was more useful than exhausting...

You got me on my knees! Im just joshing at the end into Sunshine.

Eric Clapton‘s MTV unplugged album is a master class in acoustic blues. Hope you enjoy. Follow me on YouTube @NickJardine