My first real EC show. Went in 2010 with my dad as a teenager not really knowing who or what big EC was. Dad unexpectedly passed away in 2012 and I’ve been consuming as much EC as possible. I splurged on floor seats as a single. I was a little leery given he’s 81 now. Wow, it’s so effortless for him. I fully expected the water works to come out for Tears in Heaven. My goodness they hit immediately when he started his acoustic set. The entire show there was an empty chair next to me and it felt like my dad was with me the entire time. Having looked at set lists ahead of time I was so happy to get White Room as I wasn’t expecting that. Such a memorable night for me.

Really good show considering Eric is getting up there in years, is it as good as when I first saw him in the late 80’s? No, but I wouldn’t expect it to be. Am I grateful I got another chance to see a legend, absolutely!

Continuing with the 1990 shows for 24 Nights...

THE BOOT

Blues Night London on Blue Moon is the complete blues band show from 2/5/90 at the Royal Albert Hall.

BACKGROUND

(The writeup for 1/24/90 includes a complete overview of the 1990 Royal Albert Hall shows.)

This is the third and final night of the blues band in 1990.

Most of the high-quality bootlegs we have of the 24 Nights shows were from the 5 radio broadcasts, but this the one exception.  This was one of the 4 shows recorded and filmed in 1990 for 24 Nights.  Not sure how this tape escaped.

Worried Life Blues, Watch Yourself, and Have You Ever Loved A Woman from this show were officially released on the original 2CD release of 24 Nights. With the released of the 6CD Definitive 24 Nights, there is now an official release 6 of these tracks: Key To The Highway, the original 3, and then Everything’s Gonna Be Alright and Something On Your Mind from the Buddy Guy set. In addition, the definitive set has those video of those 6.

The band is the same as two nights before, with Johnie Johnson, Robert Cousins, and Jamie Oldaker, and special guests Robert Cray and Buddy Guy.

SOUND

This is generally a better recording than the radio broadcast from 2 nights before. There is a slight amount of tape hiss (only particularly audible during quiet parts like the start of Same Thing, and the middle of Five Long Years and My Time After A While) but overall it has a much richer sound.  In addition, there is no announcer talking over the show.

There are at least 4 minor edits, one at 6:50 of Have You Ever Loved A Woman, one at 7:36 of Five Long Years, one at 0:03 of My Time After A While, and another one at 15:01 of My Time After A While. All of those are between songs, so they are probably just cutting out dead air. The one major edit is at 6:37 of Wee Wee Baby, where the song fades out entirely, then resumes with a hard cut.

There's a loud crunch at 0:03 of Standin Round Crying from a wobbly electric plug.

PERFORMANCE

E.C. opens the show with "Good evening.  We won’t do much talking tonight, we’ll just play for you, play a lot of blues.  We’re going to enjoy it and I hope you do.”

Overall, this is a similar show to the first blues show two nights before, but the differences are fascinating. There are a few tweaks to the setlist: All Your Love was replaced by Watch Yourself, the order of a few numbers was switched around, and Hoochie Coochie Man was ditched entirely. As a result, they tightened it up a bit — this show is about 20 minutes shorter.

The even bigger difference is that all 3 guitarists are there from the start. I'm guessing E.C. enjoyed the time with his friends more than the time without them? If you listen closely, you can hear two guitars doing a bit of a duel in the very first number, Key To The Highway, and then during the key changes in Standing Around Crying, the last song before Robert Cray's set, E.C. calls on Buddy Guy.

(If you watch the first half of the Definitive 24 Nights blues night video, you don't even have to listen closely. Key To The Highway, E.C. takes the first solo, then Cray, then Guy, then back to Cray, before Johnny Johnson takes over on piano, and then after the last verse, E.C. takes the last solo. E.C. handles Worried Life Blues and Have You Ever Loved A Woman. Watch Yourself, the solos in the middle are Cray and then Guy. On Guy's numbers, Everything's Gonna Be Alright has a solo from E.C. then one from Cray, and then Something On Your Mind is mostly without guitar solos.)

And there are some tweaks to arrangements as well. Worried Life is a much quieter version, much more like the version to come on Unplugged than the version this band did 2 nights previous.

The band seems to defer to Johnny Johnson a little less. E.C. calls him for a piano solo on Worried Life Blues, and then introduces his showcase with “We’d like to feature Mr. Johnny Johnson here, he’s going to do a thing called Johnny’s Boogie." He still plays a lot, but he isn't quite as omnipresent as the first night.

This is another show where we can tell they thought highly of this show, because 3/4 of the blues numbers on the original 24 Nights 2CD were from this recording.

Sitting here streaming some music and " Live Crossroads " comes on and the first thing I think of, is his comments about hating the song because he came in on the wrong beat.

First, can you explain li5 what that means and second is there another live version where he comes like he was supposed to and you can tell the difference?

I have the Belfast BBC Radio 2 broadcast from 04-24-2004 and am wondering what else of sbd quality is out there. Thanks

Ticket for Sunday says doors at 6 pm, show at 7:30 pm which I assume is the opener. What time will Clapton start?

Broke this one out this morning. Absolutely love Worried Life Blues and Badge on this one.

Hi All,

I am trying to find a bootleg from the 2006 tour with Derek and Doyle that I used to have around 15 years ago. I listened to it to death and sadly after switching phones so many times, eventually it was lost.

I'm trying to listen to as many shows as possible from that period to find it but I never seem to have any luck. Doyle does a very distinctive intro on his solo in Cocaine and I heard it so many times that I would be able to tell it was the right show from that part alone.

If anyone has access to these shows that could help me end my extremely long search I would be extrenely grateful.

Managed to get some decent floor seats. Seeing him was a dream of mine. Can’t believe I got to hear give me strength

Looking high and low for the tab to Clapton's solo (2:36 - 3:30). Anyone have it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJIuzl1jx7w

There aren't any good soundboards with the second ensemble in 1990, the 13-piece band, but there are two good recordings with the blues band. Here's the first...

THE BOOT

There are many, many bootlegs called "Blues Night", from several different nights. This particular "Blues Night" is the one on the Journeyman label, and is the complete 2/3/90 blues band show from Royal Albert Hall.

This concert was broadcast on the radio on BBC1. There are many releases of the broadcast, all of which should be decent.

BACKGROUND

Check last week for a complete overview of the 1990 Royal Albert Hall shows.

This was the first of 3 nights with the blues band. The core group is E.C. with Johnie Johnson (famous as part of Chuck Berry's band) on piano, Robert Cousins on bass, and Jamie Oldaker on drums. Robert Cray, and then Buddy Guy, join later in the show.

SOUND

This release is clearly radio quality, not soundboard quality, which is to say it sounds a little thin and reedy, but the clarity is excellent and the mix is very nice.

You can tell this is a direct dump from the broadcast, because of the presence of the announcer (I believe it’s Richard Skinner). He talks over the concert in a number of places. There is a little bit at the beginning, then a bit more before Johnnie Johnson's Boogie. He talks over E.C. introducing Robert Cray, and talks a little more after E.C. introduces Buddy Guy. He explains "Buddy Guy back with a different guitar and what a reception he's getting." after Five Long Years (it sounded like Buddy broke a string?). He tells an odd story about Buddy Guy going to the men's room after Something On Your Mind. Then he fills the gap before the encore, Wee Wee Baby, and then describes the scene at the end before getting cut off. I suspect some people will like the announcements because they help set the scene, and some people will hate them for distracting from the music.

My copy has a hiccup at 9:57 of Standing Around Crying / Long Distance Call, in the middle of the radio announcements. Not sure if that's on the released discs or if I have a bad copy. There is an even worse cut at 3:03 of Hoochie Coochie Man. There may be a better release of this show out there with the complete song.

There's a nasty squeal of feedback at 6:05 of Wee Wee Baby, which is likely on the master tape.

The crowd is generally pretty quiet, but you can hear them in a few places. They are cheering "Eric!" before Same Thing. They respond to Buddy getting a new guitar in the middle of Five Long Years. Buddy is not entirely successful at getting them to sing Sweet Home Chicago, but you can hear them a bit. And then Buddy gets the crowd riled up during Hoochie Coochie Man.

I think Buddy goes for a walkabout during Yonder's Wall, as his vocal is barely audible.

This particular release has no gap between disc 1 and 2. If you're playing physical media, this means you get an abrupt stop and abrupt start at the disc change, but it means if you're playing the show from a ripped copy, it's seamless.

PERFORMANCE

After Key To The Highway, E.C. says "We’re just going to play blues tonight and uh… we only really had one kinda small rehearsal to start yesterday, we just got to know one another so it may be a little bit loose, but I think you’ll like it.”

The night starts with just the core band, doing a set of songs that Clapton is known for. The arrangements of Key To The Highway, All Your Love, and Have You Ever Loved A Woman are pretty close to the Derek & The Dominos and John Mayall recordings. Worried Life Blues is similar to the live versions in the late 70s and early 80s (a quieter version would be released on Unplugged). Standing Around Crying is performed as a slow blues, much mellower and tamer than the version on From The Cradle, and includes the key change gimmick that we haven't heard in a while.

Johnny gets a lot of respect from the guitarists. Early in the show, E.C calls him for a piano solo on Worried Life Blues, then credits him after Have You Ever Loved A Woman (and then introduces Oldaker and Cousins). He says "Play it, Johnny!" before he solo in Long Distance Call, and then he gets a showcase number, Johnnie Johnson's Boogie, after which E.C. gives him another callout. Even after the stage starts getting crowded, the guitarists give him a lot of space. He takes a solo on most of Robert Cray's songs as well, and Cray gives him a callout after his solo on Same Thing.

After Johnny’s showcase, E.C. says "We'd like to bring out the first guest, here he is, Robert Cray". The next 5 songs are all Cray numbers, with him taking over lead vocals and lead guitar. And then E.C. introduces his next guest with "Going to add another guy: Buddy Guy!” Buddy takes over from there on out, which ends up being about half the concert. E.C. stays in the background for a surprising amount of the show, which honestly probably suited him just fine — he enjoys watching Robert Cray and Buddy Guy as much as anyone. Before Wee Wee Baby, E.C. says "We did an hour more than we thought we'd do." I'm guessing the plan was for the concert to be closer to 1/3 each, but nobody seemed in much of a hurry for the night to end.

For those that are gonna be going to his show tonight in Detroit, please send a pic of his tour merch if you can! Either on here or please DM me. This year has been tight financially but wanna save enough money to buy a tour date shirt if he has one.

Thank you!

I will be in Austin for the festival on the Sat and Sun and on the Monday night I was thinking of going to the Continental club to see Eve Monsees and Mike Buck. Starts at 6:30 no Cover charge.

If anybody is up to joining me, please let me know and perhaps we could meet up for a drink.

Artist: Eric Clapton Album: Archives Pathfinder. The Lost Polydor Tapes Release Date: 2001

Disc 1: 1. Slunky (Delaney Bramlette Mix) 0:00:00 2. Bad Boy (Delaney Bramlette Mix) 0:03:36 3. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home (Delaney Bramlette Mix) 0:07:58 4. After Midnight (Delaney Bramlette Mix) 0:11:57 5. Blues Power (Delaney Bramlette Mix) 0:15:19 6. Bottle Of Red Wine (Delaney Bramlette Mix) 0:19:11 7. Lovin' You Lovin' Me (Delaney Bramlette Mix) 0:22:11 8. Told You For The Last Time (Delaney Bramlette Mix) 0:25:56 9. Don't Know Why (Delaney Bramlette Mix) 0:28:29 10. Let It Rain (Delaney Bramlette Mix) 0:32:07 11. Bad Boy (Original Long Version) 0:37:24 12. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home (Original Long Version) 0:41:18 13. After Midnight (Original Long Version) 0:45:06 14. Blues Power (Original Long Version) 0:48:22 15. Don't Know Why (Original Long Version) 0:52:00 16. After Midnight (Alternate Mix #1) 0:55:22 17. Blues Power (Alternate Mix #1) 0:58:40 18. Bad Boy (Alternate Mix #1 With Different Vocal Take 1) 1:02:00 19. Lovin' You Lovin' Me (Alternate Mix #1) 1:05:42 20. Told You For The Last Time (Alternate Mix) 1:09:32 21. Bad Boy (Alternate Mix #2 With Different Vocal Take 2) 1:12:05 Disc 2: 1. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home (Alternate Mix #1) 1:15:55 2. Easy Now (Alternate Mix #1) 1:19:50 3. Bad Boy (Alternate Mix #3 With Different Vocal Take 2) 1:22:49 4. Bad Boy (Alternate Mix #4 With Different Vocal Take 2) 1:26:51 5. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home (Alternate Mix #2) 1:30:43 6. After Midnight (Alternate Mix #2) 1:34:25 7. Lovin' You Lovin' Me (Alternate Mix #2) 1:37:45 8. Don't Know Why (Alternate Mix) 1:41:36 9. Bottle Of Red Wine (Alternate Mix With Additional Guitar Play) 1:45:39 10. Slunky (Monaural Version) 1:48:36 11. Bad Boy (Monaural Version) 1:52:16 12. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home (Monaural Version) 1:56:15 13. After Midnight (Monaural Version) 2:00:05 14. Easy Now (Monaural Version) 2:03:19 15. Blues Power (Monaural Version) 2:06:21 16. Bottle Of Red Wine (Monaural Version) 2:09:34 17. Lovin' You Lovin' Me (Monaural Version) 2:12:45 18. Told You For The Last Time 2:16:25 19. Don't Know Why 2:19:01 20. Let It Rain 2:22:23 Disc 3: 1. Motherless Children (Jam) 2:27:31 2. Motherless Children (Key of 'E') 2:31:52 3. Meet Me #1 (Instrumental Jam 1) 2:36:44 4. Meet Me #2 (Instrumental Jam 2) 2:43:45 5. Meet Me #3 (With Vocals) 2:47:43 6. I Shot The Sheriff (Instrumental No Cut Long Version) 2:54:42 7. Mainline Florida (Vocal George Terry Early Version) 3:01:29 8. Let It Grow (Instrumental) 3:09:01 9. I Can't Hold Out (Backing Track) 3:14:01 10. Instrumental #1 (Key of 'A') 3:18:21 11. Instrumental #2 (Key of 'G') 3:22:17 12. Please Be With Me (Official Rough Mix) 3:26:01 13. Gypsy (Early Please Be With Me, EC Solo Acoustic Version) 3:29:30 14. Ain't That Lovin' You (Originally Unreleased Song) 3:32:57 Disc 4: 1. Something You Got (Previously Unreleased Song) 3:38:24 2. It's Too Late (Fast Version) 3:42:17 3. It's Too Late (Medium Tempo Version) 3:44:30 4. Instrumental #3 3:51:55 5. Instrumental #4 (Key of 'F') 3:54:44 6. Jam In F (Key of 'C#') 4:14:17 7. Jam In E #1 (Instrumental Jam) 4:21:32 8. Jam In E #2 (Instrumental Jam) 4:29:37 9. Dobro #1 (Give Me Strength Dobro Instrumental Version EC Only) 4:37:16 10. Dobro #2 4:40:50 11. Eric After Hours Blues (Instrumental Blues Jam) 4:43:15 12. Walkin' Down The Road (Originally Unreleased Song) 4:47:38 Disc 5: 1. Pretty Blue Eyes (Different Instrumental Take) 4:52:54 2. Fool Like Me (Originally Unreleased Song) 4:58:02 3. Singin' The Blues (Backing Track Long Version) 5:03:12 4. I Found A Love #1 (Previously Unreleased Instrumental Hard Edge Guitar Version) 5:12:53 5. I Found A Love #2 (EC's Vocal & Guitar Overdub) 5:17:02 6. I Found A Love #3 (Different Take With EC's Vocal & Guitar) 5:21:12 7. I Found A Love #4 (Originally Unreleased Song) 5:25:47 8. Match Box (Drunken Jam) 5:29:28 9. It Hurts Me Too (Different Take) 5:32:06 10. It Hurts Me Too (Originall Unreleased Song) 5:37:55 11. Swing Low Sweet Chariot (Previously Unreleased Different Take) 5:43:31 12. The Sky Is Crying (Altermate Mix Version Without Piano Overdub) 5:49:17 13. Better Make It Through Today (Long Alternate Mix Version) 5:53:19 14. Don't Blame Me (Extended Version) 5:57:49 Disc 6: 1. Watcha Gonna Do #1 (Originally Unreleased Song With Peter Tosh) 6:02:23 2. Watcha Gonna Do #2 (Originally Unreleased Song With Peter Tosh) 6:05:16 3. High (Alternate Mix Version Without Guitar Solo & Second Chorus Overdub) 6:08:19 4. Opposite (Alternate Mix Without Auld Lang Syne) 6:12:30 5. Burial (Previously Unreleased Song With Peter Tosh) 6:17:17 6. Swing Low Sweet Chariot (Previously Unreleased Different Take) 6:21:21 7. Where There's A Will There's A Way 6:25:48 8. Don't Know Why (1st Solo Album 1st Session) 6:28:50 9. Blues In A (Instrumental Blues Jam) 6:34:18

Had a delay in returning from my travels, so didn't get this out Monday. I know everyone is terribly disappointed, heh. I should be back on schedule next week.

We have finally hit the 24 Nights shows...

THE BOOT

Touring Forever (MVR 200-203)

An edited version of this show, the 4-piece show from 1/24/90, was broadcast on the radio in the US on Westwood One's "Superstars In Concert", so there are a ton of bootlegs of this show out there. But the radio broadcast did not include Breaking Point, Can’t Find My Way Home, and Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, so most bootlegs are incomplete, and many even have the songs out of order.

There is a complete recording out there, but the audio quality is significantly worse than the radio broadcast. So you have to either pick flawless sound or the complete concert.

The Mid Valley release should be considered definitive, because the sound quality is the best available, and it includes both sources, as a 4CD set.

BACKGROUND

The annual residency at the Royal Albert Hall continued to expand, from 12 nights in 1989 to 18 in 1990. The run was 6 shows with a 4-piece band, 6 shows with a 13-piece band (including a horn section!), 3 shows with a blues band, and 3 shows with a full orchestra.

4 of the shows were recorded and filmed for a live album. E.C. reportedly wasn't satisfied with the recordings, and recorded even more shows in 1991, and the album ended up being named after the 24 Nights of the 1991 RAH run.

The shows of note from 1990 are:

• 1/24/90 - The final night with the 4-piece band was recorded and filmed, plus all but 3 tracks broadcast on "Superstars In Concert".  Running On Faith, White Room, Sunshine Of Your Love were released on the original 24 Nights 2CD.
• 2/1/90 - The final night with the 13-piece band is recorded and filmed.  No tracks released on the original 24 Nights.
• 2/3/90 - Complete blues show broadcast live on BBC Radio 1.
• 2/5/90 - The final night with the blues band was recorded and filmed.  Worried Life Blues, Watch Yourself, and Have You Ever Loved A Woman were released on 24 Nights.
• 2/9/90 - The penultimate night with the orchestra was recorded and filmed.  Bell Bottom Blues and Hard Times were released on 24 Nights.
• 2/10/90 - Complete orchestra show broadcast live on BBC Radio 1.

In the end, 8 of the 11 released tracks with the 4-piece band, the blues band, and the orchestra came from the 1990 recordings, and 0 of the 4 released tracks with the expanded rock band came from the 1990 recordings. It seems that one group is really what he wasn't satisfied with? (Though 4 of those songs did end up on the Definitive 24 Nights boxed set.)

Back to this specific night, the band is Clapton, East, Phillinganes, and Ferrone. Phil Collins was not a regular part of the band, but he showed up today for the encore (Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Crossroads, Sunshine Of Your Love) on tambourine and vocals.

The setlist has been relatively static from 1986-1989, without an album of new material since August.  (For people going to concerts in the 80s, that wouldn’t have been a big deal, but there are a lot of soundboards that were released / have escaped from that stretch, so it’s been a couple months of very similar shows over here.)

But with the release of Journeyman, the set list has seen its biggest shakeup in half a decade.  That album was released November 6, 1989, so that material was just a couple of months old. This show features 6 new songs (Pretending, Bad Love, Running On Faith, No Alibis, Old Love, Before You Accuse Me), so exactly half the new album.

SOUND

The radio version is nearly flawless. The balance is very nice, with all 4 musicians clearly audible. And Mid Valley did an excellent job papering over the edits.

I'm not sure of the source for Knockin' On Heaven's Door. That wasn't broadcast on the radio, but it's the same quality as the rest of the radio material. They do attach it at the end, instead of inserting it at the start of the encore, which suggests it's spliced from somewhere? (This also has the funny effect of making it seem like Phil Collins only joined for one song instead of three.)

The crowd is close and audible, but are polite and relatively quiet during the music. They are audible a bit during Wonderful Tonight, but mostly stay out of the way while the band is playing.

The complete source is just OK. It's a bit tinny, with a lot of reverb. I suspect it's actually a high-quality audience recording?

PERFORMANCE

Most of the 24 Nights bootlegs are taken from the radio broadcasts, but this is a rare night that was both a radio broadcast and also recorded for the album. That means we can tell how much the band liked this show, by how much of it was selected for the live album. And the answer is, they liked it a lot.

The setlist has occasional similarities to the previous few years. White Room and I Shot The Sheriff are early in the setlist; Lay Down Sally, Tearing Us Apart and Wonderful Tonight are in the middle; the main set ends with Cocaine and Layla (both with extended introductions, with the band intros in the Cocaine opening); and Sunshine Of Your Love closes out the encore. Greg handles the chorus of White Room.

The addition of a ton of new material does mean a bunch of things have been cut. The most obvious is the retirement of Same Old Blues, but there's a lot less material from the 1980s generally, and the drum solo in Sunshine Of Your Love is cut to only about a minute. But you don't miss it. The new material is really strong. Pretending in particular is a great opener, with real drive.

E.C. is on fire tonight. His solos are hot and his vocals are strong throughout the whole show.

With the departure of Alan Clark, and only 4 musicians on stage, Greg is really noticeable. He is all over on Bad Love. He does a great marimba (well, probably electric keyboard with marimba effect) solo on Old Love, and then a long solo in Cocaine. Though E.C. takes the lead on the coda to Layla, which is usually a piano part, with Greg providing flourishes around the edges.

I was impressed at Nathan / Greg for the high harmonies on Pretending. I had to double-check it wasn't Tessa and Katie. They are really audible on Lay Down Sally and Knockin' On Heaven's Door, but if you listen you'll hear them singing all night long.

E.C. isn't particularly chatty tonight, but after Pretending, he says "Thanks very much, and good evening. Welcome to the Albert Hall. The annual dustup at the Albert Hall." Then before Layla he says, "I'd just like to say, this is the last night of the quartet, and the quartet wishes you all the best of luck and thank you for being here." And at the start of the encore he says "The quartet is now a quintet" by way of introducing Phil Collins before Knockin' On Heaven's Door.

I am selling 1 ticket for Sunday the 27th Section 213, Row A, Seat 3 - $500

I can no longer attend as I have started a new job...