So....Eric Clapton

richardhomer

Liverpool was excellent. Support was from Andy Fairweather Low and the Low Riders - they were great fun. Andy’s voice is still superb.

EC’s band was exceptional. Paul Carrick has been replaced on Hammond by Tim Carmon on this tour. He’s a great player.

Eric does look old facially (though as he’s 80 next birthday that’s hardly surprising). In every other respect he defies age. His voice was a good as I’ve heard him in the last few years and he played just as well. The set up was the same as it’s been for years; signature Strat into a Cry Baby, into a Tweed Fender (though I believe it was built by Dumble) and an A/B switch to a Leslie speaker.

Material came from across his career - including a new song (Prayer of a Child) addressing the war in Gaza from a child’s perspective, with a harrowing video played on the screens to accompany it. With the exception of one song played on a dark green metallic Strat, all the electric material was played on a Strat which had the Palestinian flag painted on it. During the acoustic set, he played an instrumental version of ‘Walk On’ which the Liverpool audience enthusiastically joined in with. Nice signature 00042 as well…

As I’ve said on here before, he’s a hero of mine. I loved the show and have great admiration that he’s still working and can still do it. If the venue gets its act together, I’ll be at Co-op Live next Saturday for round two. 

rlw

Sounds like a good gig.   Thanks for the name of the song he played over the Gaza footage.  Being a bit hard of hearing, I had missed a few bits and pieces when I saw him on Thursday.

guitars4you

richardhomer said:

Liverpool was excellent. Support was from Andy Fairweather Low and the Low Riders - they were great fun. Andy’s voice is still superb.

EC’s band was exceptional. Paul Carrick has been replaced on Hammond by Tim Carmon on this tour. He’s a great player.

Eric does look old facially (though as he’s 80 next birthday that’s hardly surprising). In every other respect he defies age. His voice was a good as I’ve heard him in the last few years and he played just as well. The set up was the same as it’s been for years; signature Strat into a Cry Baby, into a Tweed Fender (though I believe it was built by Dumble) and an A/B switch to a Leslie speaker.

Material came from across his career - including a new song (Prayer of a Child) addressing the war in Gaza from a child’s perspective, with a harrowing video played on the screens to accompany it. With the exception of one song played on a dark green metallic Strat, all the electric material was played on a Strat which had the Palestinian flag painted on it. During the acoustic set, he played an instrumental version of ‘Walk On’ which the Liverpool audience enthusiastically joined in with. Nice signature 00042 as well…

As I’ve said on here before, he’s a hero of mine. I loved the show and have great admiration that he’s still working and can still do it. If the venue gets its act together, I’ll be at Co-op Live next Saturday for round two. 

sounds more promising no for the Co-Op - Think mid week it will be open

Glad you enjoyed the gig - Update again after next weekend

steven70

Thanks for the reports. 
Looks like the band have good energy. 
Sonny Emory is superb...

prowla

rlw said:

prowla said:

His most recent decent album was Goodbye.

Shall we not start this stupid debate all over again.  

This thread starts with my comments on a particular night and is intended for others to comment upon my thoughts and what they experience if they go to any of the nights on this tour.

If you don't like EC, fine, just don't post anything.

Stupid is as stupid says. 

prowla

darthed1981 said:

rlw said:

darthed1981 said:

Clapton eh?  About time we discussed him on here...

I was concentrating on the event and I was certainly not posting any view other than my own personal experience of the evening which, I think, is quite fair.

Should have put a little on the end of my post, apologies old chap.

Was meant as a humourous reference to the rather fractious Clapton thread from a week or so ago.

Apparently that’s not allowed. 

rlw

prowla said:

rlw said:

prowla said:

His most recent decent album was Goodbye.

Shall we not start this stupid debate all over again.  

This thread starts with my comments on a particular night and is intended for others to comment upon my thoughts and what they experience if they go to any of the nights on this tour.

If you don't like EC, fine, just don't post anything.

Stupid is as stupid says. 

Why not go fan the flames somewhere else if you have nothing to add except negativity.

steven70

His latest live release sounds great to my ears - band are not messing around.

richardhomer

So, Manchester…

Truthfully, not as good as Liverpool. The sound at Co-op live was meant to be better than other arenas, as its acoustics were supposedly a design priority. The reality is a very audible delay from the back of the venue which is (to my ears) is at least as bad as the AO Arena. On transients, like snares and the attack of guitars it was very distracting. Ultimately, I supposed you can’t defeat physics…

I suspect this would have been an issue to the performers (we were in a side block of seats, pretty close to the stage). Eric looked tired and as though the show was a bit of a chore. His voice was great but his playing was less impressive than Liverpool. He certainly smiled a lot less.

There were some highlights; Holy Mother (a song I love) replaced Presence of The Lord, his blues playing on Little Queen of Spades was superb and Cocaine was on the money.

The venue is a bugger to get to and from. We went by Metro well before door time and every tram was packed. On leaving, we were advised the queue for the tram would take about an hour the clear and were advised to walk into Manchester - which we did.

We’re seeing the Eagles there at the end of the month but would not book to see anyone else there, unless there were no option of seeing them elsewhere.

rlw

That’s a shame after all the hype about the venue.

And maybe he was a bit pissed off with it too.

richardhomer

rlw said:

That’s a shame after all the hype about the venue.

And maybe he was a bit pissed off with it too.

He definitely seemed it. 

guitars4you

richardhomer said:

So, Manchester…

Truthfully, not as good as Liverpool. The sound at Co-op live was meant to be better than other arenas, as its acoustics were supposedly a design priority. The reality is a very audible delay from the back of the venue which is (to my ears) is at least as bad as the AO Arena. On transients, like snares and the attack of guitars it was very distracting. Ultimately, I supposed you can’t defeat physics…

I suspect this would have been an issue to the performers (we were in a side block of seats, pretty close to the stage). Eric looked tired and as though the show was a bit of a chore. His voice was great but his playing was less impressive than Liverpool. He certainly smiled a lot less.

There were some highlights; Holy Mother (a song I love) replaced Presence of The Lord, his blues playing on Little Queen of Spades was superb and Cocaine was on the money.

The venue is a bugger to get to and from. We went by Metro well before door time and every tram was packed. On leaving, we were advised the queue for the tram would take about an hour the clear and were advised to walk into Manchester - which we did.

We’re seeing the Eagles there at the end of the month but would not book to see anyone else there, unless there were no option of seeing them elsewhere.

Thanks for the update on to and from from the venue - There in a few days for the Eagles - And staying in/near Piccadilly, so will walk each way - Hope the weather okay

guitars4you

richardhomer said:

So, Manchester…

Truthfully, not as good as Liverpool. The sound at Co-op live was meant to be better than other arenas, as its acoustics were supposedly a design priority. The reality is a very audible delay from the back of the venue which is (to my ears) is at least as bad as the AO Arena. On transients, like snares and the attack of guitars it was very distracting. Ultimately, I supposed you can’t defeat physics…

I suspect this would have been an issue to the performers (we were in a side block of seats, pretty close to the stage). Eric looked tired and as though the show was a bit of a chore. His voice was great but his playing was less impressive than Liverpool. He certainly smiled a lot less.

There were some highlights; Holy Mother (a song I love) replaced Presence of The Lord, his blues playing on Little Queen of Spades was superb and Cocaine was on the money.

The venue is a bugger to get to and from. We went by Metro well before door time and every tram was packed. On leaving, we were advised the queue for the tram would take about an hour the clear and were advised to walk into Manchester - which we did.

We’re seeing the Eagles there at the end of the month but would not book to see anyone else there, unless there were no option of seeing them elsewhere.

Thanks for the update on to and from from the venue - There in a few days for the Eagles - And staying in/near Piccadilly, so will walk each way - Hope the weather will be okay for a stroll

randella

^^^ yep, got Smashing Pumpkins tickets for a few weeks' time so keeping an eye on this. The Met is horrible for any big event to be fair, after the cricket at Trafford it's always a massive chore.