ERIC CLAPTON
''SLOWHAND AT 70: LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL, DISC ONE''
NOVEMBER 13 2015
119:22
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DISC ONE (50:24)
1 Somebody´s Knockin On My Door 07:08
2 Key To The Highway 05:06
3 Tell The Truth 06:37
4 Pretending 05:34
5 Hoochie Coochie Man 05:25
6 You Are So Beautiful 04:45
7 Can´t Find My Way Home 06:16
8 I Shot The Sheriff 09:29
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DISC TWO (68:58)
1 Driftin' Blues 06:30
2 Nobody Knows You When You`re Down And Out 03:31
3 Tears In Heaven 05:02
4 Layla 06:56
5 Let It Rain 05:35
6 Wonderful Tonight 03:55
7 Crossroads 06:07
8 Little Queen Of Spades 16:51
9 Cocaine 08:51
10 High Time We Went 05:37
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Eric Clapton – electric and acoustic guitar, lead vocals
Chris Stainton – keyboards
Paul Carrack – keyboards, Hammond organ, background vocals
Andy Fairweather Low - keyboards, background vocals
Nathan East – bass guitar, background vocals
Steve Gadd – drums
Michelle John – background vocals
Sharon White – background vocals
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ABOUT THE ALBUM / WIKIPEDIA
Slowhand at 70 – Live at the Royal Albert Hall is a concert film released by the British pop-rock musician Eric Clapton. It features a selection of songs, Clapton performed on May 21, 2015 while he played during his "70th Birthday Celebration" tour at London's iconic Royal Albert Hall. While on tour in London, Clapton broke the 200th concert mark, making him the act, who has most performed at the British venue. The film was released from September 14, 2015 onwards via cinema broadcasting in various territories. The cinema release also featured an in-depth report about Clapton's history at the Royal Albert Hall. A DVD, Blu-ray, compact disc and grammophone record release of the performance was released on November 13, 2015.
RECORDING
Two concert have been recorded for potential cinema, video and audio release in 2015. The first show that was recorded, took place on May 20, 2015. The setlist featured seventeen songs, which left room for bad recordings to be cut out, if necessary. The show notes revealed one day after its recording: "This concert was filmed and recorded. No information has been made regarding potential release of the recordings". A second show was recorded on May 21 the same year. It also consisted of seventeen tracks. The show management noted on May 22 that "[the] concert was filmed and recorded for potential release". Only the footage that was taped during the second recording date was used in the final movie cut. No further shows were recorded.
Keyboardist Paul Carrack recalled in an interview with the Canadian National Post: "I thought the playing was amazing. Eric doesn’t make much fuss about the fact that it’s the 70th so in that respect it was just like any other gig but there was a special atmosphere in the hall. When we came off stage the first night Eric said he wasn’t gonna let it go on. I think the second night must have been a lot better. [...] With Eric, playing at the Albert Hall … it’s really just about the music. It feels like you’re playing in a small club, almost. Especially when you’ve been out playing those big auditoriums, which aren’t built for music. But the Albert Hall has this wonderful, intimate atmosphere".
CONTENT
According to the official release announcement, the movie features "classic songs and fan favourites from throughout Eric Clapton's career", including tracks the British rock musician recorded with bands like Cream, Derek & the Dominos and titles Clapton made famous throughout his extensive career as a solo artist. The track listing features hit single releases including "Layla", "I Shot the Sheriff", "Tears in Heaven" and "Wonderful Tonight". A special featurette filmed for cinema audiences only consists of interviews by Paul Gambaccini with both fellow band members Paul Carrack, Andy Fairweather Low and Chris Stainton, as well as music journalists Paul Sexton and Hugh Fielder. Besides showing Clapton, who plays guitar and sings at the performance, the six-piece band of Chris Stainton and Paul Carrack on keyboards and Hammond organ, Nathan East on bass guitar, Steve Gadd on drums, and Michelle John and Sharon White singing background vocals is shown equally alongside scenes of the English venue.
RELEASE
Both a trailer and an official announcement were released by Eric Clapton's official management and concert promoters on August 19, 2015 over the internet and social media. The movie, featuring a selected amount of songs performed by Clapton at London's Royal Albert Hall on May 21, 2015 during his "70th Birthday Celebration" tour was released from September 14, 2015 onwards via cinema broadcasting worldwide under license of Arts Alliance, Warner Bros. Records and Eagle Rock Entertainment.[11] Live at the Royal Albert Hall was produced by the Examination Productions company in corporaiton with Eagle Rock Entertainment. On September 1, 2015 a sneak preview featuring Clapton's live performance of "Cocaine" was released. The release features an high-definition picture and 5.1 surround sound. On August 31, 2015 it was announced, that a DVD, Blu-ray, compact disc and grammophone record version of the recordings will be released on November 13, 2015 through Eagle Rock Entertainment. A DVD and three vinyl record package was made available through pre-order via Amazon.com on September 16, 2015. Just before the release was made visible on the Amazon internet ordering marketplace, an executive of Germany's Warner Music Group told the German radio station Radio NRW that there will be limited grammophone record pressings of the recordings made for the market. On November 13, 2015, the following packages were released: Double DVD with double CD, grammophone record, double CD, DVD, Blu-ray disc and a triple vinyl release with included DVD.
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BIOGRAPHY / AMG
William Ruhlmann
By the time Eric Clapton launched his solo career with the release of his self-titled debut album in mid-1970, he was long established as one of the world's major rock stars due to his group affiliations -- the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, and Blind Faith -- which had demonstrated his claim to being the best rock guitarist of his generation. That it took Clapton so long to go out on his own, however, was evidence of a degree of reticence unusual for one of his stature. And his debut album, though it spawned the Top 40 hit "After Midnight," was typical of his self-effacing approach: it was, in effect, an album by the group he had lately been featured in, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends.
Not surprisingly, before his solo debut had even been released, Clapton had retreated from his solo stance, assembling from the D&B&F ranks the personnel for a group, Derek & the Dominos, with whom he played for most of 1970 and recorded the landmark album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Clapton was largely inactive in 1971 and 1972, due to heroin addiction, but he performed a comeback concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London on January 13, 1973, resulting in the album Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert (September 1973). But Clapton did not launch a sustained solo career until July 1974, when he released 461 Ocean Boulevard, which topped the charts and spawned the number one single "I Shot the Sheriff."
The persona Clapton established over the next decade was less that of guitar hero than arena rock star with a weakness for ballads. The follow-ups to 461 Ocean Boulevard, There's One in Every Crowd (March 1975), the live E.C. Was Here (August 1975), and No Reason to Cry (August 1976), were less successful. But Slowhand (November 1977), which featured both the powerful "Cocaine" (written by J.J. Cale, who had also written "After Midnight") and the hit singles "Lay Down Sally" and "Wonderful Tonight," was a million-seller. Its follow-ups, Backless (November 1978), featuring the Top Ten hit "Promises," the live Just One Night (April 1980), and Another Ticket (February 1981), featuring the Top Ten hit "I Can't Stand It," were all big sellers.
Clapton's popularity waned somewhat in the first half of the '80s, as the albums Money and Cigarettes (February 1983), Behind the Sun (March 1985), and August (November 1986) indicated a certain career stasis. But he was buoyed up by the release of the box set retrospective Crossroads (April 1988), which seemed to remind his fans of how great he was. Journeyman (November 1989) was a return to form. It would be his last new studio album for nearly five years, though in the interim he would suffer greatly and enjoy surprising triumph. On March 20, 1991, Clapton's four-year-old son was killed in a fall. While he mourned, he released a live album, 24 Nights (October 1991), culled from his annual concert series at Royal Albert Hall in London, and prepared a movie soundtrack, Rush (January 1992). The soundtrack featured a song written for his son, "Tears in Heaven," that became a massive hit single.
In March 1992, Clapton recorded a concert for MTV Unplugged which, when released on an album in August, became his biggest-selling record ever. Two years later, Clapton returned with a blues album, From the Cradle, which became one of his most successful albums, both commercially and critically. Crossroads, Vol. 2: Live in the Seventies, a box set chronicling his live work from the '70s, was released to mixed reviews. In early 1997, Clapton, billing himself by the pseudonym "X-Sample," collaborated with keyboardist/producer Simon Climie as the ambient new age and trip-hop duo T.D.F. The duo released Retail Therapy to mixed reviews in early 1997.
Clapton retained Climie as his collaborator for Pilgrim, his first album of new material since 1989's Journeyman. Pilgrim was greeted with decidedly mixed reviews upon its spring 1998 release, but the album debuted at number four and stayed in the Top Ten for several weeks on the success of the single "My Father's Eyes." In 2000, Clapton teamed up with old friend B.B. King on Riding with the King, a set of blues standards and material from contemporary singer/songwriters. Another solo outing, entitled Reptile, followed in early 2001. Three years later, Clapton issued Me and Mr. Johnson, a collection of tunes honoring the Mississippi-born bluesman Robert Johnson. Released in 2005, Back Home, Clapton's 14th album of original material, reflected his ease with fatherhood. Also in 2005, Clapton unexpectedly teamed with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker for a Cream reunion that included May concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall and shows at New York's Madison Square Garden in October, with the former being compiled for a live release that fall.
This turned out to be the first of many reunions and looks back for Clapton. In 2006, he elevated the profile of his latter-day idol J.J. Cale by recording an album-long duet, The Road to Escondido. The following year he released his autobiography -- accompanied by a new career compilation called The Complete Clapton -- which focused more on his trials with addiction and subsequent recovery than his musical career. In 2008, Clapton began playing regular shows with his old Blind Faith partner Steve Winwood, gigs that were captured on the 2009 double-live set Live from Madison Square Garden. Winwood also appeared on Clapton's next studio album, 2010's Clapton, which was a collaboration-heavy affair also featuring Cale, Sheryl Crow, Allen Toussaint, and Wynton Marsalis. In 2011, Clapton returned the favor to Marsalis by collaborating on the live concert album Play the Blues: Live from Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Clapton parted ways with Warner after Clapton, and he chose to set up his own Bushbranch imprint on Gary Hoey's independent label Surfdog. His first album for the label was Old Sock, largely a collection of old songs the guitarist loved. It reached the Top Ten in the U.S. and Great Britain. In the fall of 2013, Warner Bros. released Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013, and his Unplugged album was expanded and remastered by Rhino. Early the following year, Clapton announced that a new album, The Breeze: An Appreciation of J.J. Cale, would be issued in July, one year on from the passing of his key inspiration. The tribute album included contributions from artists such as Willie Nelson, John Mayer, Tom Petty, and Mark Knopfler. A collection of his Warner recordings called Forever Man saw a spring 2015 release.
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