A fine souvenir of the 70th birthday of a true legend.
This high quality DVD of Eric Clapton at The Royal Albert Hall (in mid-2015) celebrating his 70th birthday with his band will, of course, be a must buy for his legion of fans.
Clapton covers all bases with his set-list featuring the electrifying 'Pretending' from his 'Journeyman' album to the less electrifying but now mandatory semi-acoustic 'Layla'. Other classics such as 'I Shot The Sheriff' and 'Tears In Heaven' are included and it is clear that in the eyes of the audience, Clapton can do no wrong.
He has surrounded himself with superb players (including Paul Carrack of Mike And The Mechanics who is a great Hammond B3 player) and drummer Steve Gadd who does everything with ease. Of special note is bassist Nathan East who takes over lead singer duties on 'Can't Find My Way Home' and is superb, allowing Clapton to focus on his guitar work. For that matter, Carrack sings 'You Are So Beautiful' effortlessly – Clapton has really got a crack team around him!
To add a bit of further excitement, Clapton puts in some disguised introductions to his songs probably most effective on '...Sherriff'. His playing throughout is spot on as you would imagine and the tone is captured to perfection by the 5.1 recording. Interplays with Carrack's B3 and the piano of Chris Stainton add that little extra magic to proceedings and, for example, raise the slow-paced Layla to the stratosphere. The upbeat songs are more up my street and it's hard to beat 'Let It Rain' and 'Cocaine' for how live Rock songs should sound.
If you are going to buy this, you probably don't need to have read this review, this DVD is a fine souvenir of the 70th birthday of a true legend.
Rob McKenzie