Clapton tour review

What a brilliant night out it was on Thursday 11 May.
Big bro Chris came round to my house with his other half and along with myself and wifey we trundled up the M5 on to the M42 to the NEC arena. although the traffic was horrendous we got there a little after 7.30pm, produced our tickets, (only after buying the obligatory official T-shirt of the tour) and entered the arena only to find the support band already mid way through there first song. Unbeknown to us the support was none other than The Robert Cray band and there was the man himself, what a bonus! Although only on for 1 hour he set everybody up for the main event.
It must have been about a 45 minute turnaround to get the stage ready for the Eric Clapton set. The time was well used up by everybody setting up a huge Mexican wave that started at the stage end and went right around the auditorium.

The lights dimmed and then to darkness and to the cheers of the whole crowd on walked Eric and the band.

With no intro's they ripped straight into "Pretending", a fantastic start to what was to become a brilliant night of superb guitar playing by all three guitarist's, yes THREE guitarist,s to Eric's right was the new introduction of "Derek Trucks" who played all the slide work on his red Gibson SG and to his right the unorthodox Doyle Bramhall II.
Every song that was played used a similar format of Eric taking the first lead then passing over to Doyle then in turn passing on to Derek and then usually back to Eric, the three differing styles taking the songs to new levels of embellishment.
After "pretending" came
"So Tired"
"Got To Get Better In A Little While"
"Lost And Found"

"I Shot The Sheriff"
in which, I heard the best solo I probably will ever hear in my life

"Anyday"

After those first six songs were put to bed there was a little break where the main band became seated and the acoustics were brought to them and they rolled straight into

"Back Home"
"I Am Yours"

Then upon cheers on the recognition of the outstanding intro to the next,
"Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out"

"Milkcow Blues" was a little hat tip to his hero "Robert Johnson"

And finishing the acoustic set with "Running On Faith" In which the slide work by Derek Trucks was astounding.

Strapping the electrics back on we go into a very raunchy version of "After Midnight" ( I still have that song in my head now)

"Little Queen Of Spades"
This one needs a special mention as it was one of the Highlights of the night, with the song being divided into passages for every member of the band to shine. Superb solo's with tone to die for from all three guitarists and twisted fingers must have been the order of the day for Chris Stainton & Tim Carmon- keyboards. A strong bass rhythm from Willy Weeks, who up till now was virtually inaudible
I loved this song even though it must have gone on for a full 10-12 minutes.

Next up was
"Everybody Oughta Make A Change"
"Motherless Children"

Then to the cheers of the women in the audience. (one could be forgiven for thinking that they only came to hear this one)
"Wonderful Tonight"
Played as if you were listening to the CD !

Then to the cheers of the men in the audience. (one could be forgiven for thinking that they only came to hear this one)
"Layla"
Embellished with four different solo's

No Eric Clapton concert could be complete without "Cocaine" which ended with the last word being "Cocaine!!!" echoing around the auditorium, sung by the whole crowd.

Off came the guitars, up jumps the drummer and keyboard players "Thank you,Goodnight" shouts Eric to rapturous applauds and cheering, now everybody to there feet get them back.
A full 5 minutes later on they come to waves and waves of clapping and cheering and rip into,,,, "Crossroads" which has everybody up and moving and then the proper "Thank you , Goodnight".

Fantastic show, if you get the chance go see for yourself. You will not be disappointed!!!

The band

Eric Clapton - guitar, vocals
Doyle Bramhall II - guitar
Derek Trucks - guitar
Chris Stainton - keyboards
Tim Carmon - keyboards
Willie Weeks - bass
Steve Jordan - drums
The Kick Horns (Simon Clarke, Roddy Lorimer, Tim Sanders)
Michelle John - backing vocals
Sharon White - backing vocals

The set list

Pretending
So Tired
Got To Get Better In A Little While
Lost And Found
I Shot The Sheriff
Anyday
Back Home (acoustic)
I Am Yours (acoustic)
Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out (acoustic)
Milkcow Blues (acoustic)
Running On Faith (acoustic)
After Midnight
Little Queen Of Spades
Everybody Oughta Make A Change
Motherless Children
Wonderful Tonight
Layla
Cocaine
Crossroads (Encore)