Royal Albert Hall, London, England
7th May 2004

Review by : Steve Rivers

Hi went to see Eric at the Albert Hall on Friday night 7th May. It was a beautifully crafted set and Eric's' solo in I Sot the Sheriff was superb the other notable song of the evening was "got to get better"; it sounded fresh, wonderfully classy and was a joy to experience.

Its good to see some young faces playing on stage with Eric; the young backing singers Michelle John and Sharon White were great and I have to say Michelle is a very sexy and captivating young woman!

Doyle Bramhall II's playing was superb and really complemented the rest of the band. Billy Preston and Nathan East played of each other and found technically brilliant moments to add interest while Steve Gadd on Drums Chris Stainton on keyboard underpinned the band wonderfully. It felt like Eric had been reinvigorated by the addition of the younger artists in his band and perhaps found something interesting to base his playing around.

Only two noticeable mistakes were evident during the night and these obviously upset the perfectionist Eric. One was a bum note Eric himself played at the end of a solo and the other was the failure of the sound crew (I presume) to turn up Robert Randolph's Guitar (who had just joined them on stage) for the first 20 seconds of the final song of the evening "got my mojo working". However this didn't spoil the event for me as the playing and performances were beautiful. I have only seen Eric once before; and that was at the Albert Hall as well but I was standing up in the gallery and the view was terrible, however I managed to get tickets on stage left this time and was astounded at just how intimate the Albert Hall can be. I love the musician that is Eric Clapton and look forward (hopefully) to seeing him perform again in the future.

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