Derek and the Dominos Derek and the Dominos/UK 1970 Upgrade

Three vintage new masters were brought to us by Taper, a heavyweight in the UK who is well known for his Clapton sound sources. The first to be released is the newly excavated master of Derek & The Dominos, a band that Clapton himself recognized as the best band in his career! This was a mono audience recording of a gig at a small hall in Malvern, a local city in the UK, on ​​August 14, 1970, but the comment from the heavyweight master attached to the tape said, “This sound source already exists, but the master I sent this time is a cassette copy I received directly from the person who actually recorded it at the venue at that time using an open reel deck. Unfortunately, the original open reel was only 60 minutes long, but I was surprised when I listened to it. The set list (song order) is different from any of the existing sound sources on the Internet, and Tell The Truth, which is not included in them, was recorded for only 60 seconds! Eric plays slide guitar in this song. It also includes Clapton’s MC saying that this song is the last number of the day. I think this will be a historic release.” In other words, the set list (order of performance) of the already released version was replaced for some reason and was incorrect. Moreover, Tell The Truth, which is the first recording of this version, was played. It is truly an excavation master who repaints historical facts. Here is the set list of the previously released version. 1. Country Life 2. Anyday 3. Bottle Of Red Wine 4. Don’t Know Why 5. Roll It Over 6. Blues Power 7. Have You Ever Loved A Woman 8. Bad Boy. It was a total of 8 songs. It’s completely different from this version. If you think about it, it was strange to start the gig with a number featuring keyboardist Bobby Whitlock instead of Clapton. There was no way that the opening of the debut tour of the new band formed by Clapton would be a number by a side member. It can be concluded that the previously released version was produced from a different master that was tampered with by someone at the time of the leak and was distributed as it was. With the release of this version, another truth about Derek & The Dominos has been rewritten. And what is most valuable about this version is that, as the veteran taper commented, it is a cassette master copied directly from the recorder’s open reel tape. In other words, it is a genuine first generation master. That’s why the sound quality was guaranteed to be far below that of the previously released version. If the sound quality of the previously released version is a C-class audience recording, then the sound quality of this version has been improved to the level of a B+ or A-class audience recording. Of course, the master of the heavyweight itself is literally a vintage-class one, so there were some sound defects scattered around. The pitch was about 40% to 50% higher than a semitone due to aging, and there was also excessive high-pitched hiss and low-pitched bass roar. Furthermore, the overall sound image was mussary. And at 5:22 in Roll It Over, there was a drop in sound, and Bad Boy had frequent noise in the right channel, sound blur, and Anyday also had sound blur. However, the mastering by our engineer has completely eliminated all of these. When you listen to the previously released version, you will immediately notice the artificial and unnatural sound of the drum snare and cymbals. With that in mind, our engineers placed great importance on maintaining the naturalness of the original sound, and mastered the album to avoid making the drums, especially the reverberation of the cymbals and the snare sound artificial. The original master was also a world apart from the previous releases, but thanks to our mastering, the sound quality was upgraded to the point that you would think, “Is this the sound source from that day?” Now, to understand the value and importance of this gig, let’s look back at Clapton’s activities in 1970. – January 1970: Recorded his solo album “ERIC CLAPTON” with Delaney & Bonnie & Friends in LA. – February 2-22, 1970: Toured North America as a member of Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, then left the band and returned to the UK. – May 5, 1970: Attended a Traffic concert led by his old friend Steve Winwood in Oxford, UK. – June 14, 1970: Derek and the Dominos hold their debut concert at the Lyceum in central London.・June 18th 1970: Recorded first single “Tell The Truth” c/w Roll It Over in London <<August 1st 1970: First solo album “ERIC CLAPTON” released, single “Tell The Truth” also released that month>> ・August 1st to 22nd 1970: Short UK tour ←★Here★ ・August 23rd to mid-September 1970: Recorded the album “LAYLA AND OTHER ASSORTED LOVE SONGS” in Miami ・September 20th to October 11th 1970: European tour ・October 15th to December 6th 1970: Long-term US tour ・December 18th 1970: Attended Keith Richards’ birthday party held by the Rolling Stones while they were recording at Olympic Sound Studios. Recording a live studio version of “Brown Sugar” with the Stones From these topics alone, we cannot simply read the details of Clapton’s activities, but at the beginning of the year, he completed his first solo album with the help of Delaney, Bonnie and Friends, who he had participated in, but after finishing his tour with them, he left the band and returned to England. From this, it can be seen that Clapton fulfilled his mission as a sideman and aimed to pursue his own music. Then, in June, he gathered former Friends members and made his concert debut as a new band, Derek and the Dominos, which shows that he formed a band between March and May. After that, to confirm the band’s unity and performance ability at the same time as the release of his solo album, he went on a short tour of small halls in the UK. Clapton, who had a good feeling here, flew to Miami with his band and began recording the masterpiece of the century, “LAYLA~”. So, you can see that this is a live recording from before the recording of “LAYLA” and immediately after the release of his first solo album, when Clapton was groping in the dark but at his most passionate and challenging. A new band just formed. I’m the only British person. How far can I realize my blues with the members I found by going to America alone? The recording deadline is approaching. I want to gain skills on the live stage and go to Miami. What will the audience think of my new appearance? What is the evaluation of this band? How is the new song received? Clapton’s mind must have had various thoughts. And Clapton found confidence in his new band and flew to Miami in high spirits. This is the original form of that moment packed in this album. Here, he plays four songs from his just-released first solo album and two new singles. What is noteworthy is that Clapton was already showing off his slide play here. It’s only a minute or so, but the slide guitar bursts forth on the first recording of Tell The Truth! Here, it was played in the fast version as per the single. It is generally said that he was enlightened to slides by Duane Allman, whom he met during the recording of “LAYLA” in Miami, but the genius guitarist Clapton had already mastered slides. He also plays Have You Ever Loved A Woman and Anyday. These two songs were the numbers that he would record in Miami after this. In other words, Anyday was already completed, and Have You Ever Loved A Woman was already played live with Clapton’s strong will to record it. It is no exaggeration to say that the passionate feelings hidden in his heart were overflowing in the play of this day. A valuable sound source of Dominos that has achieved a significant upgrade. The true set list revealed for the first time by this master. As the heavyweight Taper says, this board may be one of the historic releases in Clapton’s career. Live at Winter Gardens, Malvern, Worcestershire, UK 14th August 1970 HUGE UPGRADE (from Original Masters) (58:04) 1. Introduction 2. Roll It Over 3. Blues Power 4. Have You Ever Loved A Woman 5. Bad Boy 6. Country Life 7. Anyday 8. Bottle Of Red Wine 9. Don’t Know Why 10. Tell The Truth ★ Eric Clapton – Guitar, Vo cals Bobby Whitlock – Keyboards, Vocals Carl Radle – Bass Jim Gordon – Drums