Eric Clapton/UK 5.3.1980

Eric Clapton’s archive recordings were thought to have been exhausted, but after 36 years, they were unearthed and recently uploaded to the internet. We are releasing a significantly upgraded version of the original recording! This is a high-quality stereo audience source from Brighton, England on May 3, 1980. This performance was the second performance of the UK tour, which took place in a short period of just over two weeks this month. If you look at the band members, you will notice that Gary Brooker and Albert Lee from Procol Harum are participating, which is similar to the lineup of the Japan tour held at the end of the previous year. Now, let’s take a chronological look at the progress of Clapton’s band up to this tour.・September 7th 1979: Performance in Cranley, Surrey, UK: First gig with an all-British band ・September 30th 1979: Performance in Studfordshire, UK: Second gig with an all-British band ・October 6th to 29th 1979: Eastern European and Middle Eastern tour ・November 16th to December 4th 1979: Far East and Japan tour <<Live album “JUST ONE NIGHT” recorded in December 1979>> <May 1st 1980: Live album “JUST ONE NIGHT” released>> ・May 2nd to 18th 1980: UK tour *The Newcastle performance on May 7th was released as “NEWCASTLE 1980” In August 1979, they suddenly fired the American band “Tulsa Tops” who had been supporting them since 1974, and after auditions, replaced all of the members with British musicians. At this point, Gary Brooker had not yet joined the band. After two warm-up gigs without Brooker, they went on their first tour in October of the same year. However, as described in Ray Coleman’s biography, “The Eric Clapton Story,” at a performance in Katowice, Poland on October 18, Clapton witnessed the police violently suppressing the tension of the people, who were oppressed by the government on a daily basis because it was a communist bloc, and Clapton stopped playing in the middle of the performance and canceled the next day’s performance in the same place in despair. As a result, Clapton was not satisfied with the tour that was supposed to introduce his new band. So he changed his mind and toured the following month, focusing on Japan, where he always listens to his performances enthusiastically and warmly. Satisfied with the results, Clapton personally instructed to have the Tokyo performance recorded live. This album, titled “JUST ONE NIGHT,” was released on May 1, 1980, and received high praise, reaching No. 2 on the US charts. The UK tour on which this album was recorded began the day after the release date. Moreover, after the end of the previous year’s tour, by the spring of 1980, Clapton became acquainted with Gary Brooker, who lived near his home in Surrey and taught him fly fishing, and brought him into the band. In other words, this UK tour was the first to be carried out with Brooker. For Clapton, it was an opportunity to try a new approach with twin keyboards by adding Brooker to the all-British band that he had gained a sense of success with the previous year. The precious sound source of the second day of the tour, which shows his new challenge, has seen the light of day after 36 years. However, the master uploaded on the Internet had various defects. First of all, the pitch was about semitones high throughout, and randomly. Of course, our engineers adjusted this perfectly. Furthermore, the unclear sound quality was transformed into a clear one by remastering. There is no doubt that the overall impression has been significantly upgraded. In addition, the “squeak” sound that occurred in the intro of Key To The Highway was removed. The “whirling” sound and pause at 0:32 were perfectly mended by making up for it from another point. The master itself was missing an intro, and it was unavoidable that the sound cut at 0:44 could not be repaired, but the terrible pause and missing part at 0:54 in the following Cocaine were also perfectly corrected by matching the beat. Currently, it seems that the sound source is also released as a download, but this is the only one that has been mended so finely and delicately. Maniacs will be able to tell which is a faithful reproduction of the original concert and which is stress-free to listen to. On this tour, Clapton, unusually, deliberately removed Layla, which he had played for many years as the final number of the regular set, from the set. He had become accustomed to the special audience response to this number, and was immersed in a pre-established harmony as if there was a concert for this number, so he sought freshness as a challenge to himself. Instead, he features two songs each by Albert Lee and Gary Brooker, who were also big names as soloists. In particular, Brooker’s number Leave The Candle was released as a single with the entire Clapton band backing it up at the time, and this live version can be said to be a very valuable take only for this tour. Clapton presented the performance of the band as a whole with this stage configuration. As for Clapton’s play, as with “JUST ONE NIGHT”, the withered half-tones of Blackie, who is crying and groaning, can be heard throughout the whole performance. Moreover, the set list on this day is different from that of “NEWCASTLE 1980”, which was released on our previous release and recorded the Newcastle performance. Please enjoy the first appearance sound source, which is full of listening points, with the best quality recorded only at our store. Live at Brighton Centre, Brighton, UK 3rd May 1980 TRULY AMAZING SOUND Disc 1 (51:53) 1. Intro 2. Tulsa Time 3. Early In The Morning 4. Lay Down Sally 5. Wonderful Tonight 6. Country Boy 7. Hold On 8. Blues Power 9. All Our Pastimes 10. Setting Me Up 11. Leave The Candle Disc 2 (37:45) 1. Ramblin’ On My Mind / Have You Ever Loved A Woman 2. Home Loving 3. Key To The Highway 4. Cocaine 5. Band Introductions 6. Further On Up The Road Eric Clapton – guitar, vocals Albert Lee – guitar vocals Chris Stainton – keyboards Gary Brooker – keyboards vocals Dave Markee – bass Henry Spinetti – drums