I managed to get seats for two of the gigs Clapton did as part of a stint at the Albert Hall. During the first gig I started to recognise guitar playing from the support act, ARC Angels, and it turned out to be Doyle Bramhall who I had seen playing with Clapton before. On the second night he went up a level and delivered some stunning guitar playing. Pretty much the last track the ARC Angels did featured him playing across and in between the rhythm and it was a joy to listen to.
Claptons band included old favourites Any Fairweather-Low (guitar) and Chris Stainton and Tim Carmon (keyboards) and Steve Gadd on drums, Willie Weeks on bass and back up vocals from Sharon White and Michelle John. In addition Doyle Bramhall joined the band towards the end of the set on the second night , which was the last gig of the tour.
It was a pretty standard set on both nights with just a couple of track changes. The first night we got an acoustic "Layla" whereas on the second night it was an electric version. On the second night "Lay Down Sally" got an airing. EC was in fine form on the second night, noticeably better than the previous gig and the whole band was definitely in the zone. Classic bluesy fare from EC. Standout guitar tracks were "Old Love" which was done early on and "Little Queen of Spades". "Lay Down Sally" and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" were beautiful with the whole band in the groove. During the night there were some great Chris Stainton copyright keyboard thrashing solos and some Billy Preston like work from Tim Carmon. The last three tracks, "Layla", Cocaine" and "Crossroads" were graced with Doyle Bramhall's guitar and there were brilliant solos from Andy and Doyle on "Cocaine". Andy in particular played the best solo I have ever heard him play - he seemed to take up the challenge of Doyle's solo and just give it everything on this last gig night at the Albert Hall.
2009 has seen some classic gigs and this was one of them.
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