Review of Eric Clapton and Friends In Concert

Introduction

With a little help from his friends....(famous song title stolen with apologies to Mr. Harrison - who had his wife stolen by Eric in the 1970s)

Recorded in Summer 1999, a one-off concert with profits going to the Crossroads Centre. Eric`s friends on this night were David Sanborn, Sheryl Crow, Mary J Blige and Bob Dylan.

The DVD contains most of the tracks performed on the night, but as ever with some omissions. It`s a shame tracks have to be omitted when there`s probably enough space left on the DVD to fit them on!

Video

Picture is your normal 4:3 recorded for TV broadcast, but still looks good. Nothing special, but still good quality. As ever, it`s the soundtrack that counts on this disc.

Audio

The important bit - the sound. There are both stereo (the default) and 5.1 soundtracks on this disc - the 5.1 mix is pretty good and definitely my preferred version. The stereo track is also very good.

You really have to crank this one loud to appreciate it, and you won`t be let down by the results when you do. You can feel the bass drum and Nathan East`s bass playing. All the instruments sound crisp and clear (check out the crazy keyboard solo on Old Love too - wacky !)

Features

No extras here I`m afraid.

Conclusion

The show starts out with Eric and his band, who are then joined by Dave Sanborn. Now he is a good saxophonist, but he gets in the way on one or two tracks. Sheryl Crow then joins them to perform 2 of her own songs - one of which (My Favourite Mistake) was rumoured to be about Eric (they were an item for a while) - and then a storming version of the Hendrix track "Little Wing". Eric played this a lot in the 1970s and until this DVD I`d always preferred Hendrix`s version - but this one`s a cracker. Play loud.

Then it goes downhill for a brief period with Mary J. Blige (or Mary J. Bilge as she was once advertised on satellite/cable channel "The Box" - I kid you not). Not a fan I`m afraid. Then there are more EC tracks, then Bob Dylan turns up. I`ve never "got" Bob Dylan, and here he just mumbles away not adding much to the proceedings. "Don`t Think Twice" is not a bad track, but he doesn`t add anything to "Crossroads".

To sum up, this is a must buy for EC fans everywhere !