Eric Clapton - Royal Albert Hall - January 31, 1988
Royal Albert Hall, London - CD-R2 - 63:00/61:37 - Aud 4
Disc 1:
1) Crossroads
2) White Room
3) I Shot the Sheriff
4) Wonderful Tonight
5) Run
6) Same Old Blues
7) Tearing Us Apart
8) Holy Mother
Disc 2:
1) Badge / Let it Rain
2) Cocaine
3) A Remark You Made
4) Layla
5) Behind the Mask
6) Sunshine of Your Love
7) Money for Nothing
7) Band Introductions / Further On Up the Road
Comments: A well balanced, listenable audience recording. Some near crowd noise but nothing too distracting. The band is in good form. Following a nice fluid performance of "Run", Mark Knopfler really shines on some sweet backing fills on "Holy Mother". Introducing "Badge", EC quips "this is a song from Cream ... when we broke up, we stayed!". Both EC and Mark Knopfler take some great extended solo breaks in "Badge", which segues nicely into "Let it Rain". "A Remark You Made", which became a band fixture for several years, was first played at these early 1998 RAH dates, and on EC takes the time to introduce the song, saying "I'd like to take this time to dedicate a tune to the late, great Jaco Pastorious, it's a tune he wrote called "A Remark You Made". Unlike performances of "Remark" in later years, which EC would sit out, both EC and Mark Knopfler play beautiful melody lines over an extended performance of "Remark". A worthwhile show to have, if only for that song. Following the interlude, the band explodes out of the gate with a blistering performance of "Layla", EC and Mark Knopfler trading solos and getting in some nice unison melody lines on the coda. Unfortunately, the show is not complete, as the end of "Further On Up the Road" is absent. Recommended.
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