24 Nights (CD - 1991)

Personnel: Eric Clapton (vocals, guitar); Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Jimmie Vaughan, Phil Palmer (guitar); Jerry Portnoy (harmonica); Johnnie Johnson (piano); Greg Philinganes (keyboards, background vocals); Chuck Leavell (keyboards); Nathan East (bass, background vocals); Richard Cousins, Joey Spampinato (bass); Steve Ferrone, Jamie Oldaker (drums); Phil Collins (tambourine); Ray Cooper (percussion); Katie Kissoon, Tessa Niles (background vocals).

Recorded live at The Royal Albert Hall, London in 1990 & 1991. Includes liner notes by Derek Taylor.

Filmed live at The Royal Albert Hall, London in 1990 and 1991.

In the early '90s, master guitarist Eric Clapton staged 24 concerts at London's historic Royal Albert Hall. This DVD captures 13 songs performed over the course of those memorable shows. The disc offers a standard full-frame 1.33:1 transfer. A closed-captioned English soundtrack is rendered in PCM Stereo. There are no subtitles available on this release. Although there are no special features, Clapton fans might argue that these performances, which cover every aspect of his long career, are special reason enough to own this disc. ~ Perry Seibert

Eric Clapton, who had not released a live album since 1980, had several good reasons to release one in the early '90s. For one thing, his spare backup band of keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, bassist Nathan East, and drummer Steve Ferrone was his best live unit ever, and its powerful live versions of Cream classics like "White Room" and "Sunshine of Your Love" deserved to be documented. For another, since 1987 Clapton had been playing an annual series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London, putting together various special shows (blues nights, orchestral nights, etc.). 24 Nights, a double album, was culled from two years of such shows, 1990 and 1991, and it demonstrated the breadth of Clapton's work, from his hot regular band to assemblages of bluesmen like Buddy Guy and Robert Cray to examples of his soundtrack work with an orchestra led by Michael Kamen. The result was an album that came across as a lavishly constructed retrospective and a testament to Clapton's musical stature. But it made little impact upon release (though it quickly went gold), perhaps because events overcame it -- three months later, Clapton's elegy for his baby son, "Tears in Heaven," was all over the radio, and a few months after that he was redefining himself on MTV Unplugged -- a live show as austere as 24 Nights was grand. Still, it would be hard to find a more thorough demonstration of Clapton's abilities than the one presented here. ~ William Ruhlmann

Starting in 1987, Eric Clapton would traditionally take over London's Royal Albert Hall for a number of nights, putting together various themed sets. One show might be all blues while another might find him performing with an orchestra. The two-disc 24 NIGHTS takes four of these sets from the 1990 and 1991 performances, ably demonstrating how flexible Clapton's guitar playing is regardless of the setting. Disc one finds Slowhand playing a Cream-heavy set. On Clapton's blues band set he jams with heroes and friends such as Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Jimmie Vaughan and Johnny Johnson on songs by Guy ("Watch Yourself"), Junior Wells ("Hoodoo Man") and Maceo Merriweather ("Worried Life Blues").

The 9-piece band opening up disc two essays numbers from JOURNEYMAN along with "Wonderful Tonight" and a Derek & The Dominos favorite, "Bell Bottom Blues." Things wrap up with Clapton backed by the aforementioned nonet and The Michael Kamen-led National Philharmonic Orchestra. Along with a version of "Hard Times" that does justice to Brother Ray's original, there's the instrumental "Edge Of Darkness." Taken from the Lethal Weapon movies Clapton scored with Kamen, it shows another side of Slowhand that's usually buried under the deification he's shunned his whole life. minimize