ERIC CLAPTON- Nassau Coliseum

Written by Backstage Bruce

My BSP from that night, NC- Nassau Coliseum

    Eric Clapton is a guitar superstar. He is one of those artist, when you hear his work, you stop and ask yourself "This is his too?" He is the only person, in the world, to be thrice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, with three-different acts: once as a solo, once with 'The Yardbirds' (along with Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page) and once with 'Cream' (along with Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker). He was also in the bands 'Derek and The Dominos', and 'Blind Faith'. He has hit records spanning 50 years plus. 

    His nickname in the music industry is 'Slowhand'. One of his albums is entitled 'Slowhand'. Legend has it the name came about because apparently it takes him absolutely forever to change a string when one breaks. The audience would start a slow-hand clap while there was no music playing.  

    Tonight, Mr. Slowhand himself was here and what a pleasure it was. One of the smoothest days at work ever, there were no crazy request on the rider. There was no big after-party scheduled. It was a straight forward, very uneventful, get to work and feed the crew kind of day, which was good, save any drama for the stage. 

    There was one surprise special guest that night, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. That was nice to see him there. He was one of the biggest rockstars in the world at the moment, with the release of the smash, ground-breaking, music video 'Money For Nothing' just a few years earlier. 

    'Cross Road Blues' was the first song of the evening, it is a Robert Johnson cover. What an incredible way to kick off the concert. The crowd loved it. He followed that up with something everyone knew, 'White Room' by Cream and that's when it started, "That's one of his?" Then he did another cover, this time the Wailers 'I Shot The Sheriff'. It was really fun, they looked great, the whole band sounded really tight. He launched into a few of his solo hits, which were absolute crowd pleasers: 'Lay Down Sally' and the beautiful 'Wonderful Tonight'. 

One of his picks from that night

    He played from his entire catalog 'White Room'- Cream, 'Hello Old Friend'- solo, 'Can't Find My Way Home'- Blind Faith, 'Layla'- Derek and The Dominos. He also performed two J.J. Cale written songs: 'Cocaine' and 'After Midnight'. The special treat of the evening was the first encore, with Mark Knopfler, 'Money For Nothing'. The audience was super pumped to see him, it was totally unannounced until he walked on the stage. 'Sunshine of Your Love'- Cream was the final encore of the evening.

    The concert was riveting, truly compelling guitar playing. If you have never seen him, I would recommend seeing him when you get a chance. Everyone departed the building, time for me to clean up the dressing rooms a bit. I do one more check of the stage just to make sure I got our coolers out of there and safely stored away when I find an Eric Clapton pick, which I promptly picked up to add to the collection. 

    I was grateful that it was going to be a relatively early evening for me, sometimes these can turn out to be all nighters. I got out of there just a little after midnight. Time to let it all hang out.