The Daily Telegraph - Features
Old Slowhand plays the blues – and plenty of crowd-pleasers
Eric Clapton Royal Albert Hall, SW7
★★★★ ★
You could tell Eric Clapton was in a good mood because he played not one but two versions of signature anthem Layla. During a seated acoustic section, the 77-year-old guitar superstar rolled out the jazzy, unplugged singalong version that was such a staple of MTV in the 1990s and seemed to confirm the former firebrand had settled into his position as comfortable middle-of-the-road elder-statesman of blues rock.
But then, at the end of his first concert in the Royal Albert Hall since 2019, the audience of 5,000 spontaneously rose to their feet as that sparkling riff rang out again, this time on Clapton’s electric Stratocaster. To the delight of the crowd, Britain’s original guitar hero led his seven-piece band into a full-on assault on the anguished 1971 Derek and the Dominos version, complete with blistering solos and long, instrumental coda.
The stylistic span between these very different takes on the same song illustrates the poles of a career that has encompassed explosive blues rock and sensitive songcraft. Returning to touring after three years following a pandemic-mandated break (that we all know the old curmudgeon was no fan of), this latest iteration of his live show confidently covered those extremes. There was a pleasingly hefty dose of fiery rockers, including Cream’s White Room, Badge and his aggressive reconstruction of Robert Johnson’s Cross Road Blues. But there was also an abundance of the gentle, melodic grooving that earned him the sobriquet “Slowhand” and the opprobrium of many critics, including romantic ballad Wonderful Tonight, loose reggae shuffle I Shot the Sheriff and tender, if sentimental, lament Tears in Heaven. I suspect Clapton’s real comfort zone today is a brand of soulful blues, and there were rich rewards to be gleaned from River of Tears, Pilgrim and a stately version of Gary Brooker’s Lead Me to the Water played in tribute to the late Procol Harum leader.
There is, nevertheless, something of the bar band about Clapton’s ensemble. The tempo only rarely rises above plodding, and there’s lots of blues soloing shared between piano, organ and second guitar. It’s a democratic approach that takes some of the weight off the band leader, although one suspects his audience might have preferred that Clapton assert himself more. When you are one of the greats, with incredible material like Bell Bottom Blues and Sunshine of Your Love up your sleeve, it seems unduly modest to encore with a cover of Joe Cocker’s High Time We Went led by Paul Carrack (albeit such a fine vocalist and organist deserved his moment in the spotlight).
Clapton has been threatening to retire for a decade, complaining that peripheral nerve damage in his fingers makes it painful for him to play, but there was certainly no sign of any loss of touch. There was also, mercifully, no outing for 2021 anti-vax protest single This Has Gotta Stop, although he did perform the more tender Heart of a Child (“They locked you down boy / Made you grieve alone”).
His only other reference to lockdown was a cryptic “It’s been a hard time”, before playing a sweet, jazzy version of optimistic Charlie Chaplin classic Smile accompanied by special guest Andy Fairweather Low. On his overdue return to the stage, Clapton was content to let his fingers do the talking. Thankfully, they are still among the most articulate fingers in rock and roll.
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