Concert Details

Fan Reviews:

Review by Han Chiaw Juan / Singapore
Just back from his Singapore Indoor Stadium concert minutes ago and what a concert it was! Twenty years on from the last time I had the opportunity to see Clapton played live in Singapore, and he was sounding as good as ever; perhaps even better. His vocal is definitely richer and fuller; not to mention his riffs wizardry on his Fender Strat and Gibson 335 which completely mesmerized the capacity crowd. Eric is still "God" on stage to many. The set list covered a good spectrum of his songs over the years; pretty much the same as the one he played at the Yas Arena concert in Abu Dhabi a few days ago.

Its a must see concert for Clapton fans because he is just simply AMAZING. He certainly gave value for money with a quality concert. He started reasonably "on time" at about half an hour into the official starting time; and he just played on without a break for almost 2 hours . Except for some short introductions of a couple of the band mates and "thank you", he pretty much allow his music to do the talking for the rest of the concert. The audience seemed pleased with this arrangement; acknowledging his every song with thunderous applause.

Yes, he played some of his legendary stuff (namely Badge, Before You Accuse Me, Layla, Old Love, Hoochie Coochie Man, Wonderful Tonight etc). I personally like his rendition of "Layla" on his Gibson 335; and had my feet tapping away with his "Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out". The audience seemed to have hit a new high when he delivered his current arrangement of his classics like "I Shot The Sheriff" and Robert Johnson’s "Crossroads". On stage, Claption was backed by some of the finest musicians in the music industry today; including the legendary Steve Gadd on drums. In all, a super great concert.

The last time I attended Clapton’s concert was as a newly married couple with my wife pregnant with my first child. Tonight we trooped into the concert hall with all three of my children and the concert immediately made new fans out of them. Clapton music cuts across generations; need I say more?

Review by Noel Brennan
EC was in fine voice indeed, an outstanding concert seen from the front row! So tight was the band in fact that you could close your eyes and imagine you were listening to a CD, they were that great. The opening track, "Key To The Highway," set the tone for an outstanding evening, wandering through the ultimate tribute to the great Bob Marley ("I Shot The Sheriff") and including the crowd’s favorite for Valentines day, "Wonderful tonigh.t" Even first time concert goers came away over the moon. Two hours was not nearly enough, although he could have played for 24 hours and it still would not be enough.

It had been 26 years since the last time I saw EC with Tom Petty in Perth, Western Australia. Last night was a concert highlight that will not be soon forgotten. My photographs were taken from my Iphone and are not good by any sense of the imagination, although when I close My eyes you can hear the great man sing, "I’ve got the key to the highway, all billed out and bound to go…."

Review by Chris Firth / Singapore
I have seen EC several times in the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore. The last EC concert I saw was in Manchester 2009. It was a tame affair so I was not really anticipating much for this one. The half empty stadium at 8pm did nothing to boost the excitement. However, things only improved from that point. By the time the band came out about 8.40PM the stadium had filled up and looked more or less full. They started with a muscular version of Key To The Highway and it was immediately apparent that EC is more energetic when he has to do all the guitar work himself (or when Derek Trucks is a foil).

The momentum built steadily and the highlight of the night, “Old Love”, had a spirited solo from EC, as well as an interesting new jam cum riff to finish. To my ears anything fresh and previously unheard vastly improves the songs. The momentum was lost though during the middle section of acoustic and semi-acoustic songs and the solos tended to sound very samey – all from EC’s toolbox of blues licks.

Badge then reinvigorated the crowd and the energy continued at a high level till the end for the obligatory one-song encore. The crowd seemed happy enough, but I would have liked to hear a few more rock-oriented songs, and more variation in the tone, effects, scales and structure of EC’s solos. Apart from a 30 second use of wah-wah there wasn’t much to tickle the ears. I was also irritated by the formulaic rotation of solos (Chris Stainton, Tim Carmon, then EC) on several songs. Chris Stainton’s “bash the keys as fast as I can with my right hand” really grated after the third or fourth rendition. No idea why he is in the band.

So in summary, a good concert but the song choice not entirely to my liking. No real killer solos and not a lot of innovation or risk taking – the usual complaints from many EC fans for the last 30 years or so. If this version of “Old Love” makes it to Youtube, it’s worth a listen.