News

Clapton Concert Details: Hamburg, Germany

3 Apr 04

On 2 April 2004, Eric Clapton and His Band performed at the Preussag Arena in Hannover, Germany.

Set List:

1. Let It Rain
2. Hoochie Coochie Man
3. Bell Bottom Blues
4. Got To Get Better In A Little While
5. Milkcow’s Calf Blues
6. When You’ve Got A Good Friend
7. They’re Red Hot
8. Kind Hearted Woman Blues
9. I Shot The Sheriff
10. I Want A Little Girl
11. Change The World
12. Have You Ever Loved A Woman
13. Badge
14. Wonderful Tonight
15. Cocaine
16. Layla
17. Sunshine Of Your Love (Encore with Robert Randolph)
18. I Got My Mojo Working (Encore with Robert Randolph)

Band Line Up:
Eric Clapton – Guitar / Vocals
Doyle Bramhal II – Guitar
Chris Stainton – Keyboards
Nathan East – Bass
Steve Gadd – Drums
Billy Preston – Hammond Organ
Michelle John – Backing Vocals
Sharon White – Backing Vocals

Here’s what some fans had to say about the concert:

Review by Gabriele and Andreas Klein

For Eric it was a very successful concert: the audience was fantastic and the newspaper’s reviews on the next day were very positive – one newspaper named him lovingly "Old Surehand". In fact, the concert in Hannover was one of his better gigs on this tour.

First we were very happy to see and hear Eric after our last concert visit in 2001 in cologne on his "reptile"-tour. In Hannover Eric and his band seemed to have a very nice evening for themselves. Good old "Slowhand" smiled through the whole concert and his playing was very intensive and dynamical even on old songs like "I shot the sheriff", "Have you ever loved a woman" and – surprise, surprise – on "Wonderful tonight". He had changed his set list a little bit and left out "Walk out in the rain" without an alternative song.

In some songs Eric, Doyle, Chris and Billy seemed to do a rollicking session on stage – everyone got his own solo part – particular in "Got to get better in a little while" there were jams like in the good old days. Sometimes through the evening we felt to be more in a jazz concert than a blues/rock/pop …..one – there was no boring moment at all.

In the meantime Eric has even learned a few german words like "Guten Abend" (Good evenng) and "Danke schön" (thank you) but – have no fear – he did’nt sang any song in german completely ( ha , ha ).

The songs from the current album "Me and Mr.Johnson" came with much more groove and passion – Eric’s singing was excellent. The sound in the "Preussag-Arena" was o.k. – surely it could have been better. The party ended with a nice version of "Got my mojo working" like every night on the tour with the wonderful robert randolph. We end our review with a special message to eric and his band – you were wonderful tonight – see you again at the old "Albert" in may 2004.

Review by Hans Meisel

Altogether, it was an excellent concert which had been rewarded by the Hannover audience several times with an enthusiastic applause. EC played some fantastic guitar solos and he presented wonderful songs with much passion (great singing voice as usual). The performance of all members of the band was very good. Doyle Bramhall, replacing Andy Fairweather-Low, is a superb guitarist. However, I have the impression that the way of playing of the long-standing sideman AF-L harmonizes better with EC. It was nice to see and to hear Billy Preston at the organ, and it would have been beautiful if a BP song had also been played. It was a good idea to invite Robert Randolph as a special guest of the EC tour, because his spectacular playing of the steel guitar was really amazing. As already mentioned by reviewers of the concert in Zurich and Stuttgart, the echoing sound was not perfect and sometimes it was too loud and distorted. During the 2003 Japan Tour, I had the opportunity to attend the concert on December 3rd in Tokyo (Budokan) where the sound had almost "CD-quality".

Review by Christian Stallknecht

No Walk Out In The Rain – sadly.

Sold out, about 13.000 people. The set list as you can see above. The sound was quite good, but too loud. Comparing with the show in Stuttgart Eric and the band were not in good form this evening. But an appreciative audience. Thankful that Eric is back although he announced to quit touring in the future. It’s impressive to see how the band is well-adjusted to playing together. Still the best band of the world with a great chief and conductor: Mr. Slowhand himself.