Concert Details

Fan Reviews:

Review by Hester & Al
Eric and his band were brilliant. He played a nonstop set including fantastic "roots" blues and his early Cream blues number "Outside Woman Blues" which was just fantastic. His wellknown hits – Layla, Wonderful, Cocaine, Crossroads – were very enthusiastically received.
Eric gives all his band plenty of solo limelight, and they are all superb, but when he comes back in after them, you can hear he is the Master.
Eric blitzed it – amazing, fluid guitar work, he really makes it sound easy. Inspiring music , Thank you Eric. Come back to NZ for longer next time!

Review by Peter & Jenny Brown
What a treat!! My husband and I took our 3 children ages 14 to 9, and they were enthralled. To see and hear such mastery was a lifetime experience. Some said Eric didn’t say enough… why should he need to? His guitar playing speaks volumes that words can’t compete with. We really enjoyed Doyle Bramhall II also. Eric Clapton has been a real inspiration to our guitar/keyboard playing son. All young guitarists should hear Eric at least once in their lifetime.

Review by Allen Blackwell
After not seeing Eric in concert for almost 17 years, I was not disappointed. The show was absolutley fantastic, plenty of old stuff from the Layla & other Assorted Love Songs album, as well as the more known classics like Layla, Crossroads & Cocaine. Eric in his usual style did not have a lot to say but let his music do the talking, the other two quitarists Doyle & Derek were also supurb & complimented Eric beautifully. The sit down set was sublime with Eric leading the way with a solo on Driftin Blues & finishing the set with the classic Running on Faith. Eric it was worth the 17 year wait to see you again, I will see you in Brisbane next week. The banner I held up at the concert says it all, EC: STILL A GOD.

Review by Dean Mullin
It was a great event with a festival like atmosphere as the park was filling from 3pm with people getting out the wine and picnics. The support acts were notable for their lack of distinction and provided ample background music whilst the throng of people ate and drank.
Clapton emerged at 8:30 and was straight into it. Blazing away on his axe, the crowd were enthralled as this music god emerged on stage.
Unfortunately the sound mixing was pretty poor, The big screen during one number showed the drummer doing some great work on the hi-hat and cymbals (solo-esque) but they just couldn’t be heard at all. Keyboards were drowned out by the three lead guitars and the sound was very top guitar heavy (not that that is a problem but the mix should be balanced with the rest of the band)- with three playing it was certainly a tad overpowering. The Bass solo was to be remembered for it’s sheer lack of excitement and did little to show the talents of the man playing. – A good bass solo during a show should really get you ripping and jiving and feeling that rhythm and loving that bass – it did little to inspire and I thought ‘oh, was that it?!’

Overall – a bit disappointed but let’s remember it is still Clapton – the man who has inspired millions and is a living legend. Maybe it’s just one tour too many.

The next day I put on the CD ‘From the Cradle’ – some of the riffs and passages of guitar solo’s in these songs are truly incredible – pure genius and there are few guitarists who can demonstrate such virtuosity whilst improvising. I Just wish I’d seen some of that on Saturday Night.

Review by Mike Bourke
Fantastic show. Really looked liked the band enjoyed it and they played their hearts out. Same setlist as Seoul, except "Anyday" replaced with "Further on Up the Road". Derek Trucks impressed everybody, he is a special talent, I loved his slide playing. And the rhythm section of Steve Jordan and Willie Weeks just excellent. Personal favourite for me was "Motherless Children" The opening riff followed by three slide guitars was worth the ticket price alone. There was even a stage invasion, a guy made it close to Doyle’s side before being caught and given the heave ho.

It was a pleasure for me and the other EC fans in the audience to be treated to so many Derek and the Dominos classics. I suspect the rest of the audience were mystified by these in the first half of the show. In fact "Nobody knows you", second in the sit down set, was probably the first song most people recognised, simply because they all own Unplugged. Its interesting because the Mission estate concert in Hawke’s bay is an annual event, which just happenned to coincide with Eric’s tour. Because of this the audience would be there regardless of the featured artist, and compared to recent year’s performers they really got their moneys worth, even if some of them didn’t really appreciate what they were hearing at times. Eric is the finest blues guitar player but he has this other persona as the writer of some very radio friendly tracks like "Tears in Heaven" or "Lay Down Sally". Some people probably expected to hear these, but I was delighted to get "Little Wing" and "Outside Woman Blues" instead. It didn’t help that Warners in NZ released a compilation at Christmas to capitalise on Eric’s visit, very similar to "Chronicles" called "Australasian Tour 2007 Limited Edition" the tracks were very misleading if the audience were hoping to familiarise themselves before the show…including : "Blue Eyes Blue", "Bad Love", "She’s Waiting", "Forever Man". Warners would have been better to check Where’s Eric! for a preview of the tour setlist.

The fact is, that if you own one of the greatest rock and blues albums of all time – Layla… you will love this show. Eric plays great at 61 and gives the band heaps of room to jam and solo. Come again Eric!

Review by Rowena & Peter
He came, we saw, he delivered. 2 hours non-stop, the atmosphere was electric. He played the songs we came to hear. If the concert was 4 hours long we still wouldn’t have got enough. The backing group was great and I for one could have listened to Derek on his own. All in all a great night. Next time, please could we have more than one concert in New Zealand.