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clapton walks off stage


derek R

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went to see Eric Clapton tonight in Glasgow at the hydro

all seemed to be going well Clapton and his band running through standard blues and Clapton solo stuff including an acoustic spot and I was thinking I would love to be able to play the blues like that.

the band launch into cocaine, the crowd respond and jump to there feet, two bars in Clapton puts down his guitar and leads his band off stage, he comes back on two minutes later and mumbles "sorry about that" and played high time we went.

the whole band walks off stage and that is the end of the gig.

Clapton was meant to play until 11.45pm,but all this happened at 10.15

the house light came on and roadies started doing what they do.

as soon as the house lights came on the crowd started booing.

so far there has been no statement from Clapton as to why the gig came to an end the way it did

there is not a lot of love for Clapton in Glasgow tonight

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Read up on it; supposedly he was having sound issues, something about an echo that the soundman wasn't aware of. Still not justification for walking off without so much as a "goodnight"...but it's something.

 

-Ryan

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Ryan

looked up on it myself, i was on the floor on front of the stage and there where what seemed to be minor issues with claptons sound but nothing that was interfering with the overall band sound.

I've been to the hydro a couple of times since it opened and the sound has been spot on.

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Yeah, that really doesn't sound like something EC would do, without a good reason???! [confused]

 

I wonder...if he was so close to the end of their set/gig, anyway, that to try to "fix" what was

wrong, would have taken more time, than it was worth? Still, he, or someone should have at

least given the crowd, a reasonable explanation. Sorry, to hear that! [unsure]

 

CB

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strange and unfortunate - sorry your night was less than it should have been - disappointing I'm sure.

 

Raises an interesting scenario for those attending - what do you do? I expect some people made sacrifices to get the cash together for their tickets.

I would not really want to boo any ageing legend, but would at least expect an apology and explanation if not money back or free ticket to another show.

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I never liked Clapton until I had a ticket bought for me to see him. He was great. But there is no excuse for doing this. If he felt ill etc, he should have said or got his management to explain. I once saw Stephane Grappelli and his support was his backing band! They did half an hour, then he came on and did 45 mins then went off. We were on our way home at 9pm! You may say that it's his age. But if that's the case he shouldn't be gigging.

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I was there in Glasgow 5 rows from the front. The description of events above is accurate. He stopped suddenly about 1 minute into Cocaine and walked off, closely followed by the band after they exchanged some puzzled glances. Returned for a standard 1 song encore and walked off again without saying goodbye.

 

To be honest the length of the show/ setlist was only surprising due to the way he left stage so abruptly. He came on at 8.45 and left at 10.15. He played 16 songs plus 1 encore song, although Cocaine was cut short inexplicably after about one minute. If you look at setlist.fm this set is comparable with all the US shows Clapton did in the spring. At 70 he's not doing long sets anymore.....

 

Nonetheless why he would walk off without acknowledging the fans is unclear and the root of the problem. I heard rumours as I walked out that Clapton had heard "buzzing in his ear" and some fans from rear house said they heard what sounded like an amp blow during Cocaine. Who knows, he wasn't happy about something.

 

Setlist here: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/eric-clapton/2014/the-hydro-glasgow-scotland-23c04caf.html

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I should also point out that although he was a bit quiet and didn't engage with the audience, Clapton and the band were bang on form. His voice in particular sounded amazing.

 

Credit to Andy Fairweather Low on 2nd guitar- played impeccably and with genuine passion. I was close enough to see him drop his plectrum before an acoustic solo and manfully play it all finger picked. The top E string of his white strat esquire also snapped midway through his solo/ vocal performance of Gin House! He was awesome.

 

Saw Chris Stainton (Claptons keyboard player) pass by at breakfast in our hotel this morning....he disappeared too quickly to ask him for insider info!

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I thought he had no class when I learned he went after George Harrison's wife.

 

You need to learn more of the history! That's a very short-sighted version of the events...

 

It was an epic love story. (at the time) he was completely in love with Patti (I believe her name was) and "Layla;" the album and the songs on the album like; "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" were his testimonials of his love for her. Within "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" is the line "All the time you know, she belongs to your very best friend" was him testifying to the turmoil and struggle of being in love with her...

 

Eventually he won her over and she ended up marrying him...

 

Yes they divorced later, and after all that the 3 of them were actually all rather close friends together... And yes he was a drunk, a drug addict, and a womanizer during much of his career, I would have alot more thoughts of his lack of class surrounding his self-indulgent drug abuse history as opposed to his relationship failures...

 

I suspect if George got over it, (apparently he understood she wasn't the one for him) I suspect you should too...

 


As for him walking off stage, I've never heard of him doing that and when I went to see him it was phenomenal & fantastic!

 

Dunno what to tell you, but I suspect there's more to it than what little information we have...

 


Oh & Hello there Derek in Scotland... Land of my ancestors!

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I can see them having problems if they were using in ear monitors and there was a delay between what they were actually playing and what they were hearing in their monitors and consequently it was difficult for them to follow what they were playing.Even if a problem with the monitors was the case,there was no excuse for storming off the stage without as much as a "By your leave." that was really crass and my respect for Clapton has just gone down the "plug'ole" just like the baby in "A Mother's Lament".

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(From a posting on Facebook!)

 

Eric Clapton:

 

Unfortunately last night we experienced a steadily worsening technical problem with the PA system that the band battled with throughout the show but by the last song of the set it became unbearable on stage and Eric was unable to complete that number. During the encore break we were able to reset and the band finished as planned with the last number.

 

The usual touring set length runs at 1hr 35 mins so in fact the full set was performed apart from the entirety of “cocaine” which had to be curtailed.

 

Eric is nevertheless sorry for the break in the concert and the disappointment of his fans.

 

 

 

CB

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Frankly, pretty pathetic. Are you saying with all the gear and technical experts they had they couldn't have carried on? How many gigs have lots of us played where we couldn't hear ourselves or the rest of the band properly? But you just have to play on - that's rock n roll! Sheesh. All that money that the punters paid. [thumbdn]

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I saw Eric Clapton for the first and only time in 1974 at Yale Bowl.

It was a warm rainy night and he opened with Let it Rain.

It was appropriate and he rocked it.

Maybe the third song in he started the riff to Layla.

People rushed the stage. He threw his guitar down on the stage and told the people to calm down. Then he tried it again and the same thing happened.Mind you his stage was about 15 feet high in the end zone and people could not even get on it.

He threw his guitar down again and said he was only going to play Blind Faith for the remainder of the show.

The show had the makings of a good rockin show but it ended up being pretty boring.

Even though he ended up playing Layla and other good songs the show lacked the rocking people were expecting.

I never went to see him again.

He left a sour taste in my mouth....

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Thats interesting.... after releasing the statement via his official facebook page there were, at my last count, 330 replies on the thread (mostly critical). As far as I can tell the official Eric Clapton facebook page has now been taken down.

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