Eric Clapton - 9 Wonderful Nights At Albert's Place [18CD Box Set] (2000)

For ten years, between 1987 and 1996, Eric Clapton would begin the year by playing an extended run of shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London (he did one more set in 2001 in support of Reptile). In the first year he played six shows at the venue and the following year that number was increased to nine. With no new album to support except for the career retrospective Crossroads released in April, he was celebrating twenty-five years in the music business. This run at the Royal Albert Hall is sandwiched between two shows at the NEC in Birmingham and a concert on February 7th at the Civic Hall in Guildford.

Clapton is joined by his backing band Nathan East on bass, Dire Straits keyboardist Alan Clark, Steve Ferrone on drums, Tessa Niles and Katie Kassoon on back up vocals, Ray Cooper on percussion and Mark Knopfler on guitar. Phil Collins joins the band on drums for the three February shows. Knopfler played the Royal Albert Hall with Clapton in 1987 before leaving for other commitments, but spent the entire year in 1988 on Clapton’s global tour.

The set list is similar to that used the previous year with “Crossroads” and “White Room” opening the show and “Layla” as the closer. “Miss You,” played with regularity in 1987 was dropped and two songs from August, “Run” and “Behind The Mask” were added. “Sunshine Of Your Love” was moved from being the an encore to the set closer and “Further On Up The Road” was added as the second encore.

9 Wonderful Nights At Albert’s Place is an early release by Beano and remains their most ambitious project. All of the shows originate from the same taper who, by the sound quality, had the same seat for each of the nine shows. It gives the set an appealing uniformity since all of the shows are in excellent stereo sound quality. All of the tapes are cut after “Run” which is probably an intentional marker created by the taper. The box set is limited to two hundred numbered copies. Each of the nine shows is packaged in a double slimline jewel case and the nine cases are housed in a cardboard slipcase. The third show is the only one to be pressed on silver in the past so this fills a considerable void. The sound quality in general is very good to excellent since Beano use very clean tapes with gentle remastering.