Review of Eric Clapton: 24 Nights

Introduction

24 Nights was originally supposed to be released in 1990, featuring live tracks recorded at the Royal Albert Hall during Clapton`s "residency" there during the winter of 1990. But rumour has it that Mr Clapton was unhappy with some of the performances.

So the project was shelved for a year, and more recordings were made in the winter of 1991 (after spending 24 nights playing at the Royal Albert Hall, hence the title).

During these two resdidencies, there were four types of "night". The four piece nights were a "back to basics" set of concerts featuring Clapton on guitar, plus bass player, keyboard player and drummer.

The nine piece nights added another guitarist, a keyboard player, 2 backing singers and the mad percussionist/drummer Ray Cooper.

The blues nights featured legends such as Buddy Guy and Albert Collins as well as Robery Cray and Jimmy Vaughan, and differed from the other performances by featuring only blues numbers.

And finally came perhaps the most spectacular - the orchestral nights, where the nine piece band were ably assisted by the entire National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Michael Kamen, who has worked with Eric on several film scores.

All four sets of nights are represented on this disc, to varying degrees. Despite the fact that Clapton was allegedly unhappy with the 1990 performances, 7 or 8 of them feature on the disc.

Video

A full frame recording on offer here. The quality is pretty good, even if the actual lighting of the concerts leaves something to be desired. There`s quite a bit of smoke floating around at times (not least from Eric`s cigarettes wedged in the neck of his guitar between songs), and quite a few rather dated looking video effects.

Overall not bad at all, and nothing to get upset about, since the audio is more important.

Audio

A PCM stereo track is on offer here, and it is very good. It would have been nice to have had the full 5.1 remix treatment as has happened on 2 of the other Clapton DVDs that are available, but it`s not to be.

The PCM track is still very good though, with all of the instruments sounding good and plenty of bass on offer too - another one to play loud!

Eagle-eared listeners will spot that some of the performances on the disc differ from those available on the 24 Nights CD, the most notable being the fantastic rendition of Edge of Darkness which sounds even better than on the CD.

Features

No extra features to speak of I`m afraid. There is a screen of information on who was in each of the bands, but that`s about it.

Conclusion

Another excellent Eric Clapton DVD!

Thirteen great tracks, recorded during one of Clapton`s best live periods. The video is pretty good and the sound is excellent, which is all you can ask for. The highlight has to be "Edge of Darkness", a dark, brooding instrumental, recorded for the 1980s BBC TV programme of the same name. Performed live with the National Philharmonic it just takes on a whole new lease of life.

The only let-down is that there was so much more good material to choose from that didn`t make it on to the disc. Almost all of the performances from orchestral nights could have been added, including the specially composed "Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra" and a fantastic version of "Layla".

Fans will still have to pick those up through other channels, and be satisfied with this very good DVD. Worth getting even if you`ve got the CD.

And the reason for buying from region 4? Simply because it was a lot cheaper than anywhere else!