Eric Clapton

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Eric Clapton concert tonight. The tickets were amazing - second row, centre.

Eric Clapton does not look like a rock star. This was a concert for people who love great music not teenyboppers looking for eye candy.. He’s what 60? He looks like an old man. He wears very unfashionable glasses. But he can play the guitar like an angel.

He had some serious guitar players with him on-stage. Derek Trucks - who was awesome - and incidentally the youngest player to make the Rolling Stone top 100 guitarists of all time… (can you name the two women in the top 100?) and a guy called Doyle Bramhall II (who was taking photos on-stage using the timing device on his SLR!). The drummer Steve Jordan was great too - very… enthusiastic. Eric knows how to pick a band…even the pianist is world renowned… apparently.

There was a mix of old and new - he used the full band and did solo acoustic pieces - it was a well crafted concert.

I was a little disappointed he didn’t interact much with the audience but then I guess he let his guitar speak for him.

It was weird because even though he is brilliant, he didn’t really have that rock star prescence. It was almost like the band playing with no lead singer…

I was glad I went and my thanks to my gracious hostess. :)

…did you work out the two women in the top 100 guitarists of all time (2003) list?

Parochial

I know that my hackles rise when someone disses my city and I try not to take it personally but I thought it an odd way to begin a concert last night by describing your host city as “quite nice”.

What was that about?

Dianne Reeves said she’d spent a little more time here than she had on her last visit in 1991 and she found Perth “quite nice and I like the wine.”

Well I found her concert, under the stars at Lake Karrinyup Country Club quite nice and I liked the wine (too much) as well.

I even saw the comet.

I thought her concert was a lovely background sound to playing cards and catching up with some great friends. Yes occasionally she said or sang something that caused me to look up but mostly I didn’t get into it.

I found her continual reverance and reference to her idol (Sarah Vaughn) over the top and boring - sure talk about it once but then move on lady - and her song selection for the most part - pedestrian. I was very disappointed with her final song - she left us on a low rather than a high.

But as I say, I wasn’t really there for the concert and we sat on our picnic blanket until the last bus left.

We had a great time, and I wish I liked Jazz enough to really appreciate the concert, but I suspect it wasn’t even that great a Jazz concert anyway.

Maybe in the end I did take her comment too personally. :)

Stung

Just in case you were wondering… the Sting concert down at Leeuwin Estate was fantastic.

We drove straight there from Perth and arrived early - about 3.15 - the gates opened at five so we sat in the middle of a dusty windy paddock eating our picnic nibblies and talking. The time past quickly and soon the gates were open and it was a mad rush to the parking area - the coaches - lots of them - racing the cars it seemed. As soon as cars got stopped to be directed to park, people leapt out of the back seats and RAN for the entrance. We sent of Mandi and Mike while we were parked relatively closely to the gate.

We were in the first wave of people entering the amphitheatre and so found ourselves relatively close to the action and the $1000/head seats at the front.

It was lovely sitting their in the sunshine waiting for the concert to start - we caught up with other friends who had also made the trip down - and enjoyed a glass or two of wine and a few more nibblies. The amphitheatre is quite sheltered so the howling wind of the paddock was not in evidence.

The concert was great. I understand most Leeuwin concerts are sitting down affairs - we stood up and danced for the majority of the concert. They tried to sit everyone down but nobody including Sting was having any of that! Rory managed to get to the front - yes in the $1000 a seat area - and really had a great night. It seemed the VIP area was filled with a bunch of miners from Kalgoorlie and I guess balding middle aged men were the go… he wasn’t asked for his pass!

Afterward we stayed on for a while - there were A LOT of very drunk people in the loos - before driving back to Dunsborough. A great midweek interlude.