Eric Clapton/Australia 1984 & more

This week we will be releasing a large volume audio and visual set including Eric Clapton's first public sound source! The period is from the Australian tour at the end of 1984, which gave Clapton an "elusive" impression in his career, but was performed with a very rare stage set. This is a 4CD+DVD set that includes high-quality sound sources of the first and second days of the three consecutive Melbourne performances from November 23rd to 25th, and high-quality video of a long rehearsal for this tour that took place in Berkshire, England just before that. With the stereo soundboard source from November 24th being uploaded online, this is the "definitive edition of the 1984 Australian tour" that includes the remastered version only available at our shop, the sound source related to the same tour that we previously released as a gift and immediately sold out due to its popularity, and the video that was once released as the second installment of the Beano DVD series and also sold out early due to its rarity. So, in order to explain why this tour is described as "elusive", let's follow Clapton's activities in chronological order this year.・January 20th to February 6th, 1984: Short-term European and Middle Eastern tour ・June 16th to July 31st, 1984: Participated in Roger Waters' European and US tour, during which time he recorded the album "Behind the Sun" at A.I.R. Studios on Montserrat Island ・November 13th to 28th, 1984: Australian tour ←★Here★ ・December 2nd, 1984: Solo performance in Hong Kong ・December: After the tour ended, Clapton recorded additional material for the album "Behind the Sun" in LA. Having completed the final leg of the tour that had been going on since 1983 to promote the album "Money & Cigarettes" in the first half of the year, Clapton welcomed his fellow musician Phil Collins as producer, after second guitarist Albert Lee left the band to return to his solo career. This album was completed by Clapton, who aimed to create a sound that was in keeping with the 1980s, the era when disco was all the rage, focusing on the instrument called "synthesizer" and relying on Collins, who was familiar with it, and deliberately not adding a second guitarist. Instead, he added Peter Robinson, former keyboardist of the British progressive trio Quatermass, who was an impeccable synthesizer operator, to the band. In order to reproduce that sound on the live stage, Clapton planned to go on tour with the band that included Robinson. After rehearsals, this was the Australian and Hong Kong tour that began in November. However, this tour, in which Chris Stinton played synths in addition to Peter Robinson, ended up with an exaggerated and mechanical sound that lost the live feeling that is characteristic of Clapton. This was also different from the sound of the double keyboard system with Gary Brooker and Chris Stinton that was realized from 1980 to 1982. On top of that, Warner Brothers, the distributor of Clapton's albums, rejected the completed album and requested additional recording of more pop songs, which led Clapton to reexamine his own music and move towards having Robinson leave the band. In other words, this Australian tour was a staging that featured a lot of synthesizers, which was not like the usual Clapton. Furthermore, since the tour was not blessed with a complete recording source with excellent sound quality, it was evaluated as a tour that fans could not fully grasp. However, with the release of this board, you can now fully understand the reality of this tour, for better or worse. As for the sound source, the high-quality complete recording of the first day, November 23rd, which was previously released as a gift item under the title "YOU DON'T KNOW LIKE I KNOW" and was well received by some enthusiasts, has been re-released as a press edition. The previously released version of the performance on this day was titled "Slowhand Down Under", but as you can see from the long recording time of the start / ending of the performance, this version was recorded from a master cassette, and compared to the previously released version, the sound spread is felt, and the snare sound and bass line cut have increased due to the clearer edge of the mid-low range, and the difference in sound quality is obvious. For this pressing, the sound balance, which was slightly to the right in the latter half of Disc 1 / 2, has been corrected. And the highlight of this board is the stereo soundboard sound source of the first appearance of the second day performance recorded on Disc 3 / 4. This sound source was suddenly uploaded to the Internet recently, and it was advertised as the second generation of the tape owned by Jamie Oldaker, the drummer of the Clapton band at that time. Our staff was surprised by the existence of such a leaked master, but as expected, this master had many flaws due to aging. First of all, the pitch was significantly out of sync. The overall sound was about 50-60% lower than the semitone, and the beginning was about 100% lower than the semitone, and in the middle of I Shot The Sheriff, it was a random state where it settled on the average error (50-60% lower than the semitone). Our professional engineers almost perfectly corrected it. This work is at a level that only a professional can achieve. For fans who listen to the master as it is on the net, we can say with certainty that the impression of this board is completely different (although this net master has excellent sound quality, unfortunately the opening Everybody Oughta Make A Change was not recorded, and the tape change at 3:56 in Badge and the tape change at 4:32 in Layla had to be left in their original state). This double synth system can be heard on the sound board. You can see the character of the band at this time. Songs like Same Old Blues seem more faithful to the studio version, but the bridge at the second break of Badge, one of the representative songs, is very fresh with a pattern that has never been used before, and the intro to Wonderful Tonight has a keyboard introduction. On the other hand, in Layla, the seven-phrase in the chorus is played by a synth, which makes it hard to deny that it feels strange. However, what remains unchanged is Clapton's elegant playing and slow-hand technique. All of this will give you a full picture of this tour. After Badge, there is a heartwarming scene where Mercy, who is featured, sings Happy Birthday to Donald Duck Dunn, who celebrated his 43rd birthday that day. Please enjoy. And as a bonus, we will include a DVD with a full 1 hour 33 minute video of the full rehearsal that took place at BRAY STUDIOS in the UK before this Australian tour! This is a very valuable video taken by Clapton, the band, and the tour staff to check the stage and the performance, recorded directly from the master, and at the time of release, it appeared as an astonishing video that no enthusiasts around the world had ever seen. This time, the sound was re-authored and the balance of the sound, which was leaning to the right, was adjusted. It is easier to watch and listen to than the previous release. As you can see, a stage set is set up, which is rare for Clapton's live performances. Each member did not play on the same stage as Clapton, but on a raised stage built for each person. Only Clapton and Duck Dunn played in the center, surrounded by members on a high stage. This was the only tour that was performed with such a stage set. This video was taken so that the band and tour staff could check the pattern of the full rehearsal of the main part up to the encore, and it was originally only available to those involved in the staff. The entire recording was done with a tripod camera set up about 20 meters in front of the stage, and except for a little bit of the intro to the first song "Everybody Oughta Make A Change", the entire 1 hour and 33 minutes are recorded, including the exchanges between the members between songs. It's also interesting to see Clapton insert a dummy MC as if it were the real thing. That shows how serious the final stage was. This is a rare video of this lineup, which ended in a short period of time, and with a single guitar, Marcy Levy holds a guitar in some songs, and Badge boldly features a keyboard, and there are scenes that are different from the "BEHIND THE SUN" tour that took place the following year, and Clapton shows a comical side between songs, and even among the rare rehearsal footage of Clapton, a particularly rare rehearsal scene is captured. It is unlikely that such a level of "involved footage" will be released in the future. However, although the image quality is excellent for this age, it is still rough compared to recent video titles (not due to dubbing, but due to aging), and the sound was recorded by a microphone attached to the video, so it cannot be said to be high quality (especially the tape noise from 56:13 to 56:50 is terrible, but it has been slightly alleviated from the previous release). Despite these drawbacks, the documentary value of this title is thought to be tremendous for enthusiasts. There is no doubt that it is an item for enthusiasts, but the more core fans you are, the more you will discover. As for Clapton, it was a very positive tour in which he was enthusiastic to faithfully reproduce his newly completed new work "BEHIND THE SUN" on stage, and challenged himself to arrange his traditional representative songs with two keyboards. If you appreciate it from the perspective of understanding it, it was also a tour where you could see a very aggressive Clapton. This is a historic title that reveals the full picture of the 1984 Australian tour, coupling the best audience source of the first performance in Melbourne on November 23, 1984, the soundboard source of the first appearance on the second day to the press 4CD, and a rare tour rehearsal video as a bonus, giving a glimpse of Clapton during the trial and error period of live activities. Sports & Entertainment Centre, Melbourne, Australia 23rd & 24th November 1984 PERFECT SOUND (23rd) / STEREO SBD (24th) Bray Studios Rehearsals for Australian Tour 1984 (from Original Video Master) Live at Sports & Entertainment Centre, Melbourne, Australia 23rd November 1984 Disc 1 (61:12) 1. Intro. 2. Everybody Oughta Make A Change 3. Motherless Children 4. I Shot The Sheriff 5. Same Old Blues 6. Tangled In Love 7. She's Waiting 8. Steppin' Out 9. Tulsa Time 10. Badge 11. Love Sign Disc 2 (49:09) 1. Wonderful Tonight 2. Let It Rain 3. That's Alright 4. Have You Ever Loved A Woman 5 Ramblin' On My Mind 6. Cocaine 7. Layla 8. Member Introduction 9. Knock On Wood 10. You Don't Know Like I Know Live at Sports & Entertainment Centre, Melbourne, Australia 24th November 1984 STEREO SOUNDBOARD RECORDING Disc 3 ( 55:53) 1. Intro. 2. Motherless Children 3. I Shot The Sheriff 4. Same Old Blues 5. Tangled In Love 6. She's Waiting 7. Steppin' Out 8. Tulsa Time 9. Badge 10. Love Sign Disc 4 (48:02) 1. Wonderful Tonight 2. Let It Rain 3. That's Alright 4. Have You Ever Loved A Woman 5. Ramblin' On My Mind 6. Cocaine 7. Layla 8. Member Introduction 9. Knock On Wood 10. You Don't Know Like I Know DVD BRAY STUDIOS REHEARSALS 1984 Bray Studios Rehearsals for Australian Tour 1984 (92:41) 1. Everybody Oughta Make A Change 2. Motherless Children 3. I Shot The Sheriff 4. Same Old Blues 5. Tangled In Love 6. She's Waiting 7. Steppin' Out 8. Tulsa Time 9. Badge 10. Love Sign 11. Wonderful Tonight 12. Let It Rain 13. Blues Medley : That's All Right/ Have You Ever Loved A Woman/Ramblin' On My Mind 14. Cocaine 15. Layla Eric Clapton - Guitar, Vocals Donald "Duck" Dunn - Bass Chris Stainton - Keyboards Peter Robinson - Synthesizer Jamie Oldaker - Drums Marcy Levy - Backing Vocals Shaun Murphy - Backing Vocals COLOUR NTSC Approx 93min.