Eric Clapton

1992 07 12 Montreux, CH 

Audience, 128.05, A-, Master, Recorded by DGB, Mastered by Boguspomp, DGB-EC 13

Lineage : Sony D6 recorder > Sony Cassette Deck TC-WR635S > Sony PCM-R300 (using SBM > processing) > Tascam CD-RW700 > CDR > EAC > Soundforge 9.0 with Waves Platinum Plug Ins > TLH Flac level 8 with SBA > You


Comment by DGB about this show :

This is a show with very mixed feelings for me. Flew in from England to Switzerland especially to see this show... At the time my opinion was that this was very much an average show with Eric on ‘autopilot’. This opinion was also shared with a friend of mine who also flew in from England & has seen countless Eric Clapton shows. However after listening to the show again, maybe my opinion has changed a little. Eric does some terrible mistakes throughout the show especially during ‘Old Love’ & ‘Badge’. I have never seen Eric make so many mistakes in a show. This is however offset by some nice playing including an extended solo in ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’. All in all I cannot however agree with the many opinions out there about how great this performance was but I guess you can be the judge of that. Located about 10 to 15 feet from stage left... A very good recording recorded in difficult circumstances (see below).

This venue had the tighest security that I have ever experienced at a concert venue both inside & outside the venue. Was caught recording the previous day at a Buddy Guy show by a plain clothed undercover security guard (yes they had several plain clothed security guards walking around in the audience!). Was obviously nervous the next day about going back into the same venue again with my recording equipment... At the time it felt like I was going on a suicide mission. The security walking in the next day was unreal (there was no security walking in to the Buddy Guy show the previous day). I had to walk through a narrow passage with metal barriers with several security guards staring at me on either side. At the end of the passage there was another bunch of security guards searching people from head to toe. I could hear my recording equipment & tapes rattling because I was shaking so much. I used my usual diversion of carrying in a bag with lots of things in as a distration during the security search. As I was searched one of the security guards missed touching my Sony D6 recorder by inches. Once inside I tried to figure out who the undercover security guards were & where they were located. I obviously wanted no contact with the security guard that caught me the day before. By the time the show started the venue was jammed pack with people. I turned on my recorder at the start of the show. I soon figured out to my horror that one of the security guards was right behind me as well as another one about 5 to 10 feet to my left. 
The way I knew this is that someone got caught trying to take pictures. Unfortunately I could not move out of the danger zone. I spent the rest of the evening on edge waiting for a tap on my shoulder... The most difficult part was during the tape change. Holding a Sony D6 recorder with an extended microphone is a lot harder & more discreet than my much smaller Sony TCD-D100 DAT 
recorder with microphones in a baseball cap. To this day I cannot believe that I managed to record this show!

As far as I am aware this is the only recording that exists of this show. Hard to imagine anybody else being as lucky as I was not being caught going into the venue. I originally gave copies of this recording to 3 people (you know who you are) with the promise that they would keep this recording to themselves until the dust settled. I shortly took a sabatical from trading & recording shows after this time. Imagine my dissapointment to find out several years later that my recording was released by Mid Valley under the bootleg called ‘So Much Guitar!’. The version from Mid Valley was not taken directly from my master & obviously one of the 2 people that I originally gave this recording to decided to start either trading it or giving it to Mid Valley directly (Mike I know this was not you). Ultimately it landed into the hands of Mid Valley. I made no money out of this recording as I do not do this for the money but for my passion of live music & to share this music with other fans. I am sure that Mid Valley made a nice little profit. Therefore you have the choice of owning the Mid Valley version taken from a 2nd generation or higher copy of my master or a direct copy from my master tweaked & enhanced by the talented Boguspomp. 

You can decide which copy is better, but I think this is a no brainer. 



Comment by Geetarz :

An excellent performance. Begins with a blistering "White Room", the entire band is in top form. 
"Pretending" is excellent as well, in slightly different tempo and feel from the "24 nights" days. 
A slightly uptempo version of "Sheriff" follows a great version of "Anything For Your Love". 
"Running on Faith" features some expressive solos, as well as that outro rhythm figure EC and Nathan used during some of the '92 dates - awesome! The crowd gets going with "She's Waiting", and really explodes when EC begins "Tears in Heaven". An excellent performance. Very listenable for an audience recording, obviously a smaller hall, not a stadium or other large venue.


Comment by Boguspomp :

Compared to the RAH shows, you will notice that EC left off most of the Acoustic set here in Montreux, except for 'Tears in Heaven', which by then was a big hit.That shortens the whole show by roughly 20 minutes. Sound is very direct, crisp and enjoyable. Very good performance IMHO. CD's can be split before Badge.
I had my own horror-security-check walking into the fenced area in Monte Carlo for the Jamiroquai concert. They separated my wife and me; I was body checked from head to toe by a special forces Police guy with a bullet proof west on and she was body checked by a similar female version. He even touched my crotch and everything. Then going down one leg including the shoe. I had the recorder inside the sock of the other leg and was sure that this was the end of it. Miracles happen. The guy stopped around 1 cm above the Edirol in my sock and let me walk. I still cannot believe it till this day that he didn't find it.

Enjoy the show.

Boguspomp


Disc 1:

01 White Room
02 Pretending
03 Anything For Your Love
04 I Shot The Sheriff
05 Running on Faith
06 She's Waiting
07 Tears in Heaven
08 Before You Accuse Me
09 Old Love

Disc 2:

10 Badge (Due to above mentioned security issues ca 2 secs missing from beginning)
11 Wonderful Tonight
12 Layla
13 Audience
14 Crossroads incl.(Pick Up The Pieces, You're Unbelieveable & many other little bits during Band Introductions)
15 Sunshine Of Your Love
16 Boogie Woogie Frenzy leads into >
17 Drums & Percussion Solos > End Of Show Outro

Eric Clapton - Guitar, Vocals
Nathan East - Bass, Vocals
Steve Ferrone - Drums
Chuck Leavell - Keyboards
Ray Cooper - Percussion
Andy Fairweather Low - Guitar, Vocals
Tessa Niles - Backing Vocals
Katie Kissoon - Backing Vocals