Derek and The Dominos - 1970-08-11 - London, UK (AUD/FLAC)

(Audience FLAC)

1970-08-11 Soho, London, Great Britain Marquee Club (M1-AUD)

--- UPGRADES MOST ALL CIRCULATING COPIES (to my knowledge!) ---

Set One :::
01. -introduction-
02. Roll It Over ->
03. Blues Power ->
04. Have You Ever Loved A Woman
05. Any Day
06. Bad Boy 

Set Two :::
07. Bottle Of Red Wine
08. Little Wing
09. Tell The Truth
10. Country Life
11. I Don't Know Why (cuts)

Total Time ::: 58:11

::: Very fine AUD UPGRADE without many problems on other circulating copies. Check samples for self-prevision, persnickety perusal or ambrosial anticipatory moments.
::: Warts: Some hiss. Surely missed some dropouts but the improvements are remarkable, I promise. "Anyway" at 21:30 & 22:30 has split second tape speed lags from master.
::: Tape labeled by taper as "Early Show" & he is not prone to error, tho' the newspaper ad I found online just showed one show from 7:30-11:00pm (advance tickets 1 pound). If it sold out immediately (and why wouldn't it have?), there could have been a second show added - even a newspaper review of the evening might not tell us... But probably, especially at this point in history, someone knows "for sure" & can even prove it... A million Eric pundits can weigh in.
::: Bill was only Derek & The Dominos.
::: Contrast clause : At the time of posting, no other versions are on the tracker. While possible other 1st gen copies circulate, I haven't seen them around & I spent mega hours of work on this.

Recording Information ::: Uher portable mono reel to reel tape recorder, external microphone (unknown brand) -> master 5" mono reel to reel audience tape (tape speed unknown).

Playback circa 1987 ::: (unknown equipment) master 5" mono reel to reel audience tape -> 1st generation Maxell XLII-90 cassette, Dolby not indicated (believed off).
Playback 2011-06-21 ::: 1st generation Maxell XLII-90 cassette on Nakamichi BX-300, Dolby off -> azimuth & speed adjusted, heads cleaned & demagnatized -> Tascam CD-RW900SL pro CD recorder -> CD-RW -> computer, EAC secure -> wavs -> Audacity (fades &/or glitches, MANY pops, clicks, dropouts, mike bumps, claps, etc repaired or reduced, normalised to correct dc offset, volume adjustments*, no EQ) -> CD Wave (track splits) -> Trader's Little Helper -> yer ears. First uploaded week of 2013-01-11.

Line-up ::: Eric Clapton - electric guitar, vocals // Bobby Whitlock - organ, vocals // Carl Radle - electric bass // Jim Gordon - drums.

Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline.

CoolSonics 210 ::: Thanks to the original taper & trader! As with so many of my favourite British sourced recordings of the late 60's and 70's, this one came from "The Man In The Palace", so all hats off to him. Royal thanks! ::: Corrections welcome ::: I offer this upload in honor of Rolf O, aka Brinkhoffs - not the world's biggest EC fan, but to whom the taper of this recording, The Man In The Palace, Hanwaker, myself & many others were very close. I'll carry his wisdom & humor with me off the edge of the world, whenever I walk that plank. I hope he is surrounded by FLOYD of his choice, some good beer & a cigarette, and is taking some real time off from work, he deserves it.

This would seem to be MUCH better than most all circulating copies. I checked against 3, including a couple of purported "remasters" & this is far superior. There is none of the wavering between channels, I repaired hundreds of dropouts, the clarity seems much better & I have worked with the volume somewhat as the taper was doing the same (and also moving the microphone around at times).

(WARNING - Longwinded. Ignore & proceed directly to music if you have fear of burble, chatter, gabble or jabber.) I have been a bit reluctant to make a foray into the world of online Clapton vintage live recordings, but decided to brave it. Should the response be positive & I feel therefore encouraged, perhaps I shall find motivation enough to do so again. Fear of castigation is, of course, at issue. While the upload is free of EQ, purists will likely be horrified & dribble in their collective soup that I breeched sacred taper etiquette with latitude, played out in the hinterlands of volume tinkering - but, of course, they would not say as much to the taper, who was free to knob twiddle with impunity. In any case, I am more than happy to upload a "raw" transfer at some point, should I remain relatively uncastigated, but have strived here for a version which provides the most satisfactory listening experience I could possibly muster withOUT equalisation, which I leave up to the longitude of the individual listener. I must say that, after comparing this to several other versions, the 20 hours or so I spent on dropout removal (my wife says "months"), have rendered the aural experience one of great superiority over the others I heard - it is a fucking joy. (Having said that, if you can provide a better version, I ain't gonna quibble!).

I love this band. After more years than I can fathom, I still rank "Layla" to be one of the top ten of all time. In fact, in my many wanderings in Asia, through Nepal & Laddakh & the lovely Himalayas, I finally fine-tuned my portable music library - take just one cassette - Derek & the Dominos "Layla," with a couple of the bonus tracks from the unissued 2nd album, & I have all I need. One cool thing about Clapton is that people know his name (and often the music!) all over the globe. Ride in a bus through the mountains, hairpin turns dropping thousands of feets below, or get into a taxi in Delhi, or spend the night in some hotel at 13,000 feet in Leh, and they often still have cassette machines, and I'm all set. The magic weaves & life is just fine, no matter how tired, how dirty, how hungry (or bumpy the road), I can tune in. I listened to the record through my early teen rock years & then JD Smith, whose music tastes I could very much respect even if I didn't always agree, kept pounding it into me that this was really the ONE. The respect grew & grew, and never faded. While it never actually bumped Paul Kantner, Grace Slick & David Freiberg's "Baron von Tollbooth & The Chrome Nun" off it's perch at No.1, Layla's status after 30 years is still irreplaceably platinum. What a load of sheer talent, superlative songwriting & moment after moment of bliss.

This Marquee show, which I first heard some time in the early 80's, is a revelation. Not long before the initial "Layla" recordings, the songs & band are still new, the passion is cascading off the stage - even in a recording - and there are moments here that REALLY shine. Somewhere in "Bad Boy" the energy level goes way up & there's some GREAT psychedelic guitar. "Tell The Truth" has some rippin' moments. The band hasn't reached 10 plus minute jam peaks but this is the alpha stage, the blastoff. I see multiple reviews online that knock the quality, which is somewhat understandable given the copies I compared this to, but this one pretty damn fine for an audience tape of it's era, recorded by The Man with a reel to reel tape recorder hung by a strap over his shoulder, in a small, packed club & this nice thing is this copy is quite steady, with few distractions. I can't imagine people being disappointed. Have at it, turn it up, and listen. Enjoy!

Kudos to Zongo for life support, Lochner for mikes&more & Fast Freddie for runnin' Video Dick's Record Emporium with the bathroom office full of tape decks. Thanks to Hanwaker (few among us can keep his pace). Mountains of gratitude to Davmar, D.White, Sanchez, Elliot, The Florida Kid, Kloiber, Zingg, JTW, Bershaw, Boston Gold, Weeks, Dixon, Moore, Gough & SO many more for all that collecting & sharing... Royal thanks to The Man In The Palace, Doc Tinker, Brinkhoffs, Barely Eatin', Reel Master Gaule, Parrish & all the traders who housed me thru my music acquisition & travel years. Hats off to Brother Kent, Uncle Jake, Little Queenie (& her neighbor Frank) & his honor Ptomaine Thomas. Glasses raised to Byron for musical horizon expansion & much obliged to J & Thurston for keepin' my concert fires burnin' since my continental shift. Thanks to the Mods for keepin' DIME alive. Enjoy, share, give, spread peace. Yers truly, Knees