Like Cheap Trick and Budokan or The Allman Brothers Band and the Beacon Theatre, Eric Clapton has a kind of bond with London's Royal Albert Hall. He's played there more than 200 times in the last 60 years - more than any other artist - and condensed two runs of shows at the venue into the live album 24 Nights in 1991, the start of a critical and commercial renaissance for the guitar legend.
On June 23, Rhino rolls out a series of products telling an even deeper story of the period that birthed 24 Nights. The Definitive 24 Nights is a three-part box set, spread over six CDs or eight LPs and three Blu-rays, offering mostly unreleased material from those sets. Each "set," grouped into three categories - rock, blues and orchestral - is available separately. All audiovisual material has been restored and remixed by Clapton's longtime producer Simon Climie along with video producer Peter Worsley and director David Barnard. David Fricke has penned new liner notes for the set, included in the box as a hardbound book with an individually numbered lithograph featuring a photo of Clapton by Carl Sudna.
Having performed a dozen Royal Albert Hall shows in one run in 1989, Clapton would break his own record twice, with 18 sets in 1990 and another 24 in 1991. Those two runs were divided into four separate categories of show. One featured Clapton leading a stripped-down group of ace session musicians (Nathan East on bass, Greg Phillinganes on keyboards and Steve Ferrone on drums); another featured an expanded nine-piece band that included luminaries like guitarist Phil Palmer, percussionist Ray Cooper and keyboardist Alan Clark (Chuck Leavell replaced him on the 1991 tour, while Phil Collins guested at selected shows). A third set featured a blues ensemble and guests like Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Albert Collins and Jimmie Vaughan. Finally, the fourth set reunited Clapton with composer/conductor Michael Kamen, his partner on the scores to Edge of Darkness and the Lethal Weapon series, with the backing of the National Philharmonic Orchestra.
The original 24 Nights became a gold record on both sides of the Atlantic, showcasing Clapton's deep catalogue in new ways that would anticipate the revisited revival of his award-winning MTV Unplugged concert a year later. The Definiitive 24 Nights provides an even deeper, alternative look at those concerts: only 12 of the 47 tracks on the collection have been released before. (The original album had 15 tracks, and in fact four of them are not replicated here; one of the previously released cuts was used as a B-side. So hold on to your original copies, completists!) Fans will get a chance to hear some of the guest performances from these nights, including Collins sitting in on "I Shot the Sheriff" and a reggae cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," plus East lending vocals to the band's interpretation of Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home." Of particular interest to fans is "Concerto for Electric Guitar," an unreleased 30-minute piece composed by Kamen for the orchestral sets.
A month before the box is released, Unique X and Iconic Events will offer global screenings of a new feature-length concert film culled from the 24 Nights footage (released on Blu-ray in the box set and on DVD in the breakout sets). Those screenings, featuring Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround sound, will start May 17; more information can be read here.
The Definitive 24 Nights continues a flurry of Clapton catalogue activity at Rhino, including two vinyl box sets and a similar deluxe version of Nothing But the Blues. Pre-order your copy of the box set or its component releases, below.
The Definitive 24 Nights (Duck/Reprise/Rhino, 2023)
* Previously released
6CD/3BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
8LP/3BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD 1-2/LP 1-3: 24 Nights: Rock
2CD/DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
- Pretending *
- Running on Faith *
- Breaking Point
- I Shot the Sheriff (feat. Phil Collins on drums)
- White Room *
- Can't Find My Way Home (feat. Nathan East on lead vocals)
- Bad Love *
- Before You Accuse Me
- Lay Down Sally
- Knockin' on Heaven's Door (feat. Phil Collins on drums)
- Old Love
- No Alibis *
- Tearing Us Apart
- Cocaine
- Wonderful Tonight *
- Layla
- Crossroads
- Sunshine of Your Love
CD 3-4/LP 4-5: 24 Nights: Blues
2CD/DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
- Key to the Highway
- Worried Life Blues *
- Watch Yourself *
- Have You Ever Loved a Woman *
- Everything's Gonna Be Alright
- Something on Your Mind
- All Your Love (I Miss Loving)
- It's My Life Baby
- Johnnie's Boogie
- Black Cat Bone
- Reconsider Baby
- My Time After a While
- Sweet Home Chicago
- Watch Yourself (Reprise)
CD 5-6/LP 6-8: 24 Nights: Orchestral
2CD/DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
- Crossroads
- Bell Bottom Blues *
- Lay Down Sally
- Holy Mother
- I Shot the Sheriff
- Hard Times *
- Can't Find My Way Home (feat. Nathan East on lead vocals)
- Edge of Darkness *
- Old Love
- Wonderful Tonight
- White Room
- Concerto for Electric Guitar
- A Remark You Made (A tribute to Jaco Pastorius)
- Layla
- Sunshine of Your Love
All previously released tracks from 24 Nights (Duck/Reprise 26420, 1991) except "No Alibis," from "Wonderful Tonight" U.K. single (Duck/Reprise W0069, 1991)
MartyB says
Any word on whether the LP sets come with digital downloads?
Mark H. says
Will this set be a pastiche of the 1990 and 1991 shows as the original CD release was (42 nights)? Or are all these tracks from the 1991 series?
zally says
awful cover,overpriced,release is waaaaay to late. money grab
Bill says
yup
Brian from Canada says
Most of the art is designed to match the 1991 release – the front cover is pretty much the same. None of Clapton's front covers were really good in the 90s.
Overpriced? Given the price of other re-releases it's not: it's about double the price of Eric Clapton's anniversary reissue, and it has more than double the CDs – plus more unreleased.
Personally, I agree it's overdue — these concerts should have been re-released years ago. The performances on the double disc only tease the strength of these shows.
Paul E. says
Expanded and truncated all at once. Just watch those prices rise for the original 1991 release. Seems they’ve already removed the 15 track version from Spotify…sneaky devils.
Jarmo Keranen says
Still waiting for the complete 1973 Raibow concert recordings to be released. I'm so old i might die before they do that!
Bill says
Me too/
Michael Grabowski says
I appreciate that they're breaking up these sets. I saw Clapton twice in the late '80s so was excited about the original 24 Nights release until I noticed that it limited the blues band performances to favor his pop-rock stuff. He's leaned much more heavily on his blues side in several of his releases since then, so I'm planning to enjoy the blues volume and leave the other two alone.
If I'm not mistaken, Clapton's Crossroads was the first really popular 4-disc box set career compilation, right? The one that made it commercially safe for all the ones that followed over the next 5 or more years? Maybe Dylan's first Bootleg Series set was first, but Clapton was the one my college pals paid for rather than just taped from someone else's purchase. Maybe one of the music historians here can correct me.
Vic Wertz says
Bob Dylan’s Biograph (1995) preceded Clapton’s Crossroads (1998) by about two and a half years.
Jarmo Keranen says
I think you mean 1985 and 1988?
Vic wertz says
:facepalm:
Yep! Thanks.
Michael Grabowski says
Thanks for noting that. I'm thinking that there wasn't anything big in between those two, but when Crossroads hit the market, that opened the floodgates for many more 4-disc career retrospectives in a very short time, in a way that Dylan's set didn't.
Ed says
Will this eventually be available on digital platforms and when can i expect it to be available?
Cash Claridge says
So bummed that one of the original songs on the album was on this one. Old Love on the original 24 Nights is a top 5 song of all-time