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Repress

Leon Vynehall makes his debut on the Clone Royal Oak Series with the already much anticipated track ''Butterflies''.

Three timeless tracks from the esteemed D.C. LaRue back catalogue get brand new remixes from three equally exciting producers to give a modern spin to these ‘70s classics.

LaRue joined the music industry by recording two top 40 pop records influenced by the teen-idol era. In his early adulthood, he began writing songs about the fast-growing club and bar subculture he frequented where the most outcast of society’s young and marginalized could safely congregate after being ostracized in work, church, school, and often family. In this relatively brief selection of LaRue classics, contemporary remixes paradoxically bring out the timelessness of his songs, in tone, message and musicality.

First up, ‘Do You Want the Real Thing’ gets a fresh update from re-edit royalty Opolopo in the style of the lush yet sharp Motown and Philadelphia production pieces that inspired the arrangement originally, still resonates as a nightly inner dialogue or negotiation, another of LaRue’s literary signatures.

‘Let Them Dance’ greeted in its time as a one of the breakthrough moments of new music technology, is reinterpreted by Dr Packer mainly with its live acoustic tracks, also retaining bright, rhythmic synthesizer hooks with results that are still true to his intentionally oblique lyric, a novelistic portrayal of the drug dealers, the LGBTQ+ underground community, and the powerful upper class elite that made up the multi-racial, socially integrated crowds on the dance floors at the height of disco.

Last up, ‘Indiscreet’ from LaRue’s 1976 concept album, ‘The Tea Dance,’ tells much of the story about how disco had already birthed its own far more popular and influential successor form, Hip-Hop, by the time it was declared dead by the superannuated establishments of the radio, media, and record businesses. Released in a highly limited, personally inscribed 12-inch 45 rpm edition for a select list of top disco DJs, its complex, elastic polyrhythm made it as irresistible to younger black DJs and breakdancing teens as any of the year’s other big street breakouts. Only Good Vibes Music head honchos and Scotland’s finest The Knutsens give it the magic touch for the modern dancefloor.

"Hits & Pieces" showcases the band's most recent single releases, including "RATA-TATA", "Superlove", and "Diggin' It". Meanwhile, "Live at l'Olympia" captures some moments of the band's sold- out show in Paris, complete with a thrilling cover of Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way" featuring supporting act KO KO MO. With its stunning visual design and great energy, this vinyl is a must-have for any Royal Republic fan. So don't hesitate - add it to your collection today and experience the best of this incredible band!

Five years after the release of their last studio album, legendary UK musical institution, Soft Machine, return with a brand new CD/LP,

Other Doors. Boasting new material and two numbers drawn from their extensive historical repertoire, Other Doors finds the band on their usual fiery form.

Featuring John Etheridge (guitars), Theo Travis, (saxes, flutes, Fender Rhodes piano, electronics), Fred Thelonious Baker (Fretless bass),

John Marshall (drums), Other Doors also features two guest appearances from long-serving bassist Roy Babbington, who retired from the band in 2021.

Other Doors was recorded at Temple Music Studios, a facility owned by the late Jon Hiseman during July and August 2022.

It’s a location of which the band is particularly fond, explains John Etheridge. “Working at Jon Hiseman’s studio was special,

especially with Ru Lemer who is a brilliant engineer. He’s fantastically quick and that’s very good as we record mainly live in the studio. It’s come out really well and I think it sounds great.”

On Other Doors they’ve revisited the very first album, originally released in 1968, to include Kevin Ayers ‘Joy Of A Toy. Fred Baker, makes his studio debut with Soft Machine.

A well-known figure on the Canterbury Scene not only is he the perfect choice for the group but he’s also is a long-term fan of the repertoire.

“The way I look at it is that this is all great music which we’re continuing to preserve and keep alive as we play it but also we’re adding to it all the time,” he explains.

The idea for revisiting the number was Theo Travis’ he says and has been part of the band’s live setlist for a while.

The album also contains Penny Hitch, a track originally heard on 1973’s Soft Machine Seven.



If the album ushers in a new member in the shape of Fred Baker, it also acts as a fond farewell to drummer John Marshall, who joined Soft Machine midway through the recording of 1972’s Fifth.

At the age of 81 Marshall has decided to retire making Other Doors his final studio album with the group. “I’ve known John since 1975 when I first joined Soft Machine and of course,

we’ve worked through the years together intermittently ever since. His drumming always meant a lot to me,” says Etheridge.

“We worked over three days in the studio and John played great. It sounds terrific.”

Indeed, Marshall is on whip-cracking form throughout the album bringing his trademark musicality and decisive presence.

With Other Doors, he brings his distinguished career to a rousing conclusion.

Intense, celebratory, and consistently impressive. Other Doors is the sound of a group determined to press forwards with an

integrity and sense of purpose that’s quintessentially and definitively Soft Machine.

Revised and remastered edition of Joe Henderson's 1987 album 'An Evening With Joe Henderson' with two bonus tracks from the same.


"Saxophonist Joe Henderson has been described as one of the great chord change players of jazz history, and this aspect of his playing, that had its roots in bebop and Sonny Rollins' approach to improvisation, is very apparent in the repertoire of songs he chose to play that night, each piece with interesting chord changes beginning with Thelonious ' Monk's Ask Me Now'. Although Henderson's style grew out of Rollins' sense of phrasing, rhythmically Henderson was a lot looser and built on Rollins's style to create his own approach to improvisation."

Repress coming!

A year on from 'Good Evening', the critically acclaimed collaborative album with Verb T & his
stellar contribution to Ocean Wisdom's UK TOP 40 'Wizville' album, producer Pitch 92 is
ready to show off his new works to the world, as he enters a new stage in his career and begins
to spread his wings as a solo artist. Known for his soulful sound, inspired by the likes of
Madlib, Pete Rock & J Dilla, Pitch 92 has carved out his own unique style and pulled out all the
stops for his debut release on High Focus Records.
Entitled 'Lost In Space', this new EP is a perfectly balanced mix of vocal and instrumental
tracks showcasing the raw talent of the Manchester based producer. Pitch 92 has assembled a
healthy roster of artists to work alongside, ranging from UK Hip Hop royalty to up & coming US
artists as well as accomplished musicians.
Spanning from UK Hip Hop favourites such as Jehst & Verb T, to new faces such as K S R ,
Sparkz and Doctor Outer as well as hooking up with Sony Music's Ashely Henry, one of the
UK's most accomplished jazz pianists as heard on 'One Handed' - Pitch 92, armed with his
trusty MPC, expertly provides the perfect backdrop to accommodate each of his guests, as well
as putting forward instrumentals that stand out as masterpieces in their own right, Pitch 92
applies finesse and the ability of a veteran producer, despite only being 26 years old - One
listen of lead single 'Lost In Space' featuring Jehst and Confucius MC is all you need to
confirm that we are indeed listening to a master at work.
In short, 'Lost In Space' is a production masterclass and serves as the perfect introduction to
the Pitch 92 sound, of which you will be hearing more and more, guaranteed.

Charlie Watts “Anthology” is an affectionate retrospective and a reflection of just how frequently Watts was able to exercise his jazz muscles between Rolling Stones commitments to create a bespoke discography of his own. Including 3 unreleased tracks.
The names of Charlie's jazz heroes fell from his lips like a superfan turning the pages of a personal scrapbook. Charlie Parker, Gerry Mulligan, Chico Hamilton, Dave Green, Stan Tracey, Peter King, Courtney Pine, Gail Thompson, Brian Lemon, Gerard Presencer, the Red Rodney group and collaborator Jim Keltner. He knew every player, every session, every album, every outfit they wore on the cover, and he spoke about them with a deep and genuine reverence. He may have been a globally loved hero in the biggest band in the word, but he swatted away any compliment or comparison with his musical favourites. He counted himself their admirer, never their equal.
The Anthology includes an extended essay by Paul Sexton which documents Charlie Watt’s jazz career and the essential albums covered in the collection.

From Alehouse to Playhouse Bjarte Eike and his barnstorming Barokksolistene capture the vital spark of Restoration London’s entertainment scene with a captivating new recording for Rubicon Classics! The Playhouse Sessions will be released on 23 September 2022 to coincide with Barokksolistene’s concert double-bill at London’s Southbank Centre.

‘A smattering of Purcell, dances from Playford’s Dancing Master, shanties, reels and ballads succumb to a nine-piece ensemble drawing on Baroque, jazz and folk styles for a no holds barred hooley of riotous improvisatory give and take,’ (BBC Music Magazine review of The Alehouse Sessions, August 2019)

London’s musicians, pushed in the 1650s, to the margins of society by order of Oliver Cromwell, found room for new forms of entertainment in city-centre taverns and alehouses. They remained there long after the restoration of the monarchy, performing sets of dances, theatre songs and bawdy ballads to audiences glad to be free from Puritan constraints on pleasure.

Norwegian violinist Bjarte Eike and his Barokksolistene have restored the spirit and substance of those long-forgotten performances with their Alehouse Sessions, hailed by The Times as ‘irresistible’ and ‘fabulously unrestrained’ by The Guardian. Five years ago the Norwegian violinist and his band scored a best-selling album with The Alehouse Sessions on Rubicon Classics. They return to the label with another compelling collection of music and words of the kind on offer more than three centuries ago at Henry Purcell’s favourite Westminster watering holes. The Playhouse Sessions, set for release on Rubicon Classics on 23 September 2022, reflects the uplifting energy and engaging emotional contrasts of Barokksolistene’s Alehouse performances.

“The album contains a sort of inner narrative that runs through the recording,” says Bjarte Eike. “It has become like a play in its own right, with each track being a small tale within a larger story.” The recording’s tracklist includes Eike’s beguiling arrangements of music from Purcell’s semi-opera The Fairy Queen and his own original compositions on words from the play on which it is based, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; popular songs and ballads such as ‘The Irish Washerwoman’, ‘I often for my Jenny strove’ and ‘The Three Ravens’; tunes from Purcell’s welcome odes and stage shows, Come ye sons of art and Dido and Aeneas among them; the ‘Willow Song’ from Shakespeare’s Othello; Eike’s own voice in Puck’s monologue from Act 5 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and John Dowland’s sublime air ‘Can she excuse my wrongs’.

London’s theatres were closed at the start of the English Civil War in 1642 and remained shut until the Restoration. Alehouses offered redundant musicians, actors and dancers a place to scrape a precarious living and soon became their creative refuge. “Although a few surviving theatres reopened in 1660 with the return of Charles II, there was little money around to rebuild those that had been demolished,” observes Bjarte Eike. “And a generation of musicians had already found an audience in places like the Black Horse in Aldersgate Street. So popular were their alehouse sessions that Cromwell tried to abolish them! But they outlived him and became part of Restoration musical life.” The form of a Barokksolistene Alehouse, he adds, is like a creative room. “Within its framework I can frequently refurbish the show with new contents. The Playhouse project is likewise an extension of the ever-evolving Alehouse Sessions. Together they tell the story of music and theatre in London during Cromwell’s time and after the Restoration. Of course there’s an historical context to what we do. But there’s also the practical context – which is even more important to me – of connecting with a contemporary twenty-first century audience. An Alehouse / Playhouse performance is not something for the museum; it's about music made in the present moment, just as it was in the London alehouses of Purcell’s day -- with their playhouses annexed to the rear of the beer-drinking saloons. The encounter of musicians onstage and the audience in the hall is the real magic of it. We have to fuse the audience into the action of our performance!”

The Playhouse Sessions will be launched on Friday 23 September with a late-night concert at the Purcell Room and a post-concert Alehouse Session in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Soprano Mary Bevan is set to join Eike and his Alehouse Boys for the first half of their Southbank Centre double-bill, offering unique interpretations of songs from Purcell shows and other hits from the late seventeenth-century London stage. “The Southbank Centre is a direct descendant of concerts given in the 1650s in the alehouses of London,” notes Eike. “These alehouses after all staged some of the world’s first public concerts. Later, after the Restoration, it became common for promoters to advertise alehouse concerts in the press and offer subscription tickets. Purcell and his fellow musicians were thus just as at home performing there as they were in the chambers of the royal court or in London’s new theatres.”

Bjarte Eike launched his Alehouse Sessions in company with like-minded musicians 15 years ago. The ensemble comprises a core of regular performers, all of whom have committed to memory a huge setlist of up to four hours of music. Typically they meet a day or so before a concert tour to share a meal and make music together; then next day, re-grouping thirty minutes before the show, they discover Eike’s select-menu for the evening. “That ensures that every show is fresh,” he notes. “I make sure we never repeat the same programme twice. It’s therefore essential to work with people who share my outlook and dare to adventure. We’re into a high-risk sport, with lots of traps and places where the unexpected appears - for good or for ill. And so the audience knows we’re vulnerable. But our skill is seen in how we re-act on the hoof to the unpredictable. That’s authenticity and honesty - and above all it’s a performance that’s genuine.”

Armed with a classical training and a background in folk music and improvisation, Bjarte Eike was drawn naturally to Early Music in all its stylistic variety. “I never really felt at home with only one genre,” he recalls. “Early Music allowed me to study profound, complicated compositions, but performing it has also opened up the chance of rebellion and uproar! Early music offers wide, multi-faceted areas of musical exploration for me. You find, for instance, links to different types of music wherever you look in seventeenth-century English repertoire. And I am fascinated by all these connections. They offer a foundation for the Alehouse Sessions and for all Barokksolistene performance more generally. Every member of the group plays, sings, dances and improvises without limitation. We’re all interested in the many different fields of being a stage performer and pushing hard at the ‘normal’ boundaries of what it means to be a classical musician.”

MEANTIME das neue Album des kanadischen Songwriters Grant Davidson aka Slow Leaves, handelt vom Warten auf etwas Bedeutsames im Leben und davon, wie all die alltäglichen Dinge, die während des Wartens passieren, das eigentlich Bedeutsame ausmachen. Wenn man blinzelt, verpasst man es; wenn man zu viel nachdenkt, verpasst man es. Wenn man Glück hat, gibt es in der Zwischenzeit die Liebe und den Tod und nicht viel weniger. Das Album ist durchzogen von einer eleganten Erdigkeit, Meantime ist eine Sammlung von Folksongs, die mit paisleyfarbenen 1960er- und 70er-Jahre-Tönen verziert sind. Während die Musik eine Retro-Sensibilität aufweist, wird diese durch eine Unmittelbarkeit in den Texten ausgeglichen, die ihn fest in der heutigen Zeit verankert. Slow Leaves ist ein in sich geschlossenes Soloprojekt, bei dem Davidson jeden Aspekt der Musik und ihrer Präsentation kuratiert, einschließlich der Rolle des Multiinstrumentalisten, Produzenten, Coverdesigners, Fotografen und Videofilmers. Er betrachtet die Gesamtheit dieser verschiedenen Aspekte als wesentliche Teile eines größeren Projekts der Selbsterkenntnis durch künstlerische Methoden. Sein Folk- und Psych-Rock-Stil erinnert an ältere Songwriter wie Mickey Newbury, Nick Drake, Roky Erickson, Gene Clark und Neil Young. Aber sie leben auch in der Welt der modernen Klassiker wie Andy Shauf, Bonny "Prince" Billy, Bedouine, Big Thief und Bill Callahan. Seine seidige Stimme wurde schon mit Roy Orbison oder Bryan Ferry verglichen.

Omena proudly presents 'Ceramics' by Saine, the much awaited follow-up to 'For The Dreamers' released on Omena in 2017.

Manoeuvring between styles and atmospheres comes second nature to Saine, but what's truly highlighted here is emotion - steering away from short-lived trends, the LP offers a non-forced listening experience by an artist exploring the different facets of what his music can be.

Swaying analogue synthesiser arpeggios, playful beat-work and what feels like echoes from an alternate dimension sum up a full-length which pushes and pulls at the fabric of what you've come to expect from Saine.

In March 2022, EMPIRE assembled some of Africa's finest singers and songwriters, the musical equivalent of Ocean's Eleven, at a writing camp in San Francisco. The result is Where We Come From, Vol. 1, a 15-track compilation featuring Afrobeats royalty Wande Coal, Tiwa Savage and Olamide as well as Tanzanian duo Navy Kenzo, Cape Verde's June Freedom and a host of other stars across Nigeria and Ghana - KiDi, Fireboy DML, Kizz Daniel, Tolani and more. The sounds traverse East, West and South of the continent, incorporating drill, amapiano, trap and Afrobeats in fashioning an album that at once sandwiches luxury between lust and love while also being a flagpost to hedonism. The cover art, created by Nigerian artist Dricky Stickman, incorporates all 15 songs into the final product, illustrating unity, community and culture. “This project ‘Where We Come From, Vol. 1’ is a perfect example of music having no limitations,” Kareem Mobalaji, Regional Head West Africa said. “Yes we are from Africa, but we are truly determined to reach the entire world with our voice, which is music.”

Hand the king of re-edits Late Nite Tuff Guy the keys to an unreleased Silk recording from the ‘70s hey days and you’ve got yourself a recipe for greatness. A’s and Bees line up their second heavyweight 12 inch pressing, with two exhilarating edits from LNTG alongside the first ever release of the original recording. As ever 50% of the profits from this release will be donated towards the British Beekeepers Association.

It's rare to crack the vaults on a recording that’s as good as this, that never saw the light of day. Courtesy of ‘70s Philly International wonders Silk, most famed for their soul sensation ‘I Can't Stop (Turning You On)’ that was sampled by LF System for their 8 week strong number 1 release, ‘Somethin' 'Bout The Way’ has all the elements of a smash hit. As catchy as they come, singalong sensibilities and musicianship of the highest order with vocal harmonies to match, it’s genuinely astonishing that this never got released. Who better to tweak this into an all-out disco stomper, than re-edit royalty Late Nite Tuff Guy. His Disco Dub teases in, loops up and adds extra punch to all the elements that make the original such a standout track, before letting loose those joyous vocals. Big room, full body, DJ friendly business this!

On the B side, the original mix gets it’s first ever release, with LNTG providing a shorter edit of his full throttle re-work to round off the package.

Roy Davis Jr's Undaground Therapy Muzik comes with a follow up on the criticaly acclaimed Al Zanders release from 2018. Three solid deep and playful groovers that will never go out of style!

Over the course of eight thrilling tracks, ‘Royal’ leads listeners on a topsy-turvy journey from Middle Eastern exotica to Spaghetti Western style scores, via scorching Mediterranean beaches.
Highlights of the album include the surf-meets-Western delights of “Silver Lining”, where irresistible guitar lines are piled high and topped with euphoric synths and rock drums, resulting in a timeless soundtrack for both headless nights in dive bars and heedless days at the funfair.
“Juda” follows, a deadly combination of Zepellin and Middle Eastern rock with subtle hints of synth funk. The track is named after living legend and Middle Eastern guitar hero, Yehuda Keisar, who also joins the band for this song, contributing a scorching solo. The thunderous guitar riffs are matched pound-for-pound by the irresistible percussive groove.
Boom Pam, widely renowned for their spellbinding Middle Eastern guitar music, have unveiled their highly anticipated fifth album, 'Royal'. Celebrating their twentieth anniversary, the Tel Aviv based band combine cinematic atmospherics and high-powered surf rock on
their first album for international ambassadors of Middle Eastern grooves, Batov Records.

Boom Pam “Rock the Casbah” on title track “Royal”, revealing another card up their sleeve, as they transform a famous 80's Israeli radio theme into a discoinspired super jam with a punk edge.

The band maintain their reputation for first-rate and distinctive surf rock on the fast paced “Daber Yafé” and “Monsour”.
The sonic imprint is both warmed and widened by the rare addition of a tuba supplying the lower frequencies.
Meanwhile, opener “Lava Tongue”, and “Golden” emphasize the melodic side to the band, conjuring dreamy sunset mirages to hypnotize the listener.

Boom Pam have established themselves as pioneers of modern Middle Eastern surf rock, combining sophisticated yet catchy guitar riffs, with roaring tuba basslines and fiery drums. In the past decade the band have frequently collaborated with and backed legendary Turkish folk singer-songwriter, Selda Bagcan, on stage and record, and performed at some of the world's most renowned festivals, including Primavera Sound, Lollapalooza, Fuji Rock, the Montreal Jazz Festival and many more.
An engaging listen from beginning to end, ‘Royal’ is the perfect representation of Boom Pam’s incredible 20-year journey, showcasing their superior skills in pushing the boundaries of their genre.

Green Monster, the 4th Kito Jempere studio album is a journey through love, interconnectedness and creative freedom, bound together by musical friendship that breaks through walls, borders, languages and shapes; accumulated over a celebrated twenty year career and ten years of Kito Jempere.

Over fourteen tracks Kito teams up with over 26 artists from all over the world: a range of talented artists including Warp records artist Jimi Tenor, Red Snapper drummer Rich Thair, Azari & III ex-vocalist Starving Yet Full, L.I.E.S. records Lipelis (on bass), Curly Castro and SINDYSMAN. The album blends hip-hop, free-flowing jazz and world-building soundscapes into a piece dedicated to Kito’s musical roots; marrying multiple artforms, cultural influences and international artists into a body of work that feels deeply personal, healing and detailed. The accompanying artwork is a world created by Kito made using Midjourney prompt, connecting the albums audio world with visible objects — both vinyl and CD will contain booklets with lyrics and the visual world of Green Monster.

Kito describes the album ‘like getting Ennio Morricone, Weezer, The Beatles, Oneothrix Point Never, Eduard Artemiev, Jaga Jazzist, Massive Attack, Fugazi, Jimi Tenor, Hans Zimmer, Radiohead, John Cage and Aphex Twin all together, then collaborating with movie-directors Wes Anderson, David Lynch, Dziga Vertov and Andrei Tarkovskiy.’ Used as a metaphor to help create his album.

Back in 2018, two mysterious twelve-inch singles appeared in underground record sthops. Credited to Blotter Trax, a previously unknown outfit who cherished “faceless” anonymity, the pleasingly twisted and mind-altering music on show was a mutant form of electronic psychedelia. The included tracks were variously informed by analogue techno, acid, electro and minimal, but inhabited their own clandestine sonic space. These tracks were, we later discovered, lightly edited “straight to tape” jams, crafted on the fly by their creators in one of Berlin’s most admired studios.

By the time Blotter Trax delivered their follow-up on Clone offshoot Frustrated Funk a year later, the secret was out: the project was in fact a collaboration between two storied artists, techno titan Magda – a DJ/producer who should need little introduction – and serial underground aggravator (and man of many aliases) Jay Ahern, sometime Hauntologists member and acid techno royalty thanks to years spent releasing similarly shadowy EPs as T.B Arthur.

In the years that followed, and before the COVID-19 pandemic grounded them in Berlin, the pair took their incendiary, modular-driven live show to esteemed clubland institutions (Fabric included), on an acclaimed tour of Japan, and onto the stages of festivals across Europe.

Four years on from that appearance on Frustrated Funk, Blotter Trax are back in updated and expanded form. Now a trio thanks to the addition of bassist Hannes Strobl, the band is set to release their far-sighted, funk-fuelled debut album, Super Conductor – a pulsating, thrill-in-minute ride includes contributions from a swathe of notable guests (Nina Hynes, Ilhem Khodja and David Moss provided vocals, Shigeru Tanabu played guitar, Matthew Styles mixed the set and old friend John Tejada mastered it).

While rooted in electro and acid, the album is impressively low-slung, stylish and funky, with nods towards Blotter Trax’s mutual love of Arthur Russell, early ‘80s NYC downtown disco, leftfield new-wave pop and flash-fried punk-funk. Released by JD Twitch’s Optimo Music imprint, it charts the ongoing dancefloor evolution of a band whose days of mystery and mischief are now a distant memory.

First ever commercial releases of New Orleans’ legend Alvin Batiste’s Spiritual Jazz albums created with the college band he instructed and led in Baton Rouge - Goes To Africa With Love and Live at The 1971 American College Jazz Festival Originally given away as souvenirs at Southern University, these albums contains deep Batiste originals and are some of the most sought after albums of Americas 70s jazz underground.

Each album contains extensive booklet detailing Batiste’s life and his time spent honing and recording this remarkable band of young students. Goes To Africa With Love was mixed from the original multi-track tapes and is now presented as a 2xLP with never-before-released instrumentals.

That one of the great Spiritual Jazz albums of the era could be found in duplicate New Orleans thrift store in the 1980s goes a long way in illustrating the lack of acclaim this special and overlooked album maintained, even in a city where the Batiste name is musical royalty. The Southern University albums Alvin Batiste offered the world were novelies, not worthy of serious consideration, a moment captured, but not necessarily worthy of being collected or preserved by anyone not immediately involved in its creation. That changes now.

With the release of the two Southern University albums, Now-Again continues a conversation begun with the late Kashmere Stage Band director Conrad O. Johnson and the issue of his high school students’ music as Texas Thunder Soul, and the continued belief that beautiful music created by youth - even under the most adverse circumstances - can always inspire us.

In 1990, Eric Clapton performed 18 nights at one of his favorite venues - the famous Royal Albert Hall in London. During the 18 run of shows Clapton performed with three different line-ups: a rock band, a blues band, and an orchestra. Eric returned to the same venue in 1991 with the same three line -ups and played a further 24 shows. The huge undertaking of rehearsing for performances of three distinctly different genres was made even more challenging by the line-up for the rock shows varying from 4, 9 or 13 band members.

Clapton has always played with superlative musicians, and these shows were no exception. The bands included Johnnie Johnson, Jimmie Vaughan, Chuck Leavell, Nathan East, Greg Phillinganes, Steve Ferrone, Ray Cooper, and Jerry Portnoy. Additionally, legendary special guests joined Clapton on stage: Phil Collins in the rock ensemble; Robert Cray, Buddy Guy and Albert Collins for the blues shows.

The Orchestral performances were arranged and conducted by Michael Kamen the highly regarded and successful composer who had worked with Clapton previously (Lethal Weapon, Edge Of Darkness). The set list included the epic 30 minute ‘Concerto For Guitar’ that Kamen composed especially for Clapton - released now for the first time.

Many of the performances in both years were filmed and recorded. The huge volume of audio and film material from the archive has been painstakingly restored and upgraded by Clapton’s team of Simon Climie (audio production and mixing), producer Peter Worsley (Slowhand at 70 and The Lady In The Balcony), and director David Barnard (The Lady In The Balcony).

This remarkable series of shows will finally be given the release that they deserve. A full concert of each genre (Rock, Blues, Orchestral) has been assembled from the hours of material available and will be released on audio (CD, LP, digital) and with an accompanying film on Blu-ray and DVD.

Orchestral show features a stunning version of ‘ Layla’, plus stand-out highlights of ‘Bell Bottom Blues’, ‘Edge Of Darkness’ and ‘Sunshine of Your Love’. Great covers of ‘Cocaine’, ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ and ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ also feature.

In 1990, Eric Clapton performed 18 nights at one of his favorite venues - the famous Royal Albert Hall in London. During the 18 run of shows Clapton performed with three different line-ups: a rock band, a blues band, and an orchestra. Eric returned to the same venue in 1991 with the same three line -ups and played a further 24 shows. The huge undertaking of rehearsing for performances of three distinctly different genres was made even more challenging by the line-up for the rock shows varying from 4, 9 or 13 band members.

Clapton has always played with superlative musicians, and these shows were no exception. The bands included Johnnie Johnson, Jimmie Vaughan, Chuck Leavell, Nathan East, Greg Phillinganes, Steve Ferrone, Ray Cooper, and Jerry Portnoy. Additionally, legendary special guests joined Clapton on stage: Phil Collins in the rock ensemble; Robert Cray, Buddy Guy and Albert Collins for the blues shows.

Many of the performances in both years were filmed and recorded. The huge volume of audio and film material from the archive has been painstakingly restored and upgraded by Clapton’s team of Simon Climie (audio production and mixing), producer Peter Worsley (Slowhand at 70 and The Lady In The Balcony), and director David Barnard (The Lady In The Balcony).

This remarkable series of shows will finally be given the release that they deserve. A full concert of each genre (Rock, Blues, Orchestral) has been assembled from the hours of material available and will be released on audio (CD, LP, digital) and with an accompanying film on Blu-ray and DVD.

The Clapton classics performed with the rock band include ‘White Room’, ‘Lay Down Sally’, ‘Wonderful Tonight’, ‘Pretending’ and ‘Layla’