Last week I received the most SPECTACULAR Joe Bonamassa RAH brochure in a plastic sleeve in the mail from a very nice Clapton fan named Heidi who lives in Switzerland. It was such a nice surprise and the kindest gesture. She also sent me some two-sided flyers of Joe advertising the RAH show. Heidi is currently back at the RAH seeing Clapton and attends more concerts in a year than anyone I know!!
Paul, I will ask Heidi if she has any extra programs.
Here is Heidi's review of the show posted on the Clapton site, her screen name is Alberta.
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Joe Bonamassa 4th May 2009: The Road To The Royal Albert Hall
Submitted by Alberta on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 15:11
When:
2009
On Sunday 3rd May Aynsley Lister played at Dingwalls in Camden Town. Aynsley put on quite a rocking show which I liked better than the ones I had seen in past years. He really enjoyed performing for an enthusiastic audience which mainly consisted of devoted Bonamassa fans. He’s still touring the Uk in May so I’d recommend to go and see him if you get a chance.
On Monday 4th May it was great meeting with JDS, kduffin and his wife prior to the Bonamassa show. The Royal Albert Hall is such a special venue, even walking up to it gives me the shivers every time since my first concert there in 1974 (Leonard Cohen). Shortly after I took my seat in 4th row centre (bought from Seetickets) a friend told me Eric was in the house. Two minutes later I spotted Lee Dickson and I now knew Eric would be playing as well. My excitement started to build! It was my 5th time seeing Joe Bonamassa (so at least I wasn’t a bonavirgin!) and it was crystal clear that this show was to be THE milestone in his life as a musician. And he’s definitely worked very hard for it to get there.
Scott McKeon was the support band and Joe was to play from 08.20pm until 10.50pm and what a great performance he put on, it was amazing. I did hear parts of the soundcheck in the Box Office foyer (I probably just missed the rehearsal of FOUTR) and it was very loud (and so was the actual concert but fortunately it didn’t bother me). There were in fact two drummers and for some of the songs also a horn section. Before Eric took the stage (early in the set for the 7th song) Joe mentioned that 20 years ago he started playing the guitar and it was his dream to once play the Albert Hall and now here he was. He then made a reference to Further On Up The Road (first song he learnt to play) and introduced Eric. Eric appeared with his daphne blue strat and everybody in the audience jumped to their feet and cheered but then politely sat down again to listen to 5 minutes of great soloing of both the young guitar hero (he is 32 tomorrow, 8th May 2009!) and the legend that inspired his playing. Well, it rather seemed like only a minute to me! Joe commented afterwards: That’s the coolest thing I have ever done! Eric shook Joe’s hand and bowed to a standing ovation and then left the stage. I just couldn’t believe what I just saw and heard, it was stunning! Later on Paul Jones who I had seen popping in and out of the RAH Box Office foyer appeared on Your Funeral My Trial.
Hopefully you can all watch this brilliant concert soon as it was filmed for a DVD release. In Just Got Paid Joe played a Flying-V but first took off his shades and threw them into the audience. They landed in the lap of a guy sitting close to me. I nearly caught Joe‘s guitar pick that he used for the last song but it fell off my fingertips and disappeared into nowhere. The audience roared its approval when the show finished and you could see that Joe was completely over the moon!
The Bonamassa forum organized an aftershow party and although I am only a passive member there I did write to the organizers and I was put on the guestlist. So we all met at the Cocoon Club at Piccadilly Circus and many nice people gathered there from all over the world, including British guitarist Oli Brown. The icing of the cake was when shortly after 1.00am Joe Bonamassa joined us with his family (parents etc) and stayed for more than an hour. He has my utmost respect for that. After this spectacular night (you might have read that his closing words at the show were „Thank you, London, for making this the greatest night of my life!“ I wouldn’t be surprised if he still hasn’t calmed down properly yet! "
P.S. Rocket, I left you a message over at the prog thread!
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