Disc One/Four: 1. Introduction, 2. Blue Rainbow, 3. Rumble, 4. Shapes Of Things, 5. Heart Full Of Soul , 6. Wee Wee Baby, 7. Little Brown Bird, 8. Done Somebody Wrong, 9. The Sky Is Crying, 10. Beck’s Bolero.

Disc Two/Five: 1. Introduction, 2. Elegy For Dunkirk, 3. Isolation, 4. Walkin’ In The Sand, 5. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, 6. You Know You Know, 7. Stratus, 8. Rough Boy, 9. Rice Pudding, 10. Train Kept A-Rolling.

Disc Three/Six: 1. Introduction, 2. Freeway Jam, 3. I Put A Spell On You, 4. Cause We Ended As Lovers, 5. Let Me Love You, 6. Infatuation, 7. Rock My Plimsoul, 8. I Ain’t Superstitious, 9. People Get Ready, 10. Going Down, 11. Moon River.

DVD One: 1. Introduction, 2. Blue Rainbow, 3. Rumble, 4. Shapes Of Things, 5. Heart Full Of Soul , 6. Wee Wee Baby, 7. Little Brown Bird, 8. Done Somebody Wrong, 9. The Sky Is Crying, 10. Beck’s Bolero, 11. Introduction, 12. Elegy For Dunkirk, 13. Isolation, 14. Walkin’ In The Sand, 15. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, 16. You Know You Know, 17. Stratus, 18. Rough Boy, 19. Rice Pudding, 20. Train Kept A-Rolling, 21. Introduction, 22. Freeway Jam, 23. I Put A Spell On You, 24. Cause We Ended As Lovers, 25. Let Me Love You, 26. Infatuation, 27. Rock My Plimsoul/Rock Me Baby, 28. I Ain’t Superstitious, 29. People Get Ready, 30. Going Down, 31. Moon River.

DVD Two: 1. 2. Blue Rainbow, 2. Rumble, 3. Shapes Of Things, 4. Heart Full Of Soul , 5. Wee Wee Baby, 6. Little Brown Bird, 7. Done Somebody Wrong, 8. The Sky Is Crying, 9. Beck’s Bolero, 10. Film In Memory Of Jeff Beck 1944-2023, 11. Elegy For Dunkirk, 12. Isolation, 13. Walkin’ In The Sand, 14. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, 15. You Know You Know, 16. Stratus, 17. Rough Boy, 18. Rice Pudding, 19. Train Kept A-Rolling, 20. Intermission, 21. Freeway Jam, 22. I Put A Spell On You, 23. Cause We Ended As Lovers, 24. Let Me Love You, 25. Infatuation, 26. Rock My Plimsoul/Rock Me Baby, 27. I Ain’t Superstitious, 28. People Get Ready, 29. Going Down-Ending Film-Moon River, 30 Bonus Moon River.

If there is a professional underground label, this is certainly Midvalley which is a division of Empress Valley dedicated to Eric Clapton and this rich boxset proves it. Despite having entitled the set to Eric Clapton & Friends when it was a Tribute to Jeff Beck held by various artists, the label has put together an impressive set that will not just please Clapton’s collectors. It consists of two 4 discs jackets with both containing a 3 cds set and a DVD for each night, plus 2 YouTube DVD-Rs and an impressive bunch of extras.

The Tribute to Jeff Beck happened in late May 2023 with 2 consecutive nights in London’s Royal Albert Hall each lasting over 3 hours. Eric Clapton’s band was the house band at first with many performers presenting their best to homage the late guitarist, followed by the Jeff Beck band. Most of the artists that had played with Jeff Beck in any phase of his career showed up. This release presents both nights concerts documented in 3 cds and 2 different DVDs each. Both nights setlist are identical and there are no surprises; the first show begins with Eric Clapton and his band playing Blue Rainbow followed by the screen movie Rumble, then more songs with Doyle Bramhall and Derek Trucks that joins in for Little Brown Bird and Susan Tedeschi also on Done Somebody Wrong and The Sky Is Crying. Ron Wood joins them on Beck’s Bolero which ends Disc One. Disc Two starts with some recorded interviews, then the Jeff Beck Band appears with Johnny Depp and Billy Gibbons for Isolation, followed by Remember (Walking In The Sand) where they are helped by Imelda May and Ron Wood. On Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Derek (a song by Charles Mingus for Lester Young) Trucks joins them playing Jeff Beck licks with the help of Chis Stainton on keyboards, on You Know You Know and Stratus appears John McLaughlin playing Mahavishnu Orchestra tracks Beck contributed to; Rough Boy has the spotlight on former ZZ Top Billy Gibbons while the last 2 songs see again Ron Wood playing bass on Rice Pudding (using the same instrument he played with the Jeff Beck Group) and guitar on Train Kept-A Rolling which also features Kirk Hammett (Metallica). On Disc Three Eric Clapton is back for Freeway Jam with the help of Robert Randolph, followed by Joss Stone on I Put A Spell On You, Gary Clarke Jr. on Cause We Ended As Lovers and Let Me Love You, Rod Stewart on Infatuation together with Ron Wood that stays through the end, with two final songs where all musicians join in: People Get Ready and Going Down, the last song is pre-recorded: Moon River plays as screen movie. The second night is played faster because all musicians somehow rehearsed the night before. Setlist is exactly identical and the songs played in the same order too; the recording is just as good but there is more audience participation. As previously noted there are 2 accompanying DVDs, the printed one has the whole concert filmed from about the sixth row, on stage left. Footage is clear and steady with excellent sound. There was a big screen on top of the stage and most of the times that is what we can see when screen movies are shown (Rumble/Moon River) with Jeff Beck footage while when the action is on stage we see both the stage and the screen with its close ups. It is amazing to note audience behind the stage, allegedly the screen showed them the stage action on the other side too, since there was no other screen on the opposite side. Unfortunately, during some songs footage goes often out of focus. The first guest is Dereck Trucks on slide on Little Brown Bird, followed by Done Somebody Wrong and The Sky Is Crying with Susan Tedeschi on lead vocals; the guitar solos come from Clapton, Tedeschi and Trucks. On Beck’s Bolero Ron Wood replaces Susan Tedeschi, the driving guitar theme is here played by Derek Trucks. Clapton leaves the stage, there are some interviews shown on the screen including Jimmy Page, then Robert Randolph comes up for Elegy For Dunkirk with Olivia Safe on vocals; on Isolation is Johnny Depp to sing, accompanied by Billy Gibbons and the Jeff Beck Band, the solos are by Gibbons and Kirk Hammett. Imelda May sings on Walkin’ In the Sand in a sexy red dress, here the solo is by Ron Wood who also plays rhythm guitar on Rice Pudding, with the solo by Billy Gibbons and Chris Stainton at the piano. Dereck Trucks plays Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, followed by John McLaughlin while Imelda May is back in black for Train Kept-A Rolling sharing vocals with Billy Gibbons that plays the first solo, the second by Ron Wood and the third one by Kirk Hammett. After a long series of video interviews Eric Clapton is back with Robert Randolph on lap steel guitar for Freeway Jam. Then Joss Stone sings I Put A Spell On You and then Gary Clarke Jr. for Cause We Ended As Lovers and Let Me Love You. Rod Stewart shows up singing Infatuation, Rock My Plimsoul and I Ain’t Superstitious with the help of Ron Wood and Eric Clapton on guitar. For People Get Ready Gary Clarke Jr. joins the stage playing the main theme. Going Down has all the musicians on stage “I never saw so many guitar players on stage” said Rod Stewart, guitar solos are from Gary Clarke Jr., John McLaughlin, Kirk Hammett, Johnny Depp, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi. The night ends with Jeff Beck playing his guitar with Eric Clapton on a video show on the screen of a cover of Moon River. The video is then offered in full at the end of the concert.

The second night DVD was shot a bit further away, but from a more central position; this time the heads of some audience members are not as prominent as in the first night DVD and there is no need of any zoom. After Heart Full Of Soul there is a short video by Buddy Guy. Also, contrary to the first night DVD here we see the interviews on video showed during the Intermission with people like David Gilmour, Clapton, Joe Perry, Slash, Jimmy Page, Ron Wood, Rod Stewart talking about Jeff Beck. This night Rod Stewart is introduced as “The King of R’n’R”; this second night has a worse sound though, due to some distortion on the bass frequencies. This DVD, however, ends with a bonus: footage of Moon River from the concert Beck and Clapton gave in London in 2010.

Both DVD-Rs instead present tracks from YouTube that show footage from different angles, often closer than the home DVD and from front of the stage and with clearer pictures from the stage and not from the screen, but in between songs dialogues are missing. In short on average images are better on the DVD-Rs with great close-ups, audio on the DVDs which is also more complete, but that is not always true, for instance DVD-R Two audio is better than DVD Two. At the end of the first night DVD-R footage are shown some players that stopped on stage to watch the Moon River video (Tedeschi, Trucks Clapton, Randolph and bass player Nathan East).

This is an excellent release, packaging is superb despite the occasional mistake (Frinds on the cardboard jacket’s spine/Inroduction on Discs One/Four & Two/Five setlists); as for the audio quality it is superb: all instruments clear and no audience interferences. The only drawback is its price, but this 10 discs bonanza is well worth the cost; most likely this massive set presents more information on these 2 nights tribute anybody could have gathered attending the concerts. However, it is possible there will be an official release later on (funnily most players had the same clothes on both nights) till then this product will certainly fill the need.