Just on my way home. Excellent day out. Gary Clark Jr is my new favourite guitarist. Some superb tones from his P90 loaded SG. Steve Winwood was, of course, rather excellent. And Clapton great as always. A bit surprised that EC appeared to be playing a large-headstock Strat which I'm pretty sure is unusual for him.
Not at all impressed with Santana though. Seemed to have one solo which he used over and again, and had a tone which was surprisingly poor considering that he can afford any guitar and amp he likes.
I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
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Can’t remember who his new drummer is - but he really lifts the band in a way that Steve Gadd never seemed to.
Santana was not good. Eric was excellent, his tone was fantastic.
Doyle Bramhall though, what a player and what a fantastic tone.
@richardhomer & @HAL9000 any sunburn lads? Wasn’t much shade was there. Couldn’t have ordered better weather.
And yes - EC’s tone was great - though I reckon it’s a great example of its all in the fingers.
Doyle must of had a fuzz or two on stage with him. He certainly had his univibe. His fuzz tones are as good as I’ve heard. He seems to make it work with just about any guitar/amp combo too.
Carlos seemed to be playing by numbers a little bit. I did have a moment of annoyance with him (if you can call it that). Why does he insist on playing things like John Coltrane - Love Supreme? He isn’t really a jazz player and he just smashes through the same solo that he plays on most songs instead of listening to how beautifully Coltrane played the original.
I was very impressed with the facilities at Hyde park. It puts Manchester and the gigs I’ve been to at Heaton park to shame.
What does annoy me with these sorts of events is that the organisers won’t allow you to take in food or drink, yet will happily sell you these things (at special prices!) once you’re inside. I can understand that they don’t want glass bottles but that’s about it. I’m not likely to injure anyone with a sausage roll or poke somebody’s eye out with a salad. I’m sure in the past it was ok to take in a picnic just so long as the bag wasn’t too big. Is it just greed? Or are there genuine security concerns?
£6.50 a beer is what Londoners are used to paying isn’t it? The food was quite expensive but I accept I’m going to be ripped off for that stuff before I set off to alleviate the frustration.
Did you check out the other stage at any point?
Within a couple of albums his tone became thinner/harsher and his melodic instincts seemed to desert him.
In spite of having switched to Single Cut PRSs for yesterday’s show, his tone wasn’t close to his mid/late 70s peak. To my ears it lacked high end and was too compressed. And I agree - he’s not a jazz player - his vocabulary is much the same as EC’s - but with the odd 6th & 9th notes added.
Unfortunately the set felt like a guitar vehicle, rather than songs.
I can live with 'Smooth' and that colloboration album, which probably earnt him a few bucks, but there was a follow-up which was awful.
Go back to you roots, Carlos, and look at what made 'Moonflower' such a brilliant album. And what a band that was, too!
Glad you guys had a good day and quite a few people have mentioned how good the sound has been at these Hyde Park gigs.
Totally agree about his set being a guitar playing vehicle. But I guess that’s what he and the band is.
I love jazz jazz and I think Coltrane Love Supreme is one of the finest pieces of music recorded. I admire Santana’s courage for trying it, I mean Miles used to play with Santana so who am I to judge him doing it I guess. I think Jobo got stick once for saying that he wishes Santana would stop talking about jazz as he can’t even play over changes. It’s very critical but the jazz guys seem to like him.
Special mention to the guitar tone of the day Lucas Neilson and that Les Paul Jr. It’s the second time I’ve been blown away with an LPJ this summer. Keith played one with the stones and it was by far the best sound of the night.
I'm assuming from the comments that Santana wasn't the Santana IV lineup?
Not been impressed with his tone for a long time... And tbh lost all respect for him when Santana and Peter Green shared a stage to play black magic woman... Santana played his version and don't think Peter even got a solo now that's just a slap imho should had Santana singing and peter doing what he does best.
Yeah, I could only find pics of this one, looks like an EC sig in Mercedes blue(?). It looks a bit like my Strat actually (which does have a big headstock ).
https://i.imgur.com/61rvTgN.jpg
Santana I have always loved that week like this week Santana sound like a box of spanner’s being dropped. Eric had a great band that night and played his arse off.
which gutted me at the time as I thought yeah Clapton the ticket was a present so thought never seen him. Where Santana I was far more passion to see him play again as not seen him since the70’s
hey ho