Down & Out ~My Night with Slowhand

Have you ever been with someone and you know instantly you’re in the presence of someone special? You get tingles all over your body and sometimes the hair on the back of your neck will, as they say, stand up. Well… that’s what my night with Eric Clapton was like.

My husband and I skipped across the pond from Amsterdam to London for a weekend to see Eric Clapton live in concert.  London is by far one of my favorite cities in Europe. First of all.. they speak English, the signs are in English, I understand the English and did I mention.. it’s all in English? Second.. London is the essence of Cool! It seems like everywhere you turn there’s something fun to see. But for the concert would be held at the Royal Albert Hall and that was just the icing on the cake.

Our flight arrived mid afternoon. We had just enough time to change and head across the street from our hotel right in Paddington Station to have a bite to eat before the concert.

I’m always ever so grateful to the British for putting signs on the ground on which way you should look before stepping into traffic.

We arrived at the Royal Albert Hall in time to purchase a few goodies and find our seats. My husband had purchased the tickets on line right as they went on sale. As the concert got closer and closer we only worried a tad that the tickets were fake. Gentle e mail reminders kept informing us that we would receive them in the mail before the concert. The week before the concert, we received an e mail saying that our tickets were over booked. Ummmm how is that possible? But the company assured us that they were working very hard to clear up the matter and we would have tickets. They would deliver our tickets to the hotel. And when we arrived.. yes they were there. And the seats were better than we had purchased. NICE!

 "Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0"

 The Royal Albert Hall was opened in 1871 by Queen Victoria and is absolutely stunning!

After a nice warm up guitarist, a man in a blue short sleeved Polo shirt, well-worn jeans and a pair of cumfy Sperry’s came on stage. The background music started as someone handed him a guitar. He easily let his hands bring the guitar to life and the place came alive.

Eric Clapton played for three hours straight. There were no wardrobe changes and he never leapt off the stage. Just a man and his guitar... it was perfect!