CLASSIC CLAPTON in Lyme Regis
30th Anniversary Tour Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis – Friday 11 September
CLASSIC CLAPTON the World’s No1 Eric Clapton Tribute Band featuring front-man Mike Hall will be making a welcome return to Lyme Regis in September as part of their 30th Anniversary Tour.
The band will be performing at The Marine Theatre, Church Street, Lyme Regis on Friday 11 September. Doors open at 7.30pm. Band on stage at 8pm. Tickets priced £13.50, concessions £12 (with £1 off for theatre friends) are available from the box office – Tel: 01297 442138. www.marinetheatre.com This will be CLASSIC CLAPTON’s second appearance at The Marine Theatre. Their first concert in 2013 sold out. Fans are advised to book early.
The band will perform all of EC’s classic songs including Wonderful Tonight, Tears in Heaven, Crossroads, I Shot The Sheriff, Cocaine, Lay Down Sally and of course Layla! There will even be an “UNPLUGGED” segment.
NEARLY 2 HOURS OF CLASSIC CLAPTON
The band was formed in 1985 in Newcastle upon Tyne long before the term “tribute band” was invented, and named themselves ”After Midnight” after Eric Clapton’s first solo hit. In guitar/vocalist Mike Hall, they have a front man who not only looks like Eric, he sings and plays guitar like him too!
In 1999, Mike won a national look-alike competition held at Madam Tussauds in London. Mike has met Slowhand twice, and even received a message of encouragement from the guitar maestro (written on a Concorde menu).
TYNE TEES TELEVISION were so impressed, they made a programme about them, called ‘COVER THEIR TRACKS’. It was shown in August 2000 and received rave reviews, leading to national recognition. Mike was filmed by Japanese TV for a documentary about Slowhand’s classic song Layla. The programme was shown on BS Fuji TV Japan in January 2013.
In 2001 the band embarked on an extensive tour of UK Theatres. They called the tribute show “CLASSIC CLAPTON”. Since then, they have continued to perform all over the UK & Europe including concerts at The Royal Festival Hall and Glastonbury Festival. In the past few years they have performed numerous concerts in Europe including Spain, Estonia, Holland and France. In 2009 they appeared in Mumbai. A 10,000 mile round-trip for 1 show but it was a great experience.
In the past 30 years CLASSIC CLAPTON have become something of a rock institution.
CLASSIC CLAPTON comprises 4 excellent musicians:- Mike Hall (lead vocals/guitar), Paul Warren (keyboards/ backing vocals), Danny Davison (drums) and Dave Robson (bass guitar /backing vocals). Dave is a former member of chart band Geordie. In fact he was with them at the time Brian Johnson left to join AC/DC. Mike, Dave & Danny are all original members of CLASSIC CLAPTON. Paul joined in 2007.
CLASSIC CLAPTON have released three albums. Firstly “THE MUSIC OF ERIC CLAPTON” contains brilliant cover-versions of 17 Clapton Classics. Their second is a live double CD ”CLASSIC CLAPTON Unplugged” recorded at Belfast Waterfront Hall. In 2005 they released their third album “CLASSIC CREAM” – featuring 20 songs made famous by the sixties supergroup. All three albums will be available at Lyme Regis.
Eric Clapton has been a major international star since the mid 1960’s, when he revolutionised electric guitar playing, with his virtuoso performances in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. He has won an incredible 19 Grammies and is the only triple inductee into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of The Yardbirds, Cream and as a solo artist).
Eric reached the milestone age of 70 in March. His recent tours unfortunately have visited only a limited number of large UK venues. If fans want to hear all of his hits performed in more intimate surroundings, they really should attend a CLASSIC CLAPTON concert. The whole of Clapton’s illustrious career will be covered including Cream, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Blind Faith, The Yardbirds, Derek & The Dominos and the solo years.
Although Mike Hall is not quite as old as Eric, he is thinking of retiring or at least taking a long break after 2015, so if their fans definitely want to see CLASSIC CLAPTON at least one more time, we recommend that they get tickets for one of their 2015 shows. This could be the last time they play in Lyme Regis.
