Hello Old Friend, Van (Beano-065)
King’s Hall Belle Vue, Manchester, England – August 6th, 1976
Disc 1 (45:09): Opening, Hello Old Friend, All Our Past Times, I Shot The Sheriff, Nobody Knows You When You’re Out And Down, Can’t Find My Way Home, Tell The Truth
Disc 2 (50:37): Help Me (with Van Morrison), Into The Mystic (with Van Morrison), Kansas City (with Van Morrison), Innocent Times, Stormy Monday, Layla, Key To The Highway, member introduction
Eric Clapton toured heavily in 1974 and 1975. He effectively took the first half of 1976 off to rest and record No Reason To Cry, the follow up to There’s One In Every Crowd. He resumed live performance with a three week tour of the UK in August. These short trek is the source for both some of his most interesting performances.
He courted controversy on August 5th in Birmingham with a political speech in favor of Enoch Powell, whose anti-immigration policies were seen as extreme. Also in Birmingham Clapton was joined onstage by Van Morrison, who sang “Kansas City.”
Morrison again joined the band on August 6th in Manchester. For the longest time a very poor and hard to enjoy tape has been in circulation, but never pressed and released. On Hello Old Friend, Van, Beano found a better sounding audience recording It is still fair to borderline good, but it is clear enough to hear Morrison’s vocals and contributions and can be enjoyed.
Beano are one of the handful of labels who still find and release new tape sources of historically important and interesting shows.
