Eric Clapton Summer Tour 2004

Eric Clapton, the only triple inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of both The Yardbirds and Cream and as a solo artist), is currently playing North American dates in support of his latest effort “Me and Mr. Johnson”.

Lighting supplier Upstaging keeps Clapton plugged in on the North American leg with a MAC-dominate rig designed by David Maxwell. David, who has been designing Clapton’s tour lighting for several years now, also designed for the UK and European leg this past spring, working with lighting supplier Neg Earth.

Clapton, whose emotionally charged blend of blues and rock has been a musical staple for four decades, kicked off his North American leg at the Crossroads festival at Cotton Bowl Stadium in early June. The special ‘celebration of the guitar’ featured some of rock’s best guitarists, including B.B. King, Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Bo Diddley, Jimmie Vaughan and more.

LD David Maxwell commented, ”There was quite a lot of planning involved with the Dallas show as there were a lot of areas to be covered. Planning for this started around January.”

There were of course some challenges involved, David states. “It was actually hard to balance the front screen lighting with the amount of light coming from upstage. Obviously with so many MAC 2000 Wash and Profile coming in it was a job to balance the spots and front lights. I was extremely happy with the MAC 2000 Wash lights. Everybody I worked with on this tour from both Neg Earth and Upstaging were great.”

David incorporates 51 MAC 2000 Profile, 53 MAC 2000 Wash and 14 MAC 300 washlights into his design, along with other automated lighting and conventionals.

North American leg:
Lighting Company:   Upstaging, Inc
Lighting Designer:   David Maxwell
Crew Chief:   Chris Stinebrink
Lighting Technicians:   Tom Green, AJ Patterson, Tony Thompson
Trucking Company:   Upstaging, Inc