From Brum To The Bosphorous

Steve  Winwood & Eric Clapton,

Turkcell Arena, Istanbul

13/6/10

01.  Had To Cry Today 02. Low Down 03. After Midnight 04. Presence Of The  Lord 
05. Glad 06. Well Alright 07. Tuff Luck  08. While You See A Chance 09. Key To The Highway
10. Midland Maniac 11.  Crossroads 12.  Georgia 13. Driftin' 14. How Long 15. Layla 
16. Can't Find My Way Home  17. Gimme Some Lovin' 18. Voodoo Chile  19. Cocaine
20.  Dear Mr. Fantasy (encore).

On a warm Istanbul evening,  Eric, Steve and band arrived in style on a luxury boat which moored up on the banks  of the Bosphorous river which divides Istanbul, between Europe and Asia.  So a wonderful setting and 4 changes in the set from the Wembley  shows I’d seen in May. By now there have been many reviews on the internet of the various shows on this tour, so I’ll just focus on  the key aspects. 

Great to hear ’While You See A Chance’ with Eric covering the synth lines from the original with some tasteful  guitar, Steve’s vocals on this personal favourite being a joy to hear.

Midland Maniac had been featured pretty much throughout the tour, but not the Istanbul mix! About half way  through the tune a massive firework display erupted on the banks of the river, with absolutely no connection whatsoever with this gig attended by in the region of 17000 people mostly standing. As the sky was a sea of colour, the tune was in danger of being drowned out, so the 2 backing singers raised their arms and successfully got the enthusiastic  audience to clap along to Steve’s  fine song from his solo debut  album. Not the most likely tune to clap along to with it’s a myriad of time changes, and tempo’s but it worked. I think Eric gave the  nod on Crossroads to “pump up the volume” as the fireworks continued. A nice fiery version of the tune made for good listening, and pun was  intended here whatsoever.
 

A wonderful Georgia is followed by  a great version of Driftin’ with a real jaw dropper organ solo from Steve, greatly lengthened from the earlier shows on the tour. For me  this was a real high spot in the show with Erics vocal’s and performance on acoustic guitar being a joy to listen to.
It’s interesting to observe that 2 of the artists, lets say “signature tune’s”  involved a wonderful  element of role reversal. Steve taking the main acoustic guitar solo on Layla and instead of an organ solo on Gimme Some Lovin’ we got a  feisty guitar solo from Eric, and yes they both sounded great. Voodoo Chile was excellent, as it has been throughout the tour and yes Dear Mr. Fantasy made us all happy.
It was great to see this final show  in wonderful surroundings with the nearby tastefully lit suspension bridge and boats sailing past all adding to the atmosphere,  fuelled by a wonderfully receptive crowd.

The next few days were spent being a tourist in this wonderful city, seeing the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar amongst other things. Be warned though of smiling strangers - they probably want you to visit their carpet shop.  If you’ve  been there you’ll know what I mean.
 

Paul Minkkinen

(More photographs can be seen in The Gallery for Steve  & Eric shows .)