Eric Clapton – Eric Clapton at Live Aid (Live at John F. Kennedy Stadium, 13th July 1985)

In his interview with Dan Forte for Guitar Player magazine in 1985, Clapton commented that he was using a pedal board with a bank of presets built for him by an engineer that worked with Steve Lukather, namely, Bob Bradshaw. Lukather met Clapton as a part of the Los Angeles 'A Team' of studio musicians during the recording session there for the tracks to be included in the album Behind the Sun.

Clapton's guitar technician explained to Dan Forte that it was a programmable foot switching system which would allow the user to pick out presets and punch them into the memory. He further commented that the units in the rack at the time consisted of an Ibanez Harmonics/Delay, a DBX 160 compressor, a model SDE-3000 Roland delay, a Dyno-My-Piano Tri Stereo Chorus, that had three choruses in one, a Boss CE-1 chorus, and a Boss Heavy Metal pedal that Clapton heard Lukather using and liked. He added that Clapton used 'a bit of chorus, the CE-1, and a dash of compression'.

This Bradshaw system was in use until 1989 and was coupled variously with The Marshall amps (1985-c.87) in Lot 87, The Dual Showman amps (1988) in Lot 88, the Soldano amps (1988-89) in Lot 91 and the Dean Markley amps (1985-87) in this lot.

During the period from 1984 to 1988, Clapton's amplifiers were usually placed off-stage in a position accessible to his guitar technician and only the Marshall speaker cabinets were visible on stage to the audience. However, on rare occasions when Clapton was guesting at other acts' concerts, the amplifiers were placed on stage and hence visible to the audience. However, the presence of the Bradshaw system was manifest on the ever-present foot-controller on stage. Either of the two foot-controllers in this lot could be spotted on stage at Clapton's foot during his Behind The Sun world tour and The Live Aid appearance (the foot controller and the rack case were both visible on stage) at the JFK Stadium in 1985, various Prince's Trust Rock Galas with George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Tina Turner during this period, his Royal Albert Hall residencies which originated in this period, Nelson Mandela Concert at Wembley Stadium with Dire Straits and Clapton's 25th Anniversary tour of Japan with Elton John and Mark Knopfler in 1988.

In his interview with Dan Forte in Guitar Player magazine in1985, Clapton explained that he has recently gone back to Marshall amps from the Music Man amps that he had been using.

Mike Hill, formerly a director of Marshall Amplification recently recalled that, in 1984, he was contacted by Clapton's guitar technician and visited him at Shepperton or Bray Studios where he was rehearsing for Roger Waters' tour and personally delivered Marshall 1959 Super Lead and 1987 Lead 50 amplifiers and 1960 speaker cabinets.

Clapton's guitar technician commented to Dan Forte that having tried the 50W amplifiers brought by Mike Hill, Clapton loved it and bought two of the 50W (1987) and 100W (1959) models, which are the amplifiers in this lot.

Clapton went on to use these amplifiers for the 1984 Roger Waters Pros and Cons of Hitch-hiking Tour as well as Clapton's subsequent tours from 1985 to 1987 including his appearance at The Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium on 13 July 1985.