Eric Clapton & His Rolling Hotel
Recently I was talking to an old friend on Skype, Rex Pyke, a British Film Producer/Director/Editor now living in the border regions of Scotland. I worked on a film with Rex in the fall of 1978. The film was entitled "Eric Clapton and His Rolling Hotel". It was a concert and tour documentary of a European tour that year, in support of his Album “Backless”. The film was never released because it showed Rock Musicians doing what they normally do - too much drugs and drink. Rex told me that pirate clips of the film had been posted to YouTube, from VHS demo copies.
Eric's promoter at that time was Robert Stigwood. Robert Stigwood thought that it would be a good idea for Eric, his band, Muddy Waters and his band, Stigwood, and a film crew to spend 2 weeks touring around Europe in a 6-star three car train hired from Deutsche Bundesbahn. The train, originally built for Herman Goering of the Third Reich, comprised a forward Suite Car, with full staterooms, equipped with brass bathtubs and a small lounge at the front. The middle car was the Restaurant car, comprising a full kitchen, wine cellar and formal dining room. The rear car was made up of small cabins which us hoi-polloi shared, including showers in each unit. The entire interior was rare rosewood and marquetry veneer.
The idea was for the bands to unpack in the train and do gigs around Europe without ever having to unpack. The train pulled into small sidings in each town, usually within a km or two of the show venue, and Limo's would be waiting to whisk the stars to the gigs. Fans couldn't figure out why nobody ever saw them at hotels or restaurants in their respective cities. The tour started in Madrid, but we joined the train in Lyon. After that we went to numerous German , French & Belgian destinations, ending up in Amsterdam. Some were two nights each. After the shows, the bands returned to the train to sleep. We went with them to the gigs, filming all the back-stage activity, with the concerts themselves edited in from the British leg of the tour.
The restaurant in particular, was spectacular. In the middle of the night (6:00AM to us was the middle of the night) the train would stop in the middle of nowhere, and the Chef would get out to meet a farmer, providing fresh poultry, meat, vegetables and fish, cheeses and local spirits such as Schnapps or Armangnac/Cognac. Sometimes behind the farmer was a small bread van from the local bakery with fresh croissants, bread and pastries. Most of these items were the best of the local farmers production. Things couldn't be fresher. One day we had fresh rabbit, another day, quail from the farmers fields, or trout that he had caught in a local river.
Table service was linen and 100% silver flatware, with an extensive wine collection from the cellar or from the farmers.
The restaurant was open essentially 24 hours per day, with three formal sit-down meals and snacks or sandwiches available anytime. This was really first-class travel, and we got paid to do this.
Every minute that the band members were awake, we were filming, so for us Crew, we worked about 20 hours on, 4 hours off. The only time we seemed we could get any shut-eye was between 4:00AM and 8:00AM.
I was the Production Sound Recordist. Because of the cramped quarters of the train and the working environment, I chose a small sound rig based on a Nagra SN reel-to-reel recorder using 1/8" tape, recording full track Mono at 3 3/4ips. This was married with a Dutch-made Noriyuki ( I know, sounds Japanese -NOT) mixer (picture's below)
Nagra SNN in Noriyuki Mixer
Noriyuki Mixer
Sennheiser MKH 405
The Mixer included powering for T-powered Condenser mics, so I used a complete set of Sennheiser MKH Condensers, including the 405, 415, 815 (shotgun) and some lavaliere mics. The shotgun proved too unwieldy, so I stuck mostly to the cardiod 405 (pictured above) and the short shotgun hyper-cardioid interference tube 415. The jamming music session were almost all recorded with a single 405, which is applicable to the clip I am linking to here. Occasionally I had some time to set up a second mic on a short stand and for the formal interviews I used a Sennheiser lavaliere. The Nagra SN does not have power rewind - you have to unfold the crank between the two blue reels and hand crank the tape to the beginning so that you can load a new reel. The reels of tape would run for about 25 minutes and then would need to be quickly replaced so we could continue shooting. I would motion to the director that we were getting near to the end of a reel, and he would wrap up the synch shooting while I changed reels. As I never had the time to rewind the reels , I kept the reels colour coded and in my vest pocket with the ‘tails out’. I had a special working vest made with numerous small pockets, each just big enough to place one tape reel. On my left side were the unrecorded reels and my right side were the recorded reels, with the tails out. I got to the point where I could change reels in about 15 seconds. The cameraman was using an Aaton Super 16mm camera, with a 400 foot coaxial magazine, which lasts just under 11 minutes and then he would have to change magazines. He had a camera assistant to load magazines, but I was on my own.
Eric was travelling on the train with his girlfriend, Patti Boyd, previously married to George Harrison. He had had a crush on Patti since she was married to George, and it was to her that he wrote his famous song "Layla", recorded in 1970. I got to know them pretty well in the 2 weeks on the train. I was actually invited to their wedding in the spring of 1979, but couldn't go as I was on location in Ghana, Africa on a feature film there. Having the hots for his wife never seemed to affect the friendship between George Harrison and Eric. They remained close up to George's death. George put in a cameo performance, with Elton John, on the last night of the Tour as you can see from the list below. After the last concert in Guildford, we all went off to a bang-up party at Eric's little house (Mansion) outside Guildford. Elton played the Piano, lounge style, and George strummed away in the corner, while his ex-wife hung off Eric's arm! No filming allowed, this was a social event.
I never saw Eric doing drugs at that time, but he drank a lot of Cognac and 7-Up, what the Brits call "Brandy and Lemonade".The other members of his band were not so restrained and I saw a lot of serious drug taking. We shot almost everything that moved in that 2 weeks. Carl Radle died two years later in a Heroin overdose.
I even had an arm wrestling session with Eric on the floor of the train, but I went easy on him as I didn't want to damage his golden arm/hand.
I have never saw a formal copy of the finished film as I mentioned it was never released. I have a credit on the film with Glynn Johns credited with the Post-Production, as he did all the mixing of the concert footage.
So, here is the clip available on YouTube. In the foreground is Jamie Oldaker, drummer in Eric's band. This was shot in the Lounge at the front of the Suite car. Video quality isn't great, but you get the idea.
Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-lKbNpznww
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/132709/Eric-Clapton-and-His-Rolling-Hotel/overview
MEMBERS(December 7th, 1978)
Eric Clapton(guitar)
George Terry(guitar)?
Dick Sims(keyboard)
Carl Radle(bass)
Jamie Oldaker(drums)
Pinetop Perkins(piano, Standing Around Crying/Sad Sad Day)?
Bob Margolin(guitar, Standing Around Crying/Sad Sad Day)?
Jerry Potnoy(Harmonica, Standing Around Crying/Sad Sad Day)?
Muddy Waters(guitar, Standing Around Crying/Sad Sad Day)
George Harrison(guitar, Further On Up The Road)
Elton John(piano, Further On Up The Road)
SET LISTS(December 7th, 1978)
Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever
Worried Life Blues
Badge
Tulsa Time
Early In The Morning
Wonderful Tonight
Crossroads
Cocain
Double Trouble
Layla?
(an encore)Standing Around Crying/Sad Sad Day
(an encore)Further On Up The Road
George and Elton John joined Eric Clapton concert for an encore
"Further On Up The Road" on the final date of his "Backless" Europe and UK Tour.