Face it, it’s not often you see Eric Clapton or Phil Collins on stage without veritable armies of musicians surrounding them. As such, this comes as quite the breath of fresh air, with the two joined by Nathan East and Greg Phillinganes (both renowned session musos) for a bit of stripped-back, foursome action which reminds us that yes, these boys really can play.

Ostensibly a get-together to dispel a few cobwebs before the release of Clapton’s 1986 August album, we do endure four tracks from that release, however the rest of the hour presented here manages to offer us some treats to make up for such things.

He means it, man...

Marauding his past by plucking from the rock legacies of Cream and Derek & the Dominoes, we’re privy to kicking takes on White Room (a wall of choirs emanating from somewhere demonstrating just how handy samplers can be) and Sunshine of Your Love, along with a thankfully amped up pillage of the still awesome Layla, complete with piano-led outro. Forget all that ‘unplugged’ crap that came later - this is how it was meant to be heard. Oh, Phil also inevitably gets to do his In the Air Tonight thing. Still, that boodoomp-boodoomp-boodoomp-boodoomp-doomp-doomp drum bit is always a bit of fun.

Full track listing…

Being a telly presentation that’s well and truly in its teens, what we see is much what we’d expect – nothing particularly flash wrapped up in a full frame package. A bit on the murky side, detail is never at a premium, nor is colour for that matter.

The sound makes up for things a tad, with both the DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes delivering a reasonable dash of oomph, although there is a little hiss here and there plus a modicum of live boomyness to dampen things. The DD stereo mix is a tad more au naturel, but other than that nothing to write home about in an excited state.

As for extras, the track title Miss You sums things up quite well.

While not the greatest value in the bang for buck scheme of things, any fan of Clapton and his guitar wizardry thing should find this an entertaining diversion, plus an opportunity to relive some of the older classics he was involved in with more than simple acoustic accompaniment.