Eric Clapton And Jeff Beck Plan Arena Gig

(Nightwatcher) Planet Rock is reporting that Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck will play a huge gig together at the O2 Arena next year.
The blues storys will perform together at London's premier venue on 13 February. They first performed their quislingism gig in Tokyo in February and following the success of the gig they decided to bring it home.
'Eric and I played together in Japan earlier this year and had a blast. Since then we have been in regular contact and talked about doing a similar gig for our fans. Looking forward to the gig in 2010," said Beck.

London Concert In February, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton will co-headline London's O2 Arena on February 13. This concert comes on the heels of a co-bill the legendary guitarists divided last year Saitama Super Arena in Japan. At present it's just a one-off date but we won't discourage daydreaming about this pairing coming to the States.
Tickets for the O2 Arena show go on sale Monday, September 28

London Concert in February 2010 Clapton and Beck Plan Joint

They were the biggest duo to hit Japan since Godzilla and Mothra, and now comes word guitar giants Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck are going to rock together again in 2010. The pair announced today they’ll take the stage at London’s O2 Arena on February 13th, 2010 at a joint concert that promises to be epic. As Rolling Stone reported earlier this year, Beck and Clapton shared the bill together for the first time in their careers at a pair of concerts in Japan in February. The duo had previously performed together during festival shows, but hadn’t really shared the bill. And now that they’re moving geographically closer to the States, rumors that they’ll bring the joint show to the U.S. in 2010 are ramping up.
Check out all of Rolling Stone’s ultimate guitar coverage.

“I’ve always considered Jeff Beck to be one of the finest guitar players around. He’s a friend, a great guy, and a truly gifted musician. We had such a fun time in Japan that it looked natural to play together again,” Clapton said in a statement today. Added Beck, “Eric and I played together in Japan earlier this year and had a blast. Since then we have been in habitue contact and talked about doing a similar show for our fans. Looking forward to the show in 2010.”
Both Clapton and Beck will perform a set of their own music before converging onstage for a set together, and a press release promises their joint set will be longer than the ones performed at the Japan shows. Beck is only a select number of artists inducted into the Rock Hall twice for his solo career and his work with the Yardbirds while Clapton is the lone musician who appears three times in the Rock Hall: as a member of both Cream and the Yardbirds and as a solo artist. While both Clapton and Beck were both members of the Yardbirds, the two never performed together in the band: It was Beck that replaced Clapton when he left the pair.

Clapton's coupe Local duo builds

Catering to classic hot rod enthusiasts from around the world is an everyday natural event for Dan Laughlin and Eric Sanderson of Dan Laughlin Customs & Restoration in Anderson.
Last week, they completed a Merlot pearl colored 1949 Ford Coupe specially crafted for guitarist Eric Clapton.
Through their seven year association with Roy Brizio's Hot Rod Shop in South San Francisco, Laughlin and Sanderson have also built three hot rods for the Mariani family Mark, Dennis and Dennis, Jr., all of Winters as well as "a few for John Mumford," Laughlin said.
He and Sanderson also assisted Roy Brizio with a 1932 Ford four door sedan built for Bob Nickum that will be featured in the October issue of Street Rodder magazine, as well as a 1972 365 GTC Ferrari V-12-powered 1933 Ford Roadster built for Ferrari collector Larry Carter.
In fact, at a current August 22 gathering of 130 Brizio built cars at a show in Pleasanton, Laughlin and Sanderson caught glimpses of at least six of their creations.
According to the Brizio Web site, a custom built hot rod of the quality that Roy Brizio is known for typically fetches between $80,000 and $160,000. From there the price only goes up, depending upon what the customer wants as well as what the customer can afford.
"We aren't millionaires. We just work for a lot of them," Laughlin said with a wry smile.
The most current hot rod acquired by Clapton is the second such project car that Laughlin and Sanderson have helped build for the world famous guitarist.
The first, completed several years ago, was a classic green 1932 Ford Victoria, Sanderson said.
This time around, the British born rocker needed a right hand drive show stopper in which he can tool around his native countryside, according to Brizio's
The car has a specially ordered Art Morrison chassis, shaved door handles, frenched headlights and taillights, a peaked hood, a trunk lid lengthened by nearly 5 inches and a 2-inch chop to the vehicle's top. The entire floor has been replaced and wide tire wells have also been added, Sanderson said.
"This one will be a show driver. It's meant to be driven around. It will probably do a year on the show circuit before it is driven primarily for pleasure," he explained.
The power train includes a Roush built 402 cubic inch small block Ford V-8 engine matched up with a Tremec 5-speed transmission, Sanderson added.
"This combination should be capable of turning out 450 to 500 horsepower," said Sanderson, a 1994 graduate of Enterprise High School in Redding.
"Right out of high school, I started doing some detailing. At age 20, I had my own auto body shop here in Anderson," Sanderson explained in late June between sessions in the paint booth where he was spraying six coats of Martin Senour base paint as well as three coats of clear on the Clapton vehicle's door panels.
For the past five months, Laughlin, Sanderson and another part-time employee stayed busy. One week in early April, a visitor to the shop would have seen the three of them carefully jacking the coupe's solid body off of a temporary chassis prior to attaching it on either end to an auto body rotisserie so that rough spots on the car's roof, sides and undercarriage could more easily be sanded smooth.
The work that Sanderson and Laughlin do is often more akin to sculpting than auto mechanics.
"We need to remake the body panels so that they all line up and everything fits just right," Sanderson explained. "It just takes hundreds and hundreds of hours."
Sanderson estimated he and Laughlin have put in somewhere between 800 to 1,000 hours on Clapton's latest project by the time it was rolled onto the showroom floor in South San Francisco on Saturday, Sept. 12, for delivery to Clapton.
"We only do three or four cars a year for Brizio because each of his projects takes about four months," Sanderson said.
Clapton, who only currently started collecting custom hot rods, was on the West Coast this week to make a live appearance Thursday, Sept. 17, with Bruce Hornsby on NBC's new live variety show, "The Jay Leno Show." Clapton plays guitar on the track "Space is the Place" on Hornsby's new album "Levitate, which was to be released Tuesday, Sept. 15. Hornsby and the Noisemakers kicked off their latest tour Saturday, Sept. 12, with a concert in Hampton, Va.
Hardly had the Clapton car left the Anderson shop floor Saturday, Sept. 4, when Laughlin and Sanderson were soon wading into two other projects. The first is a 1932 Ford two-door sedan delivery van that was currently retrofitted with a rear delivery door. Second is a 1968 Mustang Fastback described by Laughlin as a "Bullitt"-like retro car.
All that hard work obviously pays off for Laughlin and Sanderson. Normally, Dan Laughlin Customs & Restoration is booked solid for two years in advance.
"They only do the best," said Al Naticchioni, 64, of Redding, broker and owner of Re/Max of Redding. "They only repaired my 1959 Corvette because a friend recommended me to them. I banged up the car pretty good when someone pulled out in front of me."
"The work they did was just perfect," Naticchioni said of the resulting repairs. "I've never done business with a better pair of guys. They are artists. Every line and every seam was just perfect."
After the restoration, Naticchioni said the car appraised for $150,000. He recently is offering it on-line for $119,000.
"My wife gave it to me five years ago for a birthday present when I turned 60. I've still got the car in my garage," he added.
Dennis Kliever, owner of Quality Lube & Oil in Anderson, has had Laughlin and Sanderson work on his 1941 Cadillac, which Kliever describes as a "work in progress."
"Their ideas, their imagination is amazing. They have been doing custom work for so many years that they complement each other's skills so well. When I brought my '41 Caddy to them, the car was actually rusted out. They had to put in a whole new trunk and floorboards," Kliever said.
While Sanderson was working on the trunk, he suggested to Kliever that the car's brake lights could easily be concealed in the bumper, giving the real end a more streamlined and custom-car look.
"It's trick. I just can't say enough for them," Kliever said of the car.

Yeovil tonight to Rodent rockers

POWER rock trio The Hamsters are playing the Quicksilver Mail in Yeovil tonight (Sunday).
The band are a top blues rock attraction, having performed 4,000 concerts over 21 years and worked with artists including Eric Clapton and Alison Moyet.
Although primarily performing their material, they are widely heeded as leading translator of the music of Jimi Hendrix and more currently ZZ Top.
Their brand of rootsy rock, blues and Americana have attracted plaudits from issue as diverse as Kerrang and Top Gear magazine.
The concert starts at 9pm, with doors open from 8pm, and tickets cost £10 in advance on 01935-424721.