Clapton Won't Be Seeing Red (Square)
Layla brought Eric Clapton to his knees. She's got nothing on the Russian bureaucracy.
The aging guitar god was scheduled to put on a concert for approximately 20,000 fans in Moscow's Red Square on Thursday, but instead found himself out of a gig when local authorities unexpectedly pulled the plug.
According to Clapton's camp, Russian organizers had previously been granted a permit by city and state officials to set up a stage in the Moscow landmark. But on Friday, those same authorities withdrew their permit without explanation.
"Eric Clapton is extremely sorry to disappoint his numerous Russian fans but the circumstances of the cancellation are completely beyond his control," said a statement on the musician's official Website.
According to the Russian newspaper Pravda, the local promoter laid blame for the scuttled show squarely with Clapton.
"The cancellations of the concert is formally connected with a change of the venue for the show," Alexander Strizhakf, president of professional stage company JSA told the newpaper. "We originally considered two variants: near the Spassky Gate and on the Vasilyevsky Spusk [both located on Red Square]. The permission was issued for the Vasilyevsky Spusk and not actually Red Square. The artist used the situation to cancel the show."
The promoter continued: "He did not like the fact that his performance was not going to be held on the square itself, although the Vasilyevsky Spusk is legally a part of it. Most likely, Clapton had some other reasons for that decision."
So much for d?tente.
Strizhakf said his team was ready to begin construction on the stage, but Clapton's management put the kibosh on it. No word on whether Clapton will attempt to make up the Moscow date.
The rock-blues pioneer is on the road in support of his latest album, Back Home, and will officially wrap up the European leg of the world tour Monday night in Helsinki.
Clapton and his band will then head across the Atlantic for a fall North American trek kicking off Sept. 16 in Mineapolis. There are stops scheduled for Chicago; St. Louis; Toronto; New York; Boston; Philadelphia; Duluth, Georgia; and Raleigh, North Carolina, before the tour concludes Oct. 23 in Miami.
The jaunt marks the "Cocaine" singer's first solo outing since last year's brief, but well-received reunion tour with his former Cream mates, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.
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