Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood - Live from Madison Square Garden (2xCD) (2009)

Fall 2007, word leaked out that Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood would play some concerts at the Madison Square Garden. In hindsight, it"s easy to consider Winwood"s participation to the second edition of the Crossroads Guitar Festival, where he also played a few songs from the Blind Faith repertoire in a joint performance with Clapton (some excerpts being featured on this set"s second DVD-V), as a kind of "dress rehearsal" – or, maybe, a kind of "general compatibility check" – for the dates a the Garden and all that logically followed.
For reasons that should be very clear to those who are familiar with "the history of rock", before one could clearly spell the words "Blind Faith", people were already running to get tickets, which were decidedly on the affordable side: if my memory works, a lot were priced at $55, with uncomfortable seats added at the very last moment going for a very reasonable $179. Those who attended – I"ve heard from people who attended all the (three) shows from the front seats – talked about a fine experience, that would only prove inferior to the "peaks" the artists are said to have reached during their U.S. Summer tour, 2009.
A symbolic coincidence?, Blind Faith"s U.S. 1969 tour started at the Madison Square Garden. The fact that things immediately took a wrong turn, and that after the end of the tour (August, 24th, Hawaii), Clapton and Winwood were not on speaking terms for a long time, makes it possible to consider that tour as an "unfinished business" which deserved a better "closure".
(Talking about the famous Eric Clapton 1973 Rainbow Concert in his autobiography published a few years ago, Who I Am, Pete Townshend writes that he had to vigorously call Winwood in order to have him attend the concert rehearsals, Hammond included. While in the long interview that appears on this DVD-V, Clapton himself admits that his jumping off the Blind Faith ship was definitely not a noble gesture.)
(full version: classicrockreview.wordpress.com/category/eric-clapton-and-steve-winwood-live-from-madison-square-garden/)