Concert program for Delaney and Bonnie & Friends with Eric Clapton at the Fillmore East in New York on February 6-7, 1970, 5.5 x 8.5, featuring biographies and images of the musicians inside, along with supporting acts Wilbert Harrison and Seals & Crofts. Delaney and Bonnie opened up for Blind Faith on their 1969 US tour. Clapton seeking to break away from stardom, started gigging with them while they were on the British tour in 1970. The album Delaney and Bonnie & Friends On Tour with Eric Clapton was released and a US tour was set up to promote the record, resulting in these concerts at the Fillmore East. Ironically, the band included Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon, and Carl Radle, who with Clapton would form Derek and the Dominos months later. In very good to fine condition, with some light staining to front cover and rippling to inner pages from onetime water exposure (it rained that evening).
This year is the 50th anniversary of the closing of the now legendary Fillmore East. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, John Lennon, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, The Band, Derek and the Dominos, the Allman Brothers Band and so many more performed at the Fillmore, most on several occasions. Unlike its counterpart the Fillmore West in San Francisco, which was a ballroom (it was a former dance hall) like most music venues were at the time, the Fillmore East was a theatre and it was a totally different experience for both the artist and the audience. Going to the Fillmore East was going to the theatre... a theatre that was built originally for vaudeville shows, which was perfect acoustically and seating wise for rock concerts. With the addition of a custom-made sound system and the visually mesmerizing Joshua Light Show (Joe's Light's later), it was a concert experience like no other. The Fillmore East itself is gone now, though its legend lives on and anyone who was ever fortunate enough to perform or attend a concert there can attest to the magic that occurred in that much missed theatre.
