Eric on the Constellation: The Rehearsal

Getting into the theatre wasn’t as easy as you might think, up in the lift, all the way along the deck to the far end and then through a very heavy door, down some steps, through a tight gap between the bar and some fixed chairs… through a curtain, down another couple of stairs and finally into the backstage area! Not the easiest with my heavy cases. However, later I was to discover there was an easier route, but my newness to Celbrity Cruises meant I was yet to find out.

I was early. The stage crew were there wheeling the piano into position and running cables so I asked where I was to stand and started setting up my equipment. Got the guitars out of their cases and started tuning up. One by one the musicians arrived. They asked me for the sheet music but I had already left it on the music manager’s desk, so one of the band disappeared to retrieve them. I must admit to being a little nervous but I hope I didn’t let it show. It is always a bundle of nervousness and excitement before a performance and hearing the horn section warming up and then starting to play parts that I had written (or adapted) was very pleasing. Last to arrive was the Music Manager. Not only is he responsible for leading the orchestra, he also schedules all the music on the ship - soloists, duos and party band and has to deal with the day-to-living arrangements of musicians. Today there had been a leak in one of the musician cabins immediately before rehearsal and so he had been to sort it out, hence his apology for being late and being a little rushed. But I was fine about it and we were all soon tuned, plugged-in and ready to rehearse.

Celebrity Constellation Stage

The first song was Bad Love, which was Eric Clapton’s last No.1 hit, back in 1990. It was from his Journeyman album (one of his very best!). The record company had asked Eric to create another Layla and so he and his writing partner, Mick Jones, had scientifically deconstructed Layla and used the same formula to write Bad Love. Starting with an iconic riff, into verses and choruses in one key and then migrating to a different key for a separate section. It’s a great song with a long synth intro. It took a couple of attempts to get the transition from the intro into the BIG guitar riff, but once familiar to everyone the song flowed nicely and created a dramatic entry for me onto the stage.

The Celebrity Constellation Orchestra learning their parts

My show took some months to write and score the music. I had some help from some excellent arrangers from across the world. I mostly had to adapt the music and re-arrange it how I wanted which is always fun but it kept me up into the wee hours for some months! The rehearsal went well, I got good feedback about my charts, especially from the pianist who was very excited to play the show! All the musicians were great and the rehearsal left me very excited about my first Eric Clapton Tribute show on the Celebrity Constellation which I will write about in my next blog post… stay tuned folks!

My equipment setup on the Celebrity Constellation looking out at an empty auditorium