The first of two back-to-back Jeff Beck tribute concerts was held Monday night at London's Royal Albert Hall.
Prompted by a suggestion from Rod Stewart, the show was organized by Eric Clapton. Stewart told the audience, “I never thought I’d be here playing a concert in tribute to my dear old pal, Jeff Beck.”
The evening got underway with Beck's guitar propped on a stand under a spotlight before many of his friends and colleagues paid musical tributes, including Clapton, Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Billy Gibbons, Derek Trucks and his wife, Susan Tedeschi, Johnny Depp, Doyle Bramhall, Imelda May, John McLaughlin, Robert Randolph, Gary Clark, Jr., opera singer Olivia Safe, Joss Stone, and members of Beck's and Clapton's bands. (Joe Perry was scheduled to perform but canceled.)
Highlights included:
- Stewart with Gary Clark, Jr., Clapton and Ronnie Wood doing Curtis Mayfield's “People Get Ready”
- Stewart doing "Infatuation" and "I Ain't Superstitious" with Clapton and Wood
- The Yardbirds' “Shapes of Things” with Clapton on vocals, along with “Heart Full of Soul”
- "Train Kept-A-Rollin'" - Imelda May with Wood, Billy Gibbons and Johnny Depp
- "Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)" - Imelda May with Wood, Gibbons and Depp
- Wood, Clapton and Derek Trucks doing “Beck’s Bolero”
- Gibbons doing “Rough Boy,” which he did with Beck many times
- The finale was Clapton singing Freddie King's “Goin' Down”
Profits from the shows will be donated to the Southern Wildlife Care and Advisory Service, a charity dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating injured, orphaned and distressed wild animals and birds throughout the English counties of West Kent, East Sussex and the surrounding region. The Becks have been patrons of the charity for years.
Clapton is no stranger to organizing tribute concerts for his friends, having done so with the Concert for George [Harrison], also at the Albert Hall, in 2002, and one for his Cream and Blind Faith bandmate Ginger Baker in 2020.
Show number-two is Tuesday.
Beck died on January 10th from bacterial meningitis. He was 78.