Eric Clapton at the ACC Toronto Feb. 21, 2010, With His Oriental Rug



With seats way up at the ACC for Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck's recent concert in Toronto, I had a great view of the oriental rug Clapton uses on stage. I saw the rug rolled out on stage. It had it's own long narrow tube from which the road crew slid it out. From a distance it appeared thin and light. Possibly an Ardebil or Caucasian.

The Persian rug as a stage prop at rock concerts has been around for a long time, and Clapton has used one for many years. In an interview in 2001 he said, referring to the rug, "Very expensive – ten thousand dollars – hand woven. It’s a new one. Positioning of the rug is critical (laughs). The rug came about because we were getting static."

The first reference I could come up with regarding the use of oriental rugs at rock shows is Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in 1970 when they played the Filmore West. There is a hilarious reference to this in Bill Grahams book "Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out"... about bickering with the band over the use and placement of the rug.

In 1974 Emerson Lake and Palmer used a Persian rug on the stage. Greg Lake claims it "cost me a small fortune....I use it to keep from being electrocuted on the stage!”. So it seems there may be a practical reason for the rugs being there. The Greateful Dead always performed with many Persian rugs on stage. One in particular was a Persian panel tree of life type.

Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones is a major collector of fine oriental rugs and band mate Jagger owns a 16th century Persian rug. I could not find any reference to the Stones using Persian rugs on stage.

Meanwhile back stage, Elton John insists on large "non-leather sofas to relax on with fine Persian carpets underfoot".

More recently U2 uses a bunch of oriental rugs in the video for "Beautiful Day". The rugs are spread over an airport runway as a plane takes off overhead. They also use oriental rugs all over the studio floor. Robert Plant and Allison Krauss used a "a surreal backdrop of nine Persian rugs of a quality normally found hanging on the walls of the Victoria & Albert Museum" at a concert last year at the Wembley Arena in London.

Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam used a round Persian rug for his solo tour in 2008. The metal band Lamb of God uses four black rugs with the band's logo on them. Ottmar Liebert also uses rugs on the stage when he performs.

That's a sampling of this very esoteric subject. I'm sure there are are many more.

John

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