Craft Recordings recently announced the forthcoming release of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s legendary long-lost recording of their 1970 show at London’s Royal Albert Hall, which will be available for the first time ever in multiple formats as Creedence Clearwater Revival At The Royal Albert Hall. The live album is set for release on September 16 and is available now for pre-order.
Today, ahead of the album release, CCR debuts the full live performance of their major hit, "Fortunate Son". The advance single is available now to stream or download, while fans can also get a first peak at the concert footage from that night, with the launch of a full performance clip for "Fortunate Son" (at the Royal Albert Hall). The video captures bandmates, John Fogerty, Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford, and Stu Cook, fully engrossed in the high-energy performance for one of their most beloved tracks, a song that’s been covered far and wide by artists including Pearl Jam, Rise Against, U2, Foo Fighters, and more, as well as being recognized by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and by Pitchfork as #17 on their list of The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s.
Creedence Clearwater Revival At The Royal Albert Hall will be available September 16 on 180-gram vinyl, CD, and cassette, while select retailers will offer a variety of exclusive colour variants, including Walmart (Tombstone Shadow vinyl) and Target (Green River vinyl). Additionally, the album will be available across digital platforms, including in hi-res and Dolby ATMOS® immersive audio formats. A limited Super Deluxe Edition Box Set will follow later in the year.
After spending roughly 50 years in storage, the original multitrack tapes were meticulously restored and mixed by the Grammy Award-winning team of producer, Giles Martin, and engineer, Sam Okell, who have helmed countless acclaimed projects together, including the Beatles’ 50th-anniversary editions of Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, as well as audio for the Elton John biopic, Rocketman, and Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back series. The LP was mastered by the celebrated engineer Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios using half-speed technology for the highest-quality listening experience.
Creedence Clearwater Revival At The Royal Albert Hall will be released concurrently with the documentary concert feature film, Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival At The Royal Albert Hall. Directed by two-time GRAMMY® Award winner, Bob Smeaton (The Beatles Anthology and Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsies), and narrated by Academy Award®-winning actor, Jeff Bridges, the film takes viewers from the band’s earliest years together in El Cerrito, CA through their meteoric rise to fame. Featuring a wealth of unseen footage, Travelin’ Band culminates with the band’s show at the Royal Albert Hall—marking the only concert footage of the original CCR lineup to be released in its entirety. The film will rollout internationally on September 16—stay tuned for more details coming soon.
On November 14, both the album and the film will be presented in a Super Deluxe Edition Box Set, available exclusively via CraftRecordings.com. The 2-LP/2-CD/1-Blu-ray collection includes Creedence Clearwater Revival At The Royal Albert Hall on two 45-RPM 180-gram vinyl LPs as well as on CD. A second CD features music from the film, including formative recordings from the band’s earliest incarnations (including Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets and the Golliwogs), while the Blu-ray offers the complete Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival At The Royal Albert Hall film, plus the digital album in hi-res and Dolby ATMOS® immersive audio. Limited to 5,000 copies worldwide and available to pre-order now, each individually numbered set is housed in a 12” x 12” box, with embossed gold foil detail, and includes a reproduction of the original 1970 tour program, a 17” x 24” poster, and a 16-page booklet, featuring an excerpt from Bridges’ voice-over script, which offers background on the band’s incredible path to the London show. View the unboxing trailer here.
When Creedence Clearwater Revival stepped onto the Royal Albert Hall’s stage on April 14, 1970 - just days after the Beatles announced their breakup—the California rockers had arguably just become the biggest band in the world. Leading up to the show, CCR had enjoyed an unprecedented “magical year,” as Jeff Bridges narrates in the film. “In only 12 months the band had achieved five Top 10 singles and three Top 10 albums [Bayou Country, Green River, Willy and the Poor Boys] on the American charts, outselling the Beatles. They had appeared on the legendary Ed Sullivan Show and played to over a million people across America, including the hundreds of thousands gathered at Woodstock. John, Tom, Stu, and Doug may not have had the familiar ring to it of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, but Creedence were challenging the Beatles for the title of the biggest group in the world.” During their two-night sold-out residency at the iconic venue, CCR not only followed in the footsteps of acts like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles, but they proved they were equals.
While Creedence Clearwater Revival would go their separate ways just two years later, speculation around a live recording of that legendary concert began to permeate their fanbase in 1980. That same year, Fantasy Records had released a live album by the band, mistakenly titled The Royal Albert Hall Concert. It was quickly discovered that the audio was, in fact, from the Oakland Coliseum show, captured months earlier. While the label rushed to sticker the album with correctional information—and properly re-named the January 1970 performance as The Concert for later production runs—actual footage from the Royal Albert Hall remained the stuff of rock ’n’ roll lore…until now.
