"Cream. A People’s History” by Richard Houghton (published by Spenwood Books)
Superlatives flow for “supergroup” but for Eric they weren’t The Band
More than 20 titles have been published so far, including The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, The Stranglers, The Faces, The Jam, The Clash, Simple Minds, Slade, Queen and Fairport Convention. And it’s important to retain those memories because while it’s not yet reached the stage where there are more golden-era musicians in rock heaven than on Planet Earth, it’s getting there.
Look at some of the toll: half the Beatles, Charlie Watts and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, all three of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Freddie Mercury of Queen, Rick Wright of Pink Floyd, Alvin Lee of Ten Years After, John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Keith Moon and John Entwistle of The Who, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Rick Buckler of The Jam, Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac, Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, all five in The Band, three of the four Small Faces, all three Beach Boys’ Wilson brothers, John Mayall, Marianne Faithfull, Jon Lord of Deep Purple, Joe Cocker, Alex Chilton…. If it wasn’t age or illness, it was dodgy substances.
The rock era is fading out, and so are the fans. “Cream. A People’s History” has more than 500 previously unpublished eyewitness accounts of a band that had a major impact on rock’s direction even though Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were together for less than three years, from July 1966 to November 1968, and released only four albums.
In the book Houghton mentions his modus operandi, using local newspapers and Facebook to find fans and get them to come forward. He notes the occasional difficulties in confirming dates and venues for Cream, one contributor recalling how guitarist Eric Clapton told him he never knew where the band would be playing the following day.
Lest anyone be unaware, Cream was guitarist Clapton who was born in Ripley, Surrey, on March 30, 1945 and is the sole surviving member, bassist Bruce born in Bishopbriggs, East Dumbartonshire, Scotland, on May 14, 1943 and died on October 25, 2014, and drummer Baker born in Lewisham, South London, on August 19, 1939 and died on October 26, 2019.
“Only” a trio, then, but all masterly musicians and few had their talent, power and influence.
Often called the first “supergroup” (a dumb, overused term – editor), Houghton says they bridged the gap from the British blues explosion through psychedelia and progressive rock.
“Cream. A People’s History” opens with short reminders that Baker and Bruce were both in Blues Incorporated in mid-1962, then in the offshoot Graham Bond Trio. Clapton’s first bands were Rhode Island Red and the Roosters followed by Casey Jones and the Engineers in 1963.
In October that year Clapton moved to the Yardbirds, and here we have the first actual sighting, from Valerie Dunn at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, London, on November 3, 1963. She chatted to them, was given their clapped-out harmonicas and played maracas with them if a broken guitar string needed replacing. Clapton, a Mod, was “really chuffed” when she made a chamois mascot embroidered “Yardbird” and he hung it on his guitar neck.
Austin Reeve’s girlfriend chatted to the Yardbirds in the interval at the Rhodes Centre in Bishop’ Stortford, UK, on July 11, 1964 but Reeve was too timid to join in. Clapton “pulled out all the stops” and Reeve saw the group several more times. Then, a significant gig when the Yardbirds played the Jazz and Blues Festival at Richmond on August 9, 1964, and Baker and Bruce of the Graham Bond Organisation were among the “friends” the Yardbirds invited on stage to play. It was the first time Bruce had heard Clapton play, and he was impressed.
Clapton joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Dunn re-enters, seeing them at Klooks Kleek, Railway Hotel, West Hampstead, on May 25, 1965, when she and her friends would buy Clapton a drink. Graham Aucott also saw the Bluesbreakers, at Il Rondo in Leicester on July 23, 1965, when Clapton began with “Hi-Heel Sneakers” and “a good night was had by all”.
Understandably, pre-Cream memories are thin on the ground, and these few are all until Eric, Jack and Ginger decided to form a band and jammed at Baker’s home in Braemar Avenue, Neasden, in April 1966, then began rehearsing at nearby St. Ann’s Town Hall in Brondesbury the following month. The action really begins at The Twisted Wheel club in Manchester on July 30, 1966, in what was basically a warm-up away from the expectant eyes of London.
Bob Garbutt remembers it was “brilliant” and Baker looked like the Wild Man of Borneo.
The book’s memories flow from the next day, after the trio played their first major gig, at the 6th National Jazz and Blues Festival at Royal Windsor Racecourse. The program listed them as simply Eric Clapton-Jack Bruce-Ginger Baker. About 15,000 attended, it rained heavily and the band had rehearsed only a few songs, so they stretched them out for 40 minutes or so.
The fledgling band then wanted to do a big gig away from London, and manager Robert Stigwood booked them at Torquay Town Hall, deep in the south-west of England, on August 6, 1966 for £75. Thanks to their earlier reputations, 2000 kids packed in, a lot for a band without a record. Then Redruth, Bromley, Cheltenham, Soho, Norwich, Eel Pie Island, Leicester, Nottingham, Southampton and so on… even “supergroups” had to pay their dues.
So… an old green Commer van and one roadie, small venues, entrance paid at the door, tiny stages or platforms, half-full and jam-packed halls, a six-string bass, double bass drums, amps set on 11 and ear-pounding Marshall stacks, Bruce and Clapton at the bar while Baker soloed on and on, massive rows between Baker and Bruce, Baker carried drunk or drugged or both to his drums, on-stage collapses, guest guitarist Hendrix once, Clapton’s gran Rose at a show.
Tony Loftus chatted with Bruce at the urinal in The Marquee in Soho on August 16, 1966 – “That’s my claim to fame!”; Richard Pilch was hitching 15 miles to see them at Hoveton Village Hall on November 18, 1966, and was picked up by Baker in his Rover, who was lost; Victor Foster told a couple of Cheltenham lads to “get their own” when they asked him for a cigarette at the Blue Moon Club in Cheltenham on November 19, 1966, whereupon the volatile Baker overheard and sent him flying across the drums and smacked his head with a drumstick; Bruce, apparently angry with Clapton, threw his harmonica on stage at the Imperial Ballroom in Nelson, UK, on April 8, 1967; a woman giving birth in a venue bathroom; Baker, soloing, rushed by a guy and jamming a drumstick into the fellow’s ear without missing a beat, causing the guy to collapse with blood all over him, screaming in pain.
These 500-plus recollections tend to be somewhat repetitive, the great majority of fans “blown away” as Cream stretched the limits of a three-piece band, playing out of their skins, and only occasionally tired and uninspired, going through the motions. Finally, two farewell shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London on November 26, 1968, and a short 2005 reunion.
Some of the best recollections come from Cream road manager Bob Adcock who recalls those initially simpler days of just three crew, no security, no contract riders and so on. He says the real reason they split is that Clapton envied the simpler ethos of The Band, who were a group of friends. Cream were never friends, and after a gig went their own ways.
Sunshine of their love? Not quite but great – still great – music while it lasted.
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