Cream Reunion Concert In London

[taxexile]

its not often that i wish i could be back in the uk , but this week i wish i was.

the reason being a reunion concert at londons albert hall by the sixties group cream . up there with led zeppelin and frank zappa as true musical pioneers

if any london based board members went , then please post your impressions.

chonabot ??? you're a bit of a rocker with a taste for guitar solos , did you go ??

[Spee]

iif any london based board members went , then please post your impressions.

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Didn't go but was listening to some of the BBC commentary after the first show. IIRC, I don't think Clapton is part of the triad for these performances. The initial feedback from the first show seemed to be that the show was great, but there were questions about whether or not Jack Bruce's voice would hold up. HTH

[Rinrada]

There was a bit of a write up on the gig the other night and appears to have gone very well.

Believe they were all back...Clapton,Bruce and "Ginger"

remember Bruce,West,Lane and......

[taxexile]

some jack bruce history for any rock anoraks out there

after travelling around europe for a while, he settled into the early blues scene in 1962 in london, where he eventually met drummer ginger baker.  he played with british blues pioneers alexis korner and graham bond before leaving in 1965 to join john mayall's bluesbreakers, whose guitarist was eric clapton. but in the one year he spent with graham bond, he recalls performing upwards of 300 shows. this gave him time to get his chops together without having to practice. with manfred mann, who he also played with before forming cream, bruce learned about the business of making hit songs. the group's reputation for long, extended blues jams began at the fillmore in san francisco at a concert organized by impressario bill graham. bruce later realized that cream gave him a chance to succeed as a musician, and admitted that if it weren't for that group, he might never have escaped london. after cream split up in november 1968, bruce formed jack bruce and friends with drummer mitch mitchell and guitarist larry coryell. recording-wise, bruce took a different tack away from blues and blues-rock, leaning more in a folk-rock direction with his solo albums songs for a tailor (1969), harmony row (1971) and out of the storm (1974).

in 1970 and 1971, he worked with tony williams lifetime before putting together another power trio with guitarist leslie west and drummer corky laing in 1972, simply called west, bruce and laing. after working with frank zappa on his album apostrophe in 1974, bruce was at it again in '75 with the jack bruce band, where members included keyboardist carla bley and guitarist mick taylor. again on the road in 1980 with jack bruce and friends, the latter version of the group included drummer billy cobham,

keyboardist david sancious and guitarist clem clempson, formerly of humble pie. in the early '80s, he formed another trio, b.l.t., this time with guitarist robin trower before working with kip hanrahan on his three solo albums. through three and a half decades, bruce has always been a supreme innovator, pushing himself into uncharted waters with his jazz and folk-rock compositions.  bruce's bluesiest albums would have to include all of his work with cream, the albums b.l.t. and truce with robin trower, some of his west, bruce and laing recordings, and several of his albums from the 1980s and early '90s. these include willpower, (polygram, 1988), a question of time (epic records, 1989), which includes guest performances by albert collins, nicky hopkins and baker, as well as his cmp records live career retrospective album, recorded in cologne, france, cities of the heart (1993). bruce's most recent release is 1995's monkjack, an album of his jazz piano compositions, which he performs with organist bernie worrell, issued on the cmp record label. -- richard skelly

that's a cv to die for.

[Spee]

Believe they were all back...Clapton,Bruce and "Ginger"

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Yeah my bad on the Clapton bit ...

I was listening to an interview with Alice Cooper on the Beeb on Friday. AC said he was at the first reunion show and said it was fantastic. He said his main concern was Ginger Baker, whom he said has been suffering badly from arthritis. But he said Baker was remarkably terrific and even did a 10-minute drum solo.

You can also hear a nice replay of "Clapton at 60" from:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/

On the middle right of the page is a link to the playback.

[taxexile]

He said his main concern was Ginger Baker

during the late 70's , a friend of mine played bass guitar in a deservingly unknown pub band in london , they were a loud and cliched heavy rock four piece , somehow or other they managed to get ginger baker to drum for them , i think it must have been during his "lost years".

i went along to one gig , had some drinks with the band before the show , baker sat at a table away from the rest of us , looking very spaced and scruffy , he did have two fantastic looking rock chicks with him though , but our table had to pay for his drinks.

the gig , (entry 50p ) in a big room upstairs , was empty apart from the three friends that accompanied the band and bakers two girls.

it was like the spinal tap scene where nobody shows up.

it was sad to see him , a fine musician and a big part of rock history , in such a dire situation. he did play his heart out though , even though there was no audience.

he played another 2 gigs with that outfit before moving on to whatever he did next.

[Spee]

the gig , (entry 50p ) in a big room upstairs , was empty apart from the three friends that accompanied the band and bakers two girls.

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Interesting comment ....

During EC's interview in the Claptop at 60 replay, he talks for a bit about working with Duane Allman in Derek & the Dominoes. While he said the music was awesome, they had picked such a strange name for the band and the band members names were kept under wraps, that when they would go play gigs, there would often be hardly anyone there. It was only after word got out about who the actual guitar slingers were, that people starting turning out for shows and buying albums.

Also picked up an interesting bit of trivia in the replay, about how EC got the nickname "Slowhand." Seems he would take forever to replace a broken guitar string. One of his former managers referred to him as a slow hand, and the nickname stuck.

[chonabot]

its not often that i wish i could be back in the uk , but this week i wish i was.

the reason being a reunion concert at londons albert hall by the sixties group cream . up there with led zeppelin and frank zappa as true musical pioneers

if any london based board members went , then please post your impressions.

chonabot ??? you're a bit of a rocker with a taste for guitar solos , did you go ??

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Alas Tax I did not.

So immersed am I , in my world of wife kids and work, that I found out about the gigs in retrospect.

A pillock , one of the only things worth being here for is the occasional decent gigs , and I manage to cock even that up.....

I saw Jeff Beck a few years back in Shep Bush Empire though.....

[taxexile]

never mind , i read the dvd will be out in the summer.