Introduction

By Chris Welch
Extract from Cream: The Legendary Sixties Supergroup
Amended Friday, 08 April 2005

:: Read

The Players

By Chris Welch
Extract from Cream: Strange Brew
Amended Friday, 08 April 2005

:: Ginger Baker
:: Jack Bruce
:: Eric Clapton

The Farewell

By Chris Welch
Extract from Cream: The Legendary Sixties Supergroup
Amended Friday, 08 April 2005

:: Read

The Formation

By Chris Welch
Extract from Cream: Strange Brew
Amended Friday, 08 April 2005

BAKER'S IDEA

While working as a reporter at Melody Maker's London office, I got an urgent 'phone call one morning in June 1966. The caller was Peter 'Ginger' Baker, the drummer from the Graham Bond Organisation. He wanted to tell me exciting news about a new band that would feature himself, together with his old bass playing partner Jack Bruce, and...."get this Chris....Eric Clapton!" And who was going to manage this extraordinary new outfit? "Old Stigboot!" It should have been front page news - but the cover was already done. Instead the story went inside, in a few terse paragraphs. It was enough to cause a sensation among those thousands of fans who went every week to see the extraordinary roster of R&B bands of all styles who packed the clubs in those pre-disco days. Eric, Jack and Ginger were already heroes as far as they were concerned. The idea of them coming together in an all-star band was almost too much to take.

It certainly caused a shock wave among the managers and band leaders who thought they had first call on these musicians' services. Within hours of the MM hitting the streets, I was inundated with ' phone calls demanding retractions and press releases issuing denials. I learned that day, the more vehement a denial, the more likely a story was true. The headline on our exclusive story was:"Eric, Jack & Ginger Team Up" and went on to say: "A sensational new 'Groups' Group' starring Eric Clapton. Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker is being formed. Top groups will be losing star instrumentalist as a result. Manfred Mann will lose bassist, harmonica player, pianist and singer Jack Bruce; John Mayall will lose brilliant blues guitarist Eric Clapton and Graham Bond's Organisation will lose incredible drummer Ginger Baker. The group say they hope to start playing at clubs, ballrooms and theatres in a month's time. It is expected they will remain as a trio with Jack as featured vocalist."

Two weeks later the story was confirmed, despite the howls of protest from the managers of Manfred Mann and John Mayall's Blues Breakers. Robert Stigwood, who had been manager of the Graham Bond Organisation, told me he had signed the new band. "They will be called The Cream, and will be represented by me for agency and management. They will record for my Reaction label and go into the studios next week to cut tracks for their first single. "

Robert confirmed that the band would make its debut at the National Jazz And Blues Festival at Windsor. In the meantime Jack Bruce would continue with Manfred Mann and Clapton would stay with John Mayall. Ginger Baker would leave Graham Bond on July 20, 1966, to be replaced by Jon Hiseman.

Just a few months before the story broke, I had come up with an idea for a "Groups' Group" in an article that proposed an imaginary line up of players from the best bands of the day. The phrase would later be changed to "Super group" to reflect the commercial success that such a line could enjoy, but the original concept was to celebrate musicianship. It was rather like the 'all star' bands to be found in jazz.

We asked a dozen group musicians to chose their favourites and I put in my own choice as well. Among the voters were Mick Jagger, Spencer Davis, Ray Davies, Eric Burdon, Paul Samwell-Smith, Chris Farlowe, Keith Moon, Paul Jones, Tony Hicks (of the Hollies), Steve Marriott, Georgie Fame, and Tony Crane (of the Merseys).

My votes produced a band that would include Steve Winwood (lead guitar and vocals) and Ginger Baker drums. Although each member of the Cream would get some votes, nobody concocted a line up with all three. The ultimate Group's Group based on the number of votes for each contender, consisted of Eric Clapton (guitar), Bruce Welch (rhythm guitar), John Entwistle (bass), Brian Auger (organ), Ginger Baker (drums) and Steve Winwood (vocals), actually closer to Blind Faith than Cream.

The three men who would eventually achieve lasting international fame in Cream had all enjoyed varying degrees of success and recognition during their formative years. I'd first met Eric Clapton when he was a young Mod in The Yardbirds, and Jack Bruce I'd got to know since I'd first seen him pounding a double bass in Bruce Turner's Jump Band at a jazz festival.

Eric was already a star with a devoted following and Clapton was being revered as 'God' by his fans, and being accorded an unprecedented level of hero worship on his gigs with John Mayall's Blues Breakers. I managed to tear myself away from Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames at the Flamingo to go and see Eric with the Bluesbreakers at a gig in Putney. It was no exaggeration to say that everyone at the gig was in awe of the moustachioed figure, whose guitar playing seemed blessed by an almost mystical power.

We were all impressed by Eric, but such was his command over audiences, he hardly needed any further introduction. Or so it seemed. Taking Eric as face value as a highly rated lead guitarist, who seemed so self-contained and assured meant that ultimately many failed to fully understand or appreciate the inner conflicts and musical ambitions that motivated him. Eric was always one step ahead of everyone around him. Change and movement meant more to him than being conveniently slotted into a safe, rigid category.

However there was one member of Cream who I had championed since I first heard about him from musicians like Graham Bond and Charlie Watts. The Stones' drummer had consistently praised Ginger Baker, who had who replaced him in Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, while Bond proudly boasted that Ginger was 'The greatest drummer in Europe," adding the European rider as a courtesy to the great American drummers. Ginger had other ideas. He was pretty sure that aside from his idols Max Roach, Art Blakey and Phil Seamen, he was the greatest drummer in the world.

Bond had first raved to me about Baker when the former was still a bebop alto sax player on the modern scene. So I knew of the drummer's reputation long before I joined the MM and it was a priority of mine to win him recognition.

I was just blown away by the sheer dynamic attack Ginger brought to the drums. His was a unique style, incredibly daring in its day. He broke all the rules that inhibited most British jazz and pop players. His blitzkrieg approach, involving a spectacular assault on the tom toms and bass drum, was violent, unorthodox, unpredictable and tremendously exciting.

But despite his reputation as a hell raiser, both on and off the kit he was a conscientious band player, who had been raised in both traditional and modern jazz environments. He took such matters as drum rudiments and time keeping very seriously. His 'take no prisoners' approach was anathema to sections of the jazz establishment, but he found freedom and fulfilment in the Graham Bond Organisation, where jazz, blues and rock were mixed with confidence and bravado.