The story of Cream’s first ever live show: “We were all so nervous”
In music history, supergroups have often been used as a window into musical genius that fans are only given a brief glimpse into. Such is the nature of creative egos clashing into one project, that rarely do they last longer than a handful of years, and so we are left tantalising, at what else could have been had they persevered. While many supergroups typify this, none do it better than Cream.
The trio of bulletproof blues rockers were as egotistical as they come, with each instrumental member representing the very best of their era. Ginger Baker was the premier guitarist of the London blues scene, blending jazz and rock sensibilities seamlessly, while Clapton was the city’s cream, in a very overpopulated crop.
Despite being rock royalty at the time, all it took was a humble car journey between Clapton and Baker for this new supergroup to form. At Baker’s request, Clapton advised and suggested Jack Bruce as the bass player, to which he swiftly said no, citing a genuine personal dislike between the pair as reasoning. But when Clapton insisted, knowing that together the trio would create musical magic, Baker obliged, and in that moment, Cream was formed, albeit on the back of an ego tussle.
There was a sense of creative superiority within the group, a confidence knowing that, between them, they represented the very best of the best, yet somehow, as they stood in the wings, waiting to step on stage for the very first time as Cream, the inescapable feeling of nervousness crept up on this iconic trio.
“It’s funny to think of now, but we were all so nervous,” Clapton wrote in his autobiography, referring to the National Jazz and Blues Festival at Windsor Racecourse in 1966, two days after a small warm-up show played at Manchester’s Twisted Wheel.
Clapton continued, “We were an unknown band topping the bill, closing the last night’s session. After playing mostly in clubs, we were now performing outside to 15,000 people. We had a tiny amount of equipment, and being only a trio, we didn’t seem to have any power. It all sounded so small, especially playing after the group then known as the world’s loudest rock band, The Who.”
Their fame in the industry would have been seemingly assuring, but in reality, it hadn’t prepared them for the pressures of being a supergroup. Suddenly, the demand to see all three of these icons in action together meant bigger stages than the dingy clubs of the blues scene and a subsequently bigger sound.
But their pursuit of that was proving difficult, especially given that Mother Nature decided to intervene. Clapton continued, “The weather was abysmal. It poured with rain, and we only played three songs before we ran out, and Ginger had to make the announcement, ‘Sorry, there are no more numbers,'”
Clapton added. “I think we played a couple of them again, but nobody seemed to care. Then we just jammed, and the audience went crazy. The music press went crazy, describing us as the first ‘supergroup’.”
Given the fragile nature of the inter-band relationships, it’s surprising they didn’t see that as some sort of omen and quit altogether. But luckily, they didn’t and together they gave us two years of artistic genius and invented the idea of a supergroup in the process.
