Cream 29/10/67

My second gig - probably the only gig that could live with my first gig, Jimi Hendrix, also at The Saville. The Saville closed not long after but it was the epitome of cool as a venue at the time. At least it appeared so to this fifteen year old. The music was listened to with rapt attention and even tapping your feet was a bit edgy. I wish those days of close focus on the performance would return.

The support was Bonzo Dog Doo Dah band which was extraordinary - a full frontal exposure to Vivian Stanshall, Neil Innes et al was definitely disorientating but in a nice way.

Cream's performance was breathtaking
It is a long time ago but certain elements remain etched in my memory. The first is Clapton's guitar. There had been guitarists with their own sounds before; Duanne Eddy and Hank Marvin come to mind as two that I liked as a youngster and there had been R&B guitarists before Clapton but he was the real deal in terms of bringing blues guitar to a white audience with an utterly distinctive and compelling delivery. The power and passion of his playing was unmatched.
The second thing was the band which essentially consisted of three musicians each with their unique style and it seemed that the three styles just slotted together perfectly even though with their particular sounds that seemed unlikely. Jack Bruce - a jazzy bassist with an idiosyncratic singing style, the frenetic violence of Ginger Baker's drums and Clapton's ethereal guitar.
I went to the Cream reunion concert in 2005 with worries that it would be disappointing but it took about 30 seconds to be reminded of what was so distinctive about Cream and how the three musicians just gelled.
The other enduring memory was of Ginger Baker's drum solo - I have never heard anything percussive to equal it since. A drum solo was an alien thing to me but this was long, fast and hypnotic with a mesmeric finale that got a reaction even from the Saville audience.
The first of many Clapton gigs for me but not many live so clearly in the memory.