CREAM CONCERT REVIEW ON ROCK N ROLL UNIVERSE

Well, the reunion that most Rock and Blues fans had been waiting for finally happened at last. The Royal Albert Hall on the 6th of May, with a sellout crowd and me being lucky enough to get my ticket amongst them and eagerly waiting to see this legendary band. My thoughts on the show itself, well I thought it was ok. Sorry I can't use words like great, awesome because the words ok seem right, for the 125 pounds sterling tickets I had, I expected a little bit more (the programs were 15 pounds).

Anyway, regarding the show, Cream kicked off with "I'm So Glad", went through old numbers, for me it got into gear when they played 'Stormy Monday". Clapton really is in his element playing the blues, almost strangling his Strat into screaming the blues. Great stuff, then they launched into their old favorites like "Badge", "Politician", "Tales of Brave Ulysses.", "Crossroads" and "White Room", Ginger Baker's drumming and Jack Bruce's thumping rhythm section was still there for everyone to behold, but Clapton was easily the more polished performer on guitar and vocals. Jack Bruce every now and then showed his prowess on the harmonica and handled most of the vocals. Ginger Baker put his health problems behind him and rolled the years back to give us a little taste of what a GREAT DRUMMER he was / is with a ten minute drum solo. Normally I find them really boring but this something else-really no bullSh*t .He really thrashed those drums-in fact he could have been arrested for grevious bodily harm. Followed by the encore, which of course was "Sunshine Of Your Love" which basically ended as I was just beginning to get into it but the night ended on a high for me as I got to see Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, who were seated not too far from us-and got a HELLO from Sir Paul, so 5 big legends on one night, not a bad night at all.
Would I want to do that again? The answer is NO, not at those prices. But hey, at least I saw them, maybe not at their best, but the guys are at advanced years so I can cut them some slack.If I had to give marks out of ten-it would be 5/10- it wasn't a bad show or anything like that, probably it was me wanting something special from a special band whilst forgetting time waits for no-one or band anyway Joe Bonamassa is next on the list, good thing about that is he is playing about 25 minutes from where I live on 22nd May-a slightly disappointed Mak. Footnote: I met quite a few Americans who had come over for the show and some of them had spent a small fortune to see Cream, maybe it wont be surprising if Cream played a few shows in the States. Healthwise Bruce and Baker looked good, and a small tour in the States wouldn't harm them or their pension fund either. I got a feeling that Clapton (who was and looked really relaxed and had his little daughter at the show) is helping out his old buddies and that's not necessarily a bad thing is it? I hope you get what I'm saying, it really is an honest review of a truly legendary band's show. Perhaps I'm being a tad unfair to Cream and maybe the expectations were a bit high from me and expecting the energy this great band had thirty seven years ago is a bit much, but that's exactly why all of us (including me) loved the band.