On This Day – Pete’s Here, Where’s John?
Aug 12, 2009 On This Day
On this day in 1967 Fleetwood Mac played their first gig, the 7th annual Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival at the Royal Windsor Racecourse, Berkshire, UK. The festival ran for 3 days and Mac shared the last day’s bill along with Cream, John Mayall, Chicken Shack, and Jeff beck among others.
The festival was plagued with PA problems. The local residents wanted it turned down, the performers and audience wanted it turned up………. (You would have thought by the 7th time the festival had been held they would have got it right). The following year the festival was moved to a site with fewer (or deaf) neighbours.
Evidently, Cream were the hit of the festival. I would have like dto have been there as Mick Taylor was playing with John mayall at that time and I always liked his playing. The previous days also saw Paul Jones and Aynsley Dunbar performing which I would have enjoyed. (Dunbar was later of The Mothers of Invention, Lou Reed, Whitesnake, and nearly of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Story is that Jimi could not decide between Mitch Mitchell and AD and so tossed a coin. MM won.)
Oh yes, what about John? John McVie did not belong to to Fleetwood Mac at the time and so he was not there. He only took over from Bob Brunner a month later. Which is all a bit odd as the Mac from Fleetwood came from the Mc in Vie, if you see what I mean.
If you want to hear just what all the fuss was about Peter Green’s blues playing then this is the album for you. Known as the dustbin and dog album, no idea why, it is, in my opinion Peter Green at his very best.
Tags: aynsley dunbar, classic rock music, cream, fleetwood mac, john mayall, love rock music, peter green, rock and blues
On This day – Cream Rises to The Top.
Jul 16, 2009 On This Day
Cream of the crop.
In an interview with the BBC Jack Bruce once said that EC thought that they were a blues band while Jack and Ginger made him play jazz. The truth is that this was a blues influenced, jazz, rock, beat, teen combo the like of which we had not seen before (no, sorry, that’s The Mothers of Invention).
Cream was a blues rock fusion with a tinge of jazz. What really distinguished Cream from most bands at the time was the level musicianship. EC was well known as a guitarist (over hyped to my mind – but that is an argument for another day). Jack Bruce was ‘classically trained’ and one of the first rock bass guitarists with serious talent. Ginger Baker was a rhythmic genius, one of the few rock drummers who could construct an interesting drum solo – although many tried, and failed sadly….
It is not often remembered that Cream only lasted 2 years or so but had a huge influence on the direction of popular music. Given Baker and Bruce’s volatile history while in the Graham Bond Organisation (Including fights on stage, musical sabotage and threats at knife point), it was not likely that the band would be long lived.
Tags: classic rock music, cream, eric clapton, ginger baker, jack bruce, On This Day, real rock and blues
