It took them less than three years to leave a gargantuan impression on the world of music.
The first so-called supergroup of rock, Cream were actually much more than that – to call them a rock band was to miss half the story. There was plenty more going on in those classic tracks.
There may have been fraught moments away from the stage, but when they made music Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton were untouchable.
Their music continues to influence the masses, and still looms large.
People still want to hear the music in the live, and the nearest thing to the real thing comes courtesy of Fresh Cream.
The band comprises Malcolm Bruce, son of Jack, Will Johns (son of ace producer Andy Johns, Will’s Uncle is a certain Eric Clapton) and drummer Chris Page.
On Tuesday evening (March 10) Fresh Cream will be live at The Stables in Wavendon – the same venue we were lucky enough to see Jack Bruce at play in a few years ago.
Tickets are on sale at £16.50 and support is coming from Henry Parker.
Visit www.stables.org for yours.
Malcolm (MB) and Will (WJ) went On Track with Total MK…
Which one song by another artist do you wish you had written
MB: That’s an incredibly difficult if not impossible question to answer. But today, in this moment, it would be ‘Down to Zero’ by Joan Armatrading, or ‘Love and Affection’, or basically any song from Joan’s third studio album ‘Joan Armatrading’.
This record moves me to tears; I have my Mum to thank for playing this record incessantly throughout my youth. Interestingly, Will’s Uncle Glyn Johns has been quoted as saying it is the best album he has ever been associated with.
I understand why he would have said that.
And one – by yourself – which holds special significance
MB: I recently played a show with my own band at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire opening up for Colosseum (at their final ever show), and finished the lyric for a song in the car on the way to the gig.
The words are about someone I met very recently in fairly unique circumstances and how I feel about her.
It’s very naive and simple writing, and holds special significance for me. The song is called ‘Take Me As I Am’.
If you could step into the shoes of another musician, living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?
MB: Again a strange and difficult question to answer, there are so many inspirational musicians who have inspired me. J.S.Bach, Igor Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix.
It would be fun to be Beethoven for a month and write something from his perspective but with modern technology (no I don’t mean that scene from Bill and Ted!) To be honest, I have enough to deal with coming to terms with my own uniqueness as an artist to worry about being someone else.
I have my own work cut out for me! Everybody wants to be someone else. That’s the whole problem with the current creative scene!
Are there any current musical influences that you might look to
MB: Not really. We are at a crossroads within the industry. Everybody tries to fit in. I would rather fit out. The lunatics have definitely taken over the asylum.
And any genre of music that you simply can’t stand?
MB: It’s all good as they say. But the genre I cannot stand is ARROGANCE AND IGNORANCE POSING AS KNOWLEDGE.
Finally, plug your Stables gig
MB: We are going to be playing the music of Cream and a few original songs as well. For this project we are not a tribute act in the traditional sense, as Cream’s music is organic and open-ended in form, when performed properly.
So we do not play the same way, or the same notes exactly, as the original band.
We are improvising around the form, which IS what the original band did, but we are playing from our hearts, in the moment. We are not aping the music exactly, which is what the majority of bands do when they are a tribute act.
We are making this our own.
The song that first awakened your musical senses
WJ: Ry Cooder, ‘Tell by the way you Smell’
Physical or digital – how do you take your music?
WJ: Digital. It’s the way it is now…
The first time you thought ‘Music – this is the job for me’
WJ: Busking on the street in Oxford age 17 whilst at College, I made £35 in an hour…
Your best on stage memory…
WJ: I think that would have to be Headlining ‘Cham Jam,” the snowboarding festival in Chamonix , France.
It was amazing to be playing literally ‘On Top Of The World’!
And the worst gig you’ve ever done
WJ: Do not remember any!
What made you take up the guitar?
WJ: Well I started playing drums, usually at about 9am at my uncle’s house. He suggested I take up a ‘real’ instrument.
I took that to mean the guitar and so it went on….
Tell us about the Stables gig – looking forward to it?
WJ: I am personally really looking forward to playing at The Stables.
It will be my first appearance here since I first came to get my first Marshall Amp fixed back in 1995.
