Cream Chronicled - Book Review

CREAM CHRONICLED

by Nettie Baker

Published by Wymer Publishing

Reviewed by Stuart Penney

I saw Cream in concert four times during 1967. Now, thanks to this wonderfully researched book, I know the exact dates of each show, the venues and even who the support acts were, plus plenty of other valuable details I’d either forgotten, or was completely unaware of. (See below for a list of those Cream gigs).

Although just a nipper during Cream’s July 1966 – November 1968 lifespan (she was born in 1960) Nettie Baker has first-hand knowledge and experience of life in the eye of the storm. She was right there from the band’s inception (as “The Cream”) in dad Ginger’s Braemar Avenue, Neasden maisonette, to their final show at the Royal Albert Hall. It goes without saying that she was also on the spot, as an adult, for the 2005 Cream reunion concerts.

Cream Chronicled is the fourth of Nettie’s books about her father and his colourful life and musical career. She also ghost-wrote Ginger’s own 2009 biography Hellraiser. In this new one she undertakes the gargantuan task of documenting every show played by arguably the greatest rock band of the late 60s.

In a scathing introduction to this latest work, she lays her cards on the table in no uncertain terms, dismissing many previous Cream books (and their writers) as “under-researched,” “muddled” and filled with “conjecture and hearsay.” She handles key events with care and accuracy, however. For instance, what really happened when Jimi Hendrix, newly arrived in England, got up to play with Cream at the London Polytechnic in Regent Street on October 1, 1966? You’ll have to read the book to find out the full story but suffice to say that although Ginger initially wasn’t too keen on Jimi sitting in with them (natch), Eric certainly wasn’t blown offstage by the newcomer as has been claimed elsewhere ad infinitum. Incidentally, we are told that Roger Waters, then a student at the Polytechnic (along with the other Pink Floyd members), was in the audience for that momentous gig.

From there we proceed day-by-day and gig-by-gig. From the tiny university and club shows in Britain to the groundbreaking and lucrative US tours. It’s all documented here in more detail than we’ve ever seen before.

Ginger’s fiery temper has been blamed for the band’s break-up, and the famous story of the Goodbye Cream album cover photo session makes amusing reading. According to Ginger’s book Hellraiser, the drummer attacked photographer Roger Phillips with his cane (actually a sword stick) while Clapton’s account claims it was choreographer and TV personality Lionel Blair (brought in to teach the besuited trio how to pose for the cover) who was on the receiving end of Ginger’s wrath. Nettie is constantly at pains to point out that, although others may have suffered at Baker’s hands, the band members always got along with each other just fine.

The final break-up and Farewell Concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall are covered in great detail and although they were obviously glad to see the end of the constant touring, it seems that in the immediate aftermath of the RAH shows, Jack and Eric at least were having second thoughts about the break-up.

The book continues through to the 2005 reunion concerts in London and New York. Then an adult, Nettie fleshes out this section with some invaluable personal memories of the rehearsals, the concerts, the final break-up and subsequent recriminations.

A work of this magnitude draws from many sources, including contemporary newspaper reviews, music paper interviews, fan accounts and Nettie’s own personal archive of memories and photographs (many of which I’d never seen before).

This is probably the finest and most detailed account of the life of the band you’ll ever read. Cream were the first rock supergroup worthy of the name and their massive US arena tours paved the way for everything which followed.

If I had any criticism at all of this book, it would be the lack of an index, but you can’t have everything.

And here are the details of those four Cream concerts I attended:

• May 29, 1967 – Barbeque 67 at the Tulip Bulb Auction Hall, Spalding, Lincolnshire (with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Move etc)

• July 2, 1967, at the Saville Theatre, London (with the Jeff Beck Group and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers)

• August 13, 1967, at the 7^th National Jazz & Blues Festival, Windsor (with many bands including the debut of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac)

• October 29, 1967, at the Saville Theatre, London (with The Action and Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band)