Cream Triple DVD Set Feat. Tony Palmer’s Original Classic Films With Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce & Eric Clapton
Gonzo Multimedia will release an exclusive Cream Triple DVD Set featuring producer Tony Palmer’s original classic films with Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce & Eric Clapton!
Cream Farewell at the Royal Albert Hall (Bonus Features: We’re Going Wrong from All My Loving, Layla and Tales of Brave Ulysses from All You Need Is Love, Facsimile of the Original BBC Script)
This was one of those occasions of which it can truly be said that those who were there, will never forget it. Legendary rock trio Cream featuring Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker performed their final gig on November 26th 1968, at the Royal Albert Hall. The show was filmed and recorded that evening and originally released on film and CD. Aside from the band’s reunion concert in 2005 it was Cream’s only official full concert release on video. It was originally broadcast by the BBC on January 5, 1969. It was not released on video in the US until 1977. The opening acts for the concert were future progressive rock stars YES who were just starting out and Taste an Irish trio led by Rory Gallagher. Now for the first time the concert is available in its original broadcast version, together now with rare bonus features taken from Palmer’s landmark films, All My Loving and his definitive series on the history of American popular music, All You Need Is Love!
Jack Bruce – Rope Ladder to the Moon (Bonus Feature: 2009 Interview between Jack and Pete Brown)
Jack Bruce remains the greatest bass player in the entire history of rock ‘n’ roll. He became a legend because of his association with Cream, still one of the most extraordinary bands ever to grace the stage. But his own story is even more extraordinary. Born amid the slums of Glasgow known as the Gorbals, his musical talent was quickly recognized and he attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music where he played the cello and keyboards. Then he discovered jazz…and rock ‘n’ roll. Although Cream did not immediately bring the financial rewards some people imagine, after the group broke up in 1968 he was able to buy a large island off the Scottish coast.
With Cream Jack also discovered that he was a talented composer – many of the group’s famous hits were written by him – so it was no surprise when in 1970 he released a jazz-orientated LP of his own compositions called “Songs for a Tailor”.
This 55-minute film, made at the same time, takes Jack from the Gorbals, via Cream, to his island called Sanda, playing the cello, the sitar and thundering away on the organ of the Albert Hall in London, while featuring many of the tracks from his LP. With his strong socialist principles (his father had been a member of the Communist party) Jack Bruce himself provides the striking commentary. “What kind of a society do we want?” it begins….
Originally shown on the BBC in 1971, this critically acclaimed film has been restored to something approaching its former glory and reminds us yet again what a great musician Jack Bruce was.
Ginger Baker In Africa with Fela Ransome-Kuti (Bonus Feature: The Artist by Baker Gurvitz Army)
Producer Tony Palmer explains, “In November 1971, Ginger Baker wanted to set up a recording studio in Lagos, then the capital of Nigeria. He was among the first great musicians to realize the potential of African music. He decided also that it might be an invaluable musical experience if he traveled to Nigeria overland. Unfortunately, this involved crossing the Sahara Desert. Mad? Well, crazy – but that was what was so endearing both about the man and the musician. He bought a Range Rover – one of the first ever models – and it fell to me (because of my relationship with CREAM) to film this odyssey. And the music of Nigeria, when he finally got there, was a revelation. This was before the time of the oil boom and a succession of corrupt governments; the music pulsated with reckless freedom, from the African talking-drummers of Oshogbo, to a visit to the eastern city of Calabarwhere Ginger’s friend (the then unknown) Fela Ransome-Kuti performed for us with devastating power.
“I remember filming Kuti in a stadium filled with several hundred Africans. Ginger & I, his driver and my cameraman were the only white faces. Scary. But not so scary as our nights in a Calabar hotel (well, ‘hotel’ is a bit of an exaggeration). The walls of our room, not to mention the seedy mattress on the floor, we recovered black with mosquitoes. I remember Ginger saying that if we survived this, we could survive anything. I’m glad he did, and the film pays tribute to his indomitable spirit and to his extraordinary musicianship.”
Source: Gonzo Multimedia
