Cream - Royal Albert Hall London (DVD, 2005, 2-Disc Set)

Thirty seven years after giving their farewell performance at Royal Albert Hall, "super-group" Cream (Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker) returned to that revered venue to give what may have been their best-ever performance, proving for once and for all that great musicianship combined with great writing and great personal style will always rise to the top. Watching this concert one wonders why we are spending so much time and energy (no pun intended) on particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider in Cern, Switzerland. If you really want to know what happens when intense beams traveling in opposite directions gain energy and collide at very high velocity, get this DVD. As the Brits say, simply smashing.

This DVD set is a replacement for one I had purchased form PBS when Royal Albert Hall recordings were on television and I was desperately trying to find tickets to the Madison Square Garden concerts (alas I was too late). My former spouse took the original set with her. I suppose we are both into Geezer rock and roll...which I think is the very best kind. Incredible that after all these years, the band sounds just as good as the original recordings. How is that possible? I don't know but I do thank the music gods for arranging for these three talented artists to come back and remind us what 3 piece bands of the 60's could do. My only regret? That Jimi Hendrix (Clapton's good friend) couldn't joint Eric Clapton for a song or three on stage. Yes, I know...then it would not be Cream...it would be Cream to the second power.

It took a little while to get used to how the members looked as seniors, and then I was more focused on the audio. The musicianship, including vocals, is excellent. I've watched this DVD many times and I believe I like it a little more each time. Even "Pressed Rat and Warthog". By the way, they've reopened their shop.
If Royal Albert Hall didn't have seats behind the stage, so that more of the top flight staging methods and lighting could have been used, I would have rated the DVD as Excellent, rather than Good. I have a few other music performance DVD's that are a little more interesing to watch, Like Paul McCartney, "The Space Within Us" and Sheryl Crow, "Wildflower Tour, Live from New York" and "Sheryl Crow Live, Sound Stage". This two DVD set is as good as anything Sting has out.
I can recommend it without hesitation, especially if you are a fan of Cream or Blind Faith. Even the drum solo is quite good. Ginger Baker has always been amazing.
The extras, which consist of a couple of alternate versions of songs (the perfomances were recorded over several nights in May of 2005), and interviews wiv aw free (with all 3) members...individually, are interesting and add value.
Eric mentioned in the interview that he'd like to do some Cream shows in the States. Please do, sirs.

One cant help but admire 3 guys now in their mid-to-late 60's who gave their physical All. Producing a nice piece of nostalgia, but musically disappointing.

Bruce once the incarnation of a bass-genius, now barely standing upright after an organ transplant reduced to an average player. With remnants of acceptable singing & harmonica.

Baker close to 70, once the driving force, now neurologically retarded, plagued by arthritis, unable to follow, lost it more than once in evry title.

And Clapton like a slow-pitched turntable to meet the smallest common denominator.

They played a list of Bruce-compositions, surrounded by some blues-standards. And they scored, like any above average blues-band would have.

But CREAM could not be re-united. Because CREAM wasnt just Clapton + Bruce + Baker (hear anyone of them play in almost any other lineup and you know)
CREAM was a multiple of that: a phenomenon of 3 musicians at their peak, with almost telepathic understanding of a common goal, on their mission with an unstoppable fierceness, unboundly innovative.

Stangly they DID accomplish something unexpected with these 'Reunion' performances: by singling themselves out after each song, they once-and-for-all-time UNDID the legend: we were not looking AT, nor were we listening TO, anything even close to CREAM.

No need to remember where you were that day in '05 or '06 when they played at 'Royal Albert' or 'Madison Square'

Because it wasnt CREAM.

this two disc set has many tunes on it the Farewell one did not
including some of the same ones just on disc one Stormy Monday
(one of 14 on it)
itself is worth getting this plus this set was bought to complete
the Cream although I have heard they have a reunion concert out
but cannot commemt on it except to say some people say that concert
and this one are almost identical,good graphics here too
IF you like this genre of music you will love this
alternate takes and all on both discs and yes interviews too
I personally play this whenever I get the chance to just hear them
play,again as a former musician who played Eric Clapton a lot
I never tire of hearing it/them
in case no one knows Clapton is a Blues guitarist that from the Yardbirds to
present does and can play many styles all his own