{"id":7515,"date":"2026-03-05T10:39:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T10:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7515"},"modified":"2026-03-05T10:39:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T10:39:46","slug":"shindig-173-cream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7515","title":{"rendered":"Shindig! #173 &#8211; Cream"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"Body\"><b>Egos! Mind Games! Heroin! Turkeys! <\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Body\"><b>Sixty years since rock\u2019s first supergroup CREAM formed in a whirl of virtuosity and skullduggery, MARTIN RUDDOCK marvels at how they even survived their dicey first nine months<\/b><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cream - Wrapping Paper (Music Video) &amp; The Worst Mime They Ever Did!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S67aEQHWmDU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\">Freshly signed by Stigwood to Reaction, The Cream were officially unveiled by Welch in the 30th July issue of <i>Melody Maker<\/i>. Interviewing them at rehearsals, they were chirpy but nervy on the eve of their planned first show at The Windsor Jazz &amp; Blues Festival, billed simply under their own names. &#8220;At the moment we&#8217;re trying to get a repertoire up for all the gigs we&#8217;ve got to do,&#8221; said Baker. &#8220;We&#8217;re digging back as far as we can, even 1927.&#8221; Quizzed about musical policy, Clapton called it \u201cblues ancient and modern\u201d, while Bruce joked, &#8220;We call it sweet and sour rock \u2019n\u2019 roll.\u201d Clapton hoped that new labelmate Pete Townshend would write them a song. The overworked Townshend was too busy, but Bruce was working on originals, penning the spiky, driving \u2018NSU\u2019. The opaque title referred to Non-Specific Urethritis, which Clapton was apparently recovering from at the time.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7516\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SD173-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"619\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SD173-2.jpeg 650w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SD173-2-300x286.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Body\">With its oblique verses, \u2018NSU\u2019 also played into Cream\u2019s interest in dada. \u201cWe want a turkey on stage while we&#8217;re playing,\u201d said Clapton. \u201cI was going to have this hat made of a brim with a cage on top and a live frog inside. It would be very nice to have stuffed bears on stage. We&#8217;d ignore them \u2013 not acknowledge their presence at all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Default\">At the 11th hour, Cream made a surprise debut two days earlier than planned at Manchester Soul mecca The Twisted Wheel, filling a slot vacated by Joe Tex. Piling into a black Austin Princess driven by Ben Palmer (Baker had already written off the Rover), they apprehensively plugged in for the Mancunian soul kids. Bruce suggested adding a Tamla floor-filler to the set. \u201cI wanted to do Junior Walker&#8217;s &#8216;Roadrunner&#8217; but Eric wasn&#8217;t happy about it,\u201d he told <i>Beat Instrumental<\/i> in November. They drove home to London with cheers ringing in their ears anyway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Body\">Closing out their official unveiling at Windsor on 31st July, the crowd was wowed by Cream\u2019s volume, intensity and dexterity. They quickly exhausted every tune they collectively knew, but kept jamming until Clapton finally announced, &#8220;Sorry, no more numbers worked out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.qobuz.com\/album\/0060253780300?zone=GB-en\" width=\"378\" height=\"390\">Your browser does not support iframes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>To read the full article order issue #173 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/shindig_173\/\">here<\/a>, Subscribe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/unlock-the-world-of-shindig-subscribe-today-and-access-every-issue-ever-published\/\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<span class=\"synved-social-container synved-social-container-share\"><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7515&#038;t=Shindig%21%20%23173%20%E2%80%93%20Cream&#038;s=100&#038;p&#091;url&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7515&#038;p&#091;images&#093;&#091;0&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2026%2F03%2FSD173-2.jpeg&#038;p&#091;title&#093;=Shindig%21%20%23173%20%E2%80%93%20Cream\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7515&#038;text=New%20post%20on%20our%20site\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-mail nolightbox\" data-provider=\"mail\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share by email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=Shindig%21%20%23173%20%E2%80%93%20Cream&#038;body=New%20post%20on%20our%20site:%20https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7515\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mail\" title=\"Share by email\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Egos! Mind Games! Heroin! Turkeys! Sixty years since rock\u2019s first supergroup CREAM formed in a whirl of virtuosity and skullduggery, MARTIN RUDDOCK marvels at how they even survived their dicey first nine months &nbsp; Freshly signed by Stigwood to Reaction, The Cream were officially unveiled by Welch in the 30th July issue of Melody Maker. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1009,1172],"tags":[1236],"class_list":["post-7515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-qobuz","tag-cream","post_format-post-format-video"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7515"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}