Cream Goodbye Tour
Cream were effectively the first Rock mega band. Sunshine of Your Love had peaked at 6 on the charts, had only one TV appearance in the US but were enormously successful concert band as a result of word of mouth. They had effectively broken up in early 1968 but continued to tour. After the tour was completed they split but were convinced to do a final tour to promote Wheels of Fire. This tour became the model for future rock mega bands: $6,000 booking fee, 50% of the gross with a minimum of $20,000 (1968 $!). (Following in 1969 Hendrix could get up to $20,000 and The Who, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors - $10,000). It was unprecedented for pop/rock but with matching ticket price increases. Bookings were not a problem – 20 shows in large venues over a relatively leisurely month.
Four west coast shows were scheduled to be recorded – Oakland, L.A. Forum (2) and San Diego Sports Arena. The problem was Atlantic sub contracted the recording and shortcuts were taken. They were 2 Track recordings off the P.A. soundboard. Not necessarily a problem except they direct tapped the amps for simplicity, which was OK for the PA (just reinforcing the stacks) but producing an anaemic unbalanced sound for the recordings. The drums were unbalanced as well.
Even so the sound of this is the best I’ve heard but still can only be classed as good bootleg quality.
The Oakland show was a bit shambolic but with some interesting variations to subsequent shows – they did a perfunctory rehearsal at the soundcheck. This does not include the Friday night Forum concert, probably to keep the box simple and really it would have added little – the Saturday show was better. Its worth noting that the Forum Spoonful is edited – in the middle the police interrupted to order the crowd to sit down, Cream restarted as if nothing had happened (you can hear the police still telling the crowd to sit down). It includes the complete Albert Hall 2nd show mono recorded on 16mm film. The distinct sound of an optical track can be heard at the start. Uninspired but includes a very short Stepping Out encore.
Only reasonable recordings and adequate Cream live. But adequate Cream is a cut above most. Having these shows in best sound, compared to the boots, in a nice bxs and good booklet is well worth it for us old fans.
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