Cream playing in a television studio, a large drum kit in the foreground and Eric Clapton with a guitar at the back right — Cream on the Dutch television show Fanclub, 12 January 1968: Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton. F. van Geelen, Omroepvereniging VARA · CC BY-SA 3.0

Windsor · Broadway · San Francisco · the Albert Hall · 1966 to 1968

CreamShort records. Long nights. Ten places.

“Spoonful”: 6:30 on Fresh Cream, 1966.

Sources

Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, on Dutch television in January 1968. Once American audiences were listening, they began to stretch out on stage: some numbers ran into jams of 20 minutes.

Playing it long

Summer 1966 · a name

Forty minutes in the mud

They were called Cream because the three were already thought the cream of the crop among British blues and jazz players. Before Cream, they considered calling themselves Sweet ’n’ Sour Rock ’n’ Roll.

The name

Wikipedia: Cream (band)

White rails along the green turf of Windsor racecourse under a blue sky — Royal Windsor Racecourse from Maidenhead Road, 2022. Bryn Holmes · CC BY-SA 2.0

31 July 1966 · Windsor

Royal Windsor Racecourse

On 31 July 1966 the Sixth National Jazz and Blues Festival was held at the Royal Windsor Racecourse. Cream made their official debut here; two nights earlier, on 29 July, they had played an unofficial first show at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester.

About 10,000 people stood in pouring rain and mud for a 40-minute set. With few songs of their own yet, they played reworked blues, and the crowd took to it.

A working racecourse beside the Thames; go on a race or event day.

Sources

Close black-and-white portrait of the three members of Cream, faces overlapping, Eric Clapton on the right — Cream in a publicity photograph, 1966–68: Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton. General Artists Corporation / Atco Records · Public domain

Shops along a sloping London high street — Hampstead High Street, 2009: the neighbourhood, not Bruce’s flat. Christine Matthews · CC BY-SA 2.0

1967 · Hampstead

A riff at dawn

Jack Bruce and the poet Pete Brown were working through the night at Bruce’s flat in Hampstead and had not come up with anything. Bruce picked up the double bass lying there and played the riff of “Sunshine of Your Love”; Brown saw dawn coming outside the window and wrote the first words. That gave them the riff and its first words, but not yet a whole song.

A private flat whose address is not published: the neighbourhood is named here and nothing is mapped. Pictured: Hampstead High Street.

Sources

Where Clapton came from: the Yardbirds World. His whole run of bands, before and after: the Eric Clapton World.

May 1967 · 1841 Broadway

Thursday to Sunday

Thurecording
Frirecording
Satrecording
Sunvisas end

Disraeli Gears was recorded in three and a half days in May 1967, produced by Felix Pappalardi and engineered by Dowd. Cream’s work visas ran out on the Sunday, which gave Dowd three days from the Thursday.

Atlantic Studios was at 1841 Broadway, on the corner of 60th Street. Tom Dowd designed the room himself in 1959, mainly to fit an Ampex eight-track.

Live, “Sunshine of Your Love” had a straight-ahead rock feel; Dowd suggested a different drum pattern, Baker tried it, and Bruce said it gave the song new life.

The studio half of Wheels of Fire was made in short bursts over nearly a year, and finished at Atlantic in June 1968.

Walk the corner of Broadway and West 60th Street, by Columbus Circle. There is no studio to visit.

Sources

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New York

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A narrow old gabled building with fire escapes and shopfronts on Broadway — 1845 Broadway, between West 60th and 61st Streets, 2011: a few doors from Atlantic’s old studio at 1841. Beyond My Ken · CC BY-SA 4.0

Black and white portrait of Ginger Baker, Cream’s drummer — Ginger Baker in an ATCO Records publicity photograph, 1968. ATCO Records · Public domain

The signature · 1966 to 2005

Pull a song

Pick a song, then pull it out along the ruler.

Every notch is a real recording: the studio take, the tapes from San Francisco and the farewell tour, and the Albert Hall in 1968 and 2005. The song stops where you let go.

Pull “Spoonful”: 6:30

“Spoonful” at 6:30: Fresh Cream, 1966.

Lengths: Spoonful

Jack Bruce singing into a microphone, playing bass, in a television studio, black and white — Jack Bruce on the Dutch television show Fanclub, 12 January 1968. Photo: F. van Geelen, VARA. F. van Geelen, Omroepvereniging VARA · CC BY-SA 3.0

Fresh Cream, 1966

In the studio

On Fresh Cream (1966), “Spoonful” runs 6:30, “Toad” 5:09 and “I’m So Glad” 3:58.

Source

Wikipedia: Fresh Cream (track listing)

October 1968 · the farewell tour

Sixteen days, three arenas

The farewell tour was 22 shows at 19 American venues, from 4 October to 4 November 1968, before the two Albert Hall shows.

Goodbye Tour Live 1968 gives four complete concerts: Oakland, the Forum, San Diego and the Albert Hall farewell. At the last American show, in Rhode Island, they arrived late and played two numbers: “Toad” and a “Spoonful” of more than 20 minutes.

The tour

The round glass-fronted Oakland Arena — The Oakland Arena in 2016: the Oakland Coliseum Arena of October 1968. Travis Wise from Bay Area, California, United States · CC BY 2.0

4 October 1968

Oakland Coliseum Arena

The farewell tour began here on 4 October 1968. The whole concert was released in 2020 on Goodbye Tour Live 1968, mastered from the original 1968 mix reels.

Now the Oakland Arena. Go for one of its concerts or games.

Sources

A round arena ringed with tall white columns under a blue sky — The Forum, 3900 West Manchester Boulevard, Inglewood, March 2015. Photo: Mbo90301. Mbo90301 · CC BY-SA 4.0

19 October 1968

The Forum, Inglewood

On 19 October 1968, 15 days into the farewell tour, Cream played the Forum. The three live tracks on Goodbye were recorded here, with Pappalardi and the engineers Adrian Barber and Bill Halverson.

Still an arena: you get in with a ticket to a show.

Sources

A long low white arena among trees and palms, with the hills of San Diego behind — The San Diego Sports Arena, now Pechanga Arena, in 2007. Nehrams2020 · CC BY-SA 3.0

20 October 1968

San Diego Sports Arena

The next night, 20 October 1968, the tour reached the San Diego Sports Arena; none of that show was released before the 2020 box set. Here “Spoonful” ran just 9 minutes 12 seconds.

Now Pechanga Arena: buy a ticket for a show or a game and you are inside.

Sources

Eric Clapton in sunglasses and a patterned shirt playing a painted guitar — Eric Clapton playing with Cream, in Hit Parader, July 1968. Hit Parader magazine · Public domain

The Fillmore

A show at the Fillmore

Geary Boulevard, San Francisco

Where Cream’s first American tour opened and “Toad” was taped. It still puts on shows most weeks at 1805 Geary Boulevard; a ticket is the way in.

See the calendar

Kensington Gore · 1968 and 2005

Pick a night

The Hall’s catalogue records Cream’s farewell on Tuesday 26 November 1968 at 17:45, with Yes and Taste, with Rory Gallagher, in support. Clapton recalled playing their final two shows here on 26 November; other accounts give two nights, 25 and 26 November. Tony Palmer’s film of the farewell went out on BBC television on 5 January 1969.

Sources

A working concert hall across the road from Kensington Gardens; book a show to go in.

Royal Garden Hotel

Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington

Kensington High Street, London

A five-star hotel on Kensington High Street beside Kensington Gardens. The hotel puts the Royal Albert Hall a ten-minute walk or a six-minute bus ride away.

Check rooms

The round red-brick Royal Albert Hall with its frieze and glass dome — The Royal Albert Hall, November 2022. Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0

24–26 October 2005 · New York

Madison Square Garden

After the London reunion they agreed to three more shows at Madison Square Garden, from 24 to 26 October 2005. Clapton said later that the New York shows did not live up to the Albert Hall ones, partly for lack of rehearsal.

A working arena above Penn Station; book an event to go in.

Sources

Visit

Where it is now

9 places you can visit. Winterland has gone, so its pin marks the apartments on its block; Atlantic’s pin marks its Broadway corner; Bruce’s Hampstead flat is private and is not mapped.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working racecourse beside the Thames; go on a race or event day.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working concert hall across the road from Kensington Gardens; book a show to go in.

Royal Windsor Racecourse from Maidenhead Road, 2022. Bryn Holmes · CC BY-SA 2.0
Maidenhead Road, Windsor
Royal Windsor Racecourse
On 31 July 1966 the Sixth National Jazz and Blues Festival was held at the Royal Windsor Racecourse.
A working racecourse beside the Thames; go on a race or event day.
Sources
The Royal Albert Hall, November 2022. Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0
Kensington Gore, South Kensington
Royal Albert Hall
The Hall’s catalogue records Cream’s farewell on Tuesday 26 November 1968 at 17:45, with Yes and Taste, with Rory Gallagher, in support.
A working concert hall across the road from Kensington Gardens; book a show to go in.
Sources

Stay

Sleep by Kensington Gardens.

A hotel on Kensington High Street, a short walk from the Albert Hall.

Royal Garden Hotel

Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington

Kensington High Street, London

A five-star hotel on Kensington High Street beside Kensington Gardens. The hotel puts the Royal Albert Hall a ten-minute walk or a six-minute bus ride away.

Check rooms

Go there

A ballroom and three cities.

A show at the Fillmore, and Albert Hall tours and music walks in San Francisco and New York on the marketplace.

The Fillmore

A show at the Fillmore

Geary Boulevard, San Francisco

Where Cream’s first American tour opened and “Toad” was taped. It still puts on shows most weeks at 1805 Geary Boulevard; a ticket is the way in.

See the calendar

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Royal Albert Hall tours

South Kensington

Live marketplace results for guided tours of the Royal Albert Hall, where Cream said goodbye in 1968 and came back in 2005. Check each listing for what it includes.

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San Francisco sixties music tours

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Live marketplace results for San Francisco rock history tours. Check each itinerary for the Fillmore; Winterland is gone.

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New York

Live marketplace results for Manhattan music history tours. Atlantic’s old corner at Broadway and West 60th has no studio to visit.

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What’s on

Nothing dated.

There is no Cream show on or after today. The Fillmore and the Albert Hall publish their own listings.

No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.

Take it home

Three books, four records.

Baker’s autobiography, Welch on the band, Platt on Disraeli Gears, and four records from 1966 to 2005.

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Hellraiser

Ginger Baker

Ginger Baker’s autobiography. John Blake, 2010.

Find the book

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Cream

Chris Welch

The band’s story by the Melody Maker writer who covered it. Backbeat, 2000.

Find the book

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Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

Search all places and Moments Current state Sort

10 of 10 places · 13 of 13 Moments

Royal Windsor Racecourse
Maidenhead Road, Windsor
- Windsor
  Cream’s official debut: 40 minutes in the rain for about 10,000 people.
Jack Bruce’s flat, Hampstead
Hampstead, north London
- The riff at dawn
  Bruce plays the Sunshine of Your Love riff on a double bass at his flat while Pete Brown watches the dawn.
Atlantic Studios, 1841 Broadway
Broadway at West 60th Street, Manhattan
- Disraeli Gears
  Cream make Disraeli Gears in three and a half days before their visas run out.
- Wheels of Fire, in the studio
  The studio half of Wheels of Fire is finished at Atlantic.
The Fillmore
1805 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco
- The Fillmore
  Cream’s first American tour opens at the Fillmore Auditorium.
- Toad, taped
  Baker’s “Toad” is recorded at the second show for Wheels of Fire.
Winterland
Post and Steiner Streets, San Francisco: now apartments
- Spoonful, taped
  “Spoonful” and “Crossroads” are recorded at the first Winterland show.
Oakland Coliseum Arena
7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland
- Goodbye begins
  The farewell tour opens in Oakland.
The Forum, Inglewood
3900 West Manchester Boulevard, Inglewood
- Goodbye, live
  The three live tracks for Goodbye are recorded at the Forum.
San Diego Sports Arena
3500 Sports Arena Boulevard, San Diego
- San Diego
  The farewell tour plays the Sports Arena; the tape stays unreleased until 2020.
Royal Albert Hall
Kensington Gore, South Kensington
- Farewell
  Cream’s farewell at the Royal Albert Hall, with Yes and Taste, filmed by Tony Palmer.
- Back at the Hall
  Four reunion shows at the Royal Albert Hall.
Madison Square Garden
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, Midtown Manhattan
- The Garden
  Three more reunion shows at Madison Square Garden.

CreamShort records. Long nights. Ten places.