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6-7-69 

Blind Faith ,Richie Havens, Donovan, Edgar Broughton Band, Third Ear Band.


 
   The first of the second season of free concerts and a mega show with so called "super group " Blind Faith making their debut in front of a highly expectant crowd of some 120.000, who were there expecting Cream like guitar pyrotechnics and lengthy jams.

     Instead they got a low key show from a rather hesitant band who were not really prepared for such a high profile debut, despite featuring such legends as Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Steve Winwood as part of the line-up.

 

Right :Unknown announcer announces unknown act , any suggestions as to identity ?

Photo © Barry Gonen

    Weirdly, this show paralleled the first major concert by Cream at the National Jazz and Blues Festival of 1966, in one major aspect,  inasmuch as both bands did not really have enough strong material to present to their respective audiences. However, the difference was that Cream were received wildly because of the strength of their collective jamming , whilst with Blind Faith , Clapton was no longer keen to step into the spotlight , the songs were more subtle and laid back and the material was just not well rehearsed enough for the band to feel really confident in delivering it to such a huge and somewhat removed audience.

Fortunately the film of the Blind Faith set has now been released on DVD so you can all buy a copy and decide if it was as good or as bad as it was purported to be .Lots of reviews out there and it apparently comes up quite well after all these years .

Miniscule Idiot dancer coterie at play

photo©Barry Gonen
    As usual, as at the Stones Concert in 1969, the press were so busy documenting the BIG NAME ACT,  the performances of all the other acts seem to have been almost totally ignored .The Third Ear Band were on first , starting the show at 2.30 and no doubt entertained with their catchy drones and hypno songettes, they were something of a Hyde Park institution , although hardly inclined to get everyone up and idiot dancing .The Edgar Broughton Band would have been the only act to have raised any sort of energy from the crowd and this might have been the gig where Edgar led a section of the crowd off into the London streets to exorcise some establishment demons ,but then, yet again, it might not ....

    Richie Havens then took to the stage and did his usual atmospheric set , thrashing his poor guitar to shreds. Donovan made another of his unexpected appearances, and he performed a short set which could not really be heard very well due to inadequate amplification. He was appreciated by those down the front, but was more or less ignored by the rest of the crowd.

 

It was a really hot day, but the worst of it would have been past when Blind Faith hit the stage at 5pm. Initially the audience were on their feet for "Its All Right" but when it became evident that the band were not going to follow in the footsteps of Cream , or even those of Traffic, the dancing stopped and the crowd settled down to see what this new band were really about.

Ginger Baker was trying to push the band along, but after a while he realized that things were not going like they had in rehearsal  " Eric had been doing amazing stuff, But at Hyde Park I kept on wondering when he was going to start playing " Rick Grech put it down to inexperience with the material " I was nervous, "he said, " We knew the numbers, but not to the extent of not having to think of them, " Clapton said " I came off stage shaking like a leaf because I felt that, once again , I'd let people down."

Left: Richie Havens Photo courtesy of Jules © click on the photo for a closeup

(To purchase copies of the photo without the watermark , contact Jules )

   And yet, they ended up playing three encores. Some in the crowd called for the return of Cream and overall there was not the rapturous response from the audience that musicians of this status were used to ,but then again, it was not a total disaster. The potential was there for the band to have cooked , if they had been given the time and if they had not had certain expectations foistered on them by the press and their audiences.

   Within a few months Blind Faith was no more, destroyed by the constant pressures of touring , the presence of riotous audiences in the US who simply were not ready for this quiter, more thoughtful version of two thirds of Cream.

   As for the erstwhile Cream members, Ginger Bakers heavy drug habits and Eric Clapton's disillusion with his guitar god status and what he thought of as cliched playing on his part certainly did not help to keep the Blind Faith vision viable.It would be over thirty years before audiences were to have the pleasure of seeing Baker and Clapton play together again at the Cream re-union concerts in 2005.

Photos in this section ©Barry Gonen

Hyde park photogallery
Blind Faith Hyde park photogallery

Blind Faiths Set list.
Well All Right , Sea Of Joy, Sleeping In The Ground, Under My Thumb, Can't Find My Way Home , Do What You Like, In The Presence Of The Lord, Means To An End, Had To Cry Today.


Any info you have to contribute about this show contact Contact email

 (These pages include large photogalleries of the concert, most especially King Crimson and Jack Bruce. )

Concert reviews and info -1974-76