Blind Faith were an English rock supergroup that consisted of Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech. They followed the success of each of the member's former bands, including Clapton and Baker's former group Cream and Winwood's former group Traffic, but they split after a few months, producing only one album and a three-month summer tour.
The group originated with informal jamming by Clapton and Winwood in early 1969 following the break-ups of Cream and Traffic. Baker joined them in rehearsals and they decided to form a group. Grech joined as the fourth member from the band Family in May, and they began recording their eponymous debut album. It drew controversy for featuring a photograph of a topless 11-year-old girl on the front cover, and it was issued with a different cover in the United States.
The first Blind Faith concert was on 7 June in front of an estimated 100,000 fans in Hyde Park, London, but they felt that they had not rehearsed enough and were unprepared. They subsequently played concerts in Scandinavia and the US, but the lack of material in the live set led them to play old Cream and Traffic songs which pleased the audience but disillusioned the band. Clapton became increasingly isolated during the tour, preferring to spend time with support act Delaney & Bonnie, and Blind Faith disbanded immediately after their last performance. Clapton and Winwood both enjoyed the music that they played together in the group's limited time, and they have since collaborated on several tours playing Blind Faith material.
Formation and early history
The origins of Blind Faith lay in the break-up of Cream in mid-1968. That trio was a major critical and commercial success, with millions of record sales in a few years, bringing international popularity to the group and each member. However, the band was crumbling from within because of frequent animosity between bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker, with Eric Clapton doing his best to mediate. Additionally, Clapton grew tired of playing commercially driven blues and hoped to progress with a new, experimental, less straitjacketed approach to the genre.[3] The group disbanded in November 1968 following two concerts at the Royal Albert Hall.[4]
Steve Winwood had faced similar problems to Clapton in the Spencer Davis Group, where he had been the lead singer for three years. Winwood wanted to experiment with the band's sound by infusing jazz elements, but left due to his musical differences, instead forming a new band, Traffic, in 1967. While that band was on hiatus in Christmas 1968, Winwood started to jam with his good friend Clapton in the latter's basement in Surrey, England.[4][5][lower-alpha 1] Clapton was pleased with the jam sessions with Winwood, but was hesitant to start a serious group.[6] The music press were hopeful that Clapton would form a band even better than Cream. At one point, Clapton and Winwood thought they might record with Duck Dunn and Al Jackson Jr., the rhythm section of Booker T. & the M.G.'s.[7]
In early 1969, Clapton and Winwood moved to Traffic's rehearsal cottage in Aston Tirrold, Berkshire.[4] Baker turned up one day to sit in with them, and the three seriously considered forming a group.[8] Clapton questioned letting Baker in the band, because he had promised Bruce that, if they were to work with one another again, all three of them would play. Moreover, Clapton did not want to reunite with Cream barely nine weeks after the break-up, and also did not want to deal with another band whose members had large reputations individually. Winwood ultimately persuaded Clapton to finalize Baker's inclusion in the line-up, arguing that Baker strengthened their musicianship and that it would be hard to find an equally talented drummer.[9] Traffic was put on hold and the other remaining members, multi-instrumentalist Chris Wood and drummer / singer Jim Capaldi, were informed. Winwood later realised that Clapton would probably have rather had Capaldi in the new group instead of Baker.[4]
Clapton and Winwood's respective managers, Robert Stigwood and Chris Blackwell, said they would be happy to manage the new band. This created immediate tension; Stigwood wanted a quick money-making formula, while the band wanted time to write songs and develop as a unit. Winwood later said, "they wanted a supergroup and we didn't".[4]
The formation of the group was announced to the press on 8 February 1969.[3] By May, Ric Grech, bassist with Family, was invited to join them. He left Family midway through a US tour, causing considerable acrimony with the rest of the group.[8][4] The new band's name was confirmed as "Blind Faith" around this time by Clapton, who thought it described everyone's self-belief that the band would be successful, no matter what happened.[10][4]
Because Winwood was signed to Island Records, he had to obtain permission from Blackwell (who owned the label) to appear on Polydor Records (to whom Clapton and Baker were signed in the U.K.).[11] A promotional single was released by Island, although the promotion was for the label itself. It was a single announcing the fact that they were moving their offices, titled "Change Of Address From 23 June 1969". This one-sided promo featured an instrumental jam by Blind Faith, who were not mentioned on the label (the only other label info is the new address, phone number, and new cable address of Island).[12] Recorded at Olympic Studios during session for the debut album, an estimated 500 copies of the single were pressed, and mostly sent to UK disc jockeys and other music industry insiders. The track was finally released widely when it appeared as a bonus track on the two-CD "Deluxe Edition" of the Blind Faith album in 2000 (titled "Change Of Address Jam").[13]
Upon its release in July 1969, the band's first and only album Blind Faith topped both the UK chart and Billboard's chart for Pop Album in the U.S.[14] The album sold more than half a million copies in the first month of its release[14] and helped rejuvenate sales of Cream albums. Best of Cream reached No.3 in the Billboard charts at the same time that Blind Faith was at the top.[15]
The cover art for the album was created by photographer Bob Seidemann,[16] a personal friend and former flatmate of Clapton, who is known primarily for his photos of Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead.[17] The cover was nameless – only the wrapping paper told the buyer who the artist was and the name of the album. It provoked controversy because it featured a topless 11-year-old girl, holding in her hands a silver space ship. The US record company issued it with an alternative cover with a photograph of the band on the front. The model on the cover posed upon consent by her parents and was paid £40 (£832 as of 2023) for the shot.[16][18]
During 2000 the entire album was remastered and re-released as a two-CD deluxe edition from Polydor that includes alternate takes, out-takes and studio rehearsal versions of the band's music created during the early months of 1969.[19]
Touring
News of Blind Faith's formation created a buzz of excitement among the public and press. The group debuted at a free concert at London's Hyde Park on 7 June 1969 in front of 100,000 fans.[20] Capaldi and Wood attended the gig, as did Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull.[4] The setlist contained all six numbers that would appear on the debut album, along with a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb", Traffic's "Means to an End", and Sam Myers' "Sleeping in the Ground".[21] The performance was well received by fans, but troubled Clapton, who thought that the band's playing was sub-par.[22] He spent much of the gig close to his amplifiers and not coming forward on stage; only Baker supplied any showmanship and theatrics during the set.[20]
Though the group were still developing, their management insisted they continue touring to provide income.[18] Clapton, knowing the band had not rehearsed enough and was unprepared, was reluctant to tour, but agreed to do so because he could collaborate with Winwood and had no better work offers.[8] The recording of their album continued, followed by a short tour of Scandinavia, where the band played smaller gigs and was able to rehearse their sound and prepare it for bigger audiences in the US and UK. After Scandinavia, the band toured the United States, making their debut at Madison Square Garden on 12 July.[18]
A major problem with the tour was that the band had only a few songs in their catalogue, barely enough to fill an hour, which the audience did not know well.[23] Clapton in particular was against any lengthy jamming, which had been Cream's trademark, which would have allowed them to stretch out a set to a sufficient length.[24] The group were forced to play old Cream and Traffic songs, to the delight of a crowd which usually preferred the old hits to the new Blind Faith material. Clapton resented being in a popular supergroup when he had intended to start a more low-key project. They were playing the same material from his Cream days, to appease the audience and to fill the void left by the lack of adequate new material.[18] Clapton wanted to play the Woodstock Festival, which occurred during the tour, but was outvoted by the rest of the group.[25]
The tour was supported by opening acts Free, Taste, and R&B-based rock act Delaney & Bonnie. Because Clapton liked the soulful, folksy-sounding blues of Delaney & Bonnie, he began spending most of his time with them instead of Blind Faith,[18] letting Winwood take a more prominent role in the band.[24] Clapton even began sitting in on Delaney & Bonnie's opening sets, sometimes simply playing percussion, and showing more interest in them than his own band. He also wanted them to be the headliners instead of Blind Faith.[26]
The band toured for seven more weeks in the US, finishing in Hawaii on 24 August.[27][4] After the gig, Clapton and Winwood decided to end the group. Grech was immediately informed, but Baker did not find out until he had returned to England following a short holiday in Jamaica. When he finally got home to the UK, he met with Winwood and was upset to find that the band had disbanded.[27]
Aftermath
After the tour finished in August, various press reports speculated on future band activity, with Stigwood announcing that there would be further tours forthcoming.[4] In October, the band issued a press release saying they had disbanded.[3] There was no further activity from the group, though several tracks from the band can be found on Steve Winwood's 1995 retrospective album The Finer Things.[28] In 2005, the live album London Hyde Park 1969 was released, documenting the entire concert at the park.[29]
Clapton had mixed feelings about ending the group, and felt guilty about abandoning a project that Winwood had put more involvement into than himself. He stepped out of the spotlight, first to sit in with the Plastic Ono Band,[30] and then to tour as a sideman for Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. This freed him of the attention that he had considered a plague to both Cream and Blind Faith.[27] After his sideman stint, he took several members from Delaney & Bonnie to form a new super-group, Derek and the Dominos.[31] He never dropped his Blind Faith repertoire completely, and occasionally performed "Presence of the Lord" and "Can't Find My Way Home" throughout his solo career.[16][32]
Unlike Clapton, Baker had enjoyed his Blind Faith experience and looked to carry on an offshoot of the band in the form of Ginger Baker's Air Force with both Grech and Winwood.[33] After a few shows together, Winwood left to record a solo album Mad Shadows, which turned into the Traffic album John Barleycorn Must Die.[34] Clapton turned up backstage to a Traffic gig in 1970 and played dual lead guitar with Winwood on "Dear Mr. Fantasy", fuelling rumours of a reunion of the pair.[35] Grech joined Traffic's touring band after the album was released, and played on the Traffic albums The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys and Welcome to the Canteen.[36] Winwood would later go on to have a successful solo career, and Grech was a member of various groups before his death in 1990.[4] Baker died on 6 October 2019, leaving Winwood and Clapton as the only two surviving members of Blind Faith.[37]
Clapton and Winwood reunions
Clapton and Winwood performed together again on stage as part of the Action for Research into Multiple Sclerosis (ARMS) tour in 1983. The shows were a benefit for former Small Faces and Faces member Ronnie Lane, who was suffering from the syndrome.[38]
In July 2007, Clapton and Winwood reunited for a performance during the second Crossroads Guitar Festival held at the Toyota Park Center of Bridgeview (Illinois), where the duo performed a number of Blind Faith songs as part of their set. That performance inspired the two to perform three reunion concerts at Madison Square Garden that took place on 25, 26 and 28 February 2008. It was not an official Blind Faith reunion, but simply "Winwood and Clapton". They performed the four songs on the first side of Blind Faith as well as selections from Traffic, Derek and the Dominos, Clapton's solo career and some covers.[39] A DVD and a two-disc CD of these performances was released in 2009.[40]
On 10 June 2009, Winwood and Clapton began a 14-date United States summer tour at the Izod Center in New Jersey, again including Blind Faith material in their setlist.[41] Winwood and Clapton met again for a series of five concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall from 26 May to 1 June 2011.[42] Clapton and Winwood both returned to play Hyde Park on 8 July 2018, though they performed separately.[43]
In February 2020, Clapton and Winwood played a selection of Blind Faith material at a tribute gig to Baker at the Eventim Apollo.[44]
Eric Patrick Clapton is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. He ranked second in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". He was named number five in Time magazine's list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players" in 2009. In 2023, Rolling Stone named Clapton the 35th best guitarist of all time.
A supergroup is a musical group formed of members who are already successful as solo artists or as members of other successful groups. The term became popular in the late 1960s when members of already successful rock groups recorded albums together, after which they normally disbanded. Charity supergroups, in which prominent musicians perform or record together in support of a particular cause, have been common since the 1980s. The term is most common in the context of rock and pop music, but it has occasionally been applied to other musical genres. For example, opera superstars the Three Tenors and hip hop duos Kids See Ghosts and Bad Meets Evil all have been called supergroups.
Cream were a British rock supergroup formed in London in 1966. The group consisted of bassist Jack Bruce, guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker. Bruce was the primary songwriter and vocalist, although Clapton and Baker contributed to songs. Formed by members of previously successful bands, they are widely considered the first supergroup. Cream were highly regarded for the instrumental proficiency of each of their members.
Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker was an English drummer. His work in the 1960s and 1970s earned him the reputation of "rock's first superstar drummer", for a style that melded jazz and African rhythms and pioneered both jazz fusion and world music.
Stephen Lawrence Winwood is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player and vocalist, prominent for his distinctive soulful high tenor voice, Winwood plays other instruments proficiently, including drums, mandolin, bass and saxophone.
Blind Faith is the only studio album by the English supergroup Blind Faith, originally released in 1969 on Polydor Records in the United Kingdom and Europe and on Atco Records in the United States. It topped the album charts in the UK, Canada and US, and was listed at No. 40 on the US Soul Albums chart. It has been certified platinum by the RIAA.
Derek and the Dominos was an English–American blues rock band formed in the spring of 1970 by singer-guitarist Eric Clapton, keyboardist-singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon. All four members had previously played together in Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, during and after Clapton's brief tenure with Blind Faith. Dave Mason supplied additional lead guitar on early studio sessions and played at their first live gig. Another participant at their first session as a band was George Harrison, the recording for whose album All Things Must Pass marked the formation of Derek and the Dominos.
Jimmy Miller was an American record producer and musician. While he produced albums for dozens of different bands and artists, he is known primarily for his work with several key musical acts of the 1960s and 1970s.
Delaney & Bonnie was an American duo of singer-songwriters Delaney Bramlett and Bonnie Bramlett. In 1969 and 1970, they fronted a rock/soul ensemble, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, whose members at different times included Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Leon Russell, Bobby Whitlock, Dave Mason, Steve Howe, Rita Coolidge, and King Curtis.
Ginger Baker's Air Force was a jazz-rock fusion supergroup led by drummer Ginger Baker.
John Weider is an English rock musician who plays guitar, bass, and violin. He is best known as the guitarist for the Animals from 1966 to 1968. He was also the bass player for Family from 1969 to 1971.
Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse was a British blues rock studio group formed in 1966. They recorded three songs, which were released on the Elektra Records compilation What's Shakin' in 1966. A possible fourth song remained unreleased.
London Hyde Park 1969 is the official video album by Blind Faith of their appearance at a free concert held in Hyde Park in London on 7 June 1969. It was released in the UK in 2005, and in the US and Canada in 2006. The concert was the band's debut performance and took place two months before the release of their debut album, Blind Faith, in August 1969.
Eric Clapton at His Best is a two-LP compilation of Eric Clapton's work after he left his earlier band Cream, released in September 1972. It was concurrently released with a two-LP compilation of Cream tracks, Heavy Cream, along with "at His Best" solo retrospectives by Cream's other members Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.
"Can't Find My Way Home" is a song written by Steve Winwood that was first released by Blind Faith on their 1969 album Blind Faith. The song was also issued as a single B-side in some countries in 1969 and as an A-side, on the RSO label in the United States, in 1977.
Backtrackin' is a two-disc compilation album by Eric Clapton spanning the years 1966 to 1980. It was released in 1984. The compilation contains all of Clapton's best known songs with Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominos, and his solo 1970s work through his 1980 live album Just One Night. This compilation album is made in Germany and is only available in the United States as an import. It was originally released by Starblend Records, and has since been reissued by Polydor Records. This 2 CD compilation is currently out of print in some markets while still available in some form in others.
Richard Roman Grechko, better known as Ric Grech, was a British rock musician. He is best known for playing bass guitar and violin with the rock band Family as well as in the supergroups Blind Faith and Traffic. He also played with ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker.
Live from Madison Square Garden is a double CD and DVD live album by Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, which was released on 19 May 2009 by Duck / Reprise Records. The album is made up of recordings from Clapton and Winwood's performances at Madison Square Garden in February 2008. It is Clapton's ninth live album and Winwood's first live album as a solo artist.
The London Muddy Waters Sessions is a studio album by Muddy Waters, released in 1972 on Chess Records. A follow-up to 1971's The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, the concept was to combine American bluesmen with British and Irish blues/rock stars. The album was an attempt to capitalise on the increasing popularity of traditional blues music and blues artists in Britain.
References
Notes
↑ Clapton and Winwood had previously collaborated on the "Powerhouse" project,[3] and Clapton had joined the Spencer Davis Group onstage at The Marquee club in London.[4]
Citations
↑ uDiscover Team (11 February 2020). "Blind Faith". uDiscover Music. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
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