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Blind Faith's live debut heads to DVD
03/14/2006 9:50 PM, Reuters
Short-lived supergroup Blind Faith's
live debut will be chronicled on the DVD "London Hyde Park
1969," due April 10 in Europe and the following month in North
America via Sanctuary.
The DVD features renditions of all six tracks from the
group's lone self-titled studio album, which had not even been
released at the time of the show.
"Beautiful summer afternoon, loads of people -- well over
100,000," drummer Ginger Baker recalled in an interview with
Billboard.com. "Happy, relaxed, laid back gig -- not loud on
stage. Just pleasant volume unlike (the) preceding band I
played with."
Blind Faith rose out of the ashes of Cream, when Baker and
Eric Clapton united with ex-Spencer Davis and Traffic
singer/keyboardist Steve Winwood and Family bassist Rick Grech.
Although Clapton's main inspiration for forming the group was
to move away from Cream's endless live soloing, "London Hyde
Park 1969" has its fair share of jamming, including the drum
solo showcase "Do What You Like."
Also featured are covers of the Rolling Stones' "Under My
Thumb," Traffic's "Means to an End" and the blues standard
"Sleeping in the Ground." Vintage performances from Spencer
Davis Group, Traffic and Cream round out the package.
The majority of the tracks still hold up well for Baker
after all these years. "My favorite tracks are 'Sea of Joy',
'Can't Find My Way Home,' 'Presence of the Lord' and 'Had to
Cry Today' -- all four are classics," Baker says. "If Blind
Faith had not been such a brief thing, would probably all have
been released as singles. Great shame."
After their live debut at Hyde Park, Blind Faith soldiered
on for a U.S. tour of arenas, which was met with riots and
clashes between fans and police on several occasions. The group
quietly disbanded afterwards, with its members going on to
other projects.
Despite the release of DVD, Baker rules out any chance of a
Blind Faith reunion. "Rick Grech died many years ago (in
1990)," he notes. "I just come out of retirement for short
periods. I'm pretty much crippled with arthritis -- playing is
a very painful experience for me."
Reuters/Billboard
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