Cream Hit the Garden

Eric Clapton was nervous before his first concert with Cream in almost thirty-seven years. "There's no keyboard players, no other guitar players," he says on the DVD of the band's reunion shows in May at London's Royal Albert Hall. "It's naked. [But] when we got through that week, I thought, 'Well, that's it, I can rest and relax now.' We pulled it off."

Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker -- who'd feuded for decades and reunited only for a 1993 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame performance -- enjoyed the London stand so much, they're bringing the show to America next Monday. "It's going to be very simple," says promoter Ron Delsener of the three nights (October 24th-26th) at New York's Madison Square Garden. "Just three guys making good music and the place going crazy."

The New York shows almost didn't happen. Baker, who lives in South Africa, had to resolve long-standing immigration issues to obtain a U.S. visa. His troubles stemmed from an attempt to gain permanent U.S. residency in the late 1990s, when he lived in Colorado. His application was denied because of two early-Seventies drug convictions and tax problems. "[The resolution] took about a month, and Ginger had to answer some questions," Delsener says. "I said, 'I'm not going to get excited until I see a copy of a stamped passport with Ginger's face on it.' One day, lo and behold, coming over my fax machine is this grinning face of Ginger Baker."

The Garden sets are likely to resemble the concerts captured on the Cream: Royal Albert Hall: London DVD, out now, which shows the trio opening with a subdued version of Skip James' "I'm So Glad" and tearing through "Sunshine of Your Love," "Badge" and "Crossroads." It includes sixteen minutes of separate interviews, in which Clapton, Bruce and Baker recall working up the rarely performed "I Feel Free," "Badge" and the Baker obscurity "Pressed Rat and Warthog."

"It was almost telepathic, the way they play together," says Martyn Atkins, director of the DVD. "You see 'em laughing at each other and giving each other eagle-eye looks. Everybody was walking on eggshells a little bit, but after the first night, it was cool."