Watch: The Final Cream Concert in 2005, a Result, Eric Clapton Said, of the Band “Cashing In”

Despite the long history of tension between Cream‘s Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, both along with Eric Clapton relented and agreed to reunite the band and play four shows in 2005 at Royal Albert Hall in London, which concluded on May 3. “Given the fact that we were all still capable of playing together,” wrote Clapton in his 2007 memoir, The Autobiography, “I thought it would be fitting to pay tribute to ourselves while we still could.”

Before the band’s four-night reunion in London in 2005, they had only played a three-song set together during their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1993. Before then, they hadn’t performed together since the band’s final farewell concert, also at the Royal Albert Hall, and the last of four shows, on November 26, 1968.

“Before the gig started, I just wanted to get it over with, but once I was up on stage, I became quite excited,” wrote Clapton about the band’s final show in ’68. “I thought it was great that we could do this and keep our heads high, and walk away from the whole thing with a fair amount of good grace.”

Clapton continued, “It also meant a lot to me knowing that out there in the audience there were not just fans, but musician friends, and people on the scene who had all come to say their goodbyes. My overwhelming emotion, however, was that we had done the right thing. I think we all knew that. At the end of the second show, there was no party, no speeches. We just went our separate ways.”

Cream never played again until the the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where they performed “Sunshine of Your Love,” “Crossroads,” and “Born Under a Bad Sign,”—the latter they had never played live before. During their four-night run in London in 2005, the band also played “Pressed Rat and Warthog” and “Badge” live for the first time.

“Cashing In”

Later in 2005 the band were given an offer they didn’t refuse and played three more finals show together at Madison Square Garden in New York City, which ended on October 26.

“The offer, when it came, was too good to refuse,” revealed Clapton in his book. “Ginger [Baker] did refuse, because he had no desire to go back to America for a myriad of reasons. But we persuaded him, and agreed to play Madison Square Garden for a lot of money. We had played the Albert [Royal Albert Hall] for love, and now we were cashing in, but who could really blame us? It just seemed like the logical thing to do.”

Before the New York City shows, the band rehearsed for a”meagre” two hours,” said Clapton, “without breaking a sweat,” before opening night on October 24. The brief rehearsal revealed that nothing, particularly the tensions within the band, had changed.

“In that short amount of time, our mindset had gone back to the ’60s, and once again we were flying high on our egos,” said Clapton. “As a result, and this of course is just my opinion, the New York shows were a pale shadow of what we sounded like in London. Lack of rehearsal was one thing, but it reflected something else.”

Returning to the ’60s

The “arrogance” had also returned within the band at that point, said Clapton. “Madison Square Garden is a big place, and we sounded small and tiny in there,” he said. “For me, the heart had gone out of it, and also a certain amount of animosity had crept back in. Maybe it was the money, who knows, but I did know that enough was enough, and I would probably not be passing this way again.”

Before the end of the band’s first show on October 24, Bruce and Baker were also fighting. “He shouted at me on stage, he turned his bass up so loud that he deafened me on the first gig,” said Baker. “He killed the magic. It was just a get through the gig, get the money sort of deal. I was absolutely amazed. … I didn’t want to do it in the first place simply because of how Jack was. I have worked with him several times since Cream, and I promised myself that I would never work with him again.”

Bruce and Baker managed to keep it together and made it through the next two shows together. During their 20-song set on the final night at MSG on October 26, the band opened with their 1966 cover of Skip James’ “I’m So Glad” and played through their four albums with “Spoonful,” “Deserted Cities of the Heart,” “Sitting on Top of the World,” and more before closing the set on “White Room” and Fresh Cream instrumental “Toad.”

“In many ways I wish we had left it at the Albert Hall [in 2005],” said Clapton of the Madison Square Garden shows, “but the offer we were made was too good to refuse.”

Like they had done in ’68 and their London reunion shows in 2005, Cream closed the set with their 1967 hit “Sunshine of Your Love.”

Chances of another Cream reunion ended in 2014 when Bruce died from liver disease. Baker later died in 2019 from complications of COPD.

Setlist: Cream at Madison Square Garden, October 26, 2005

1. I’m So Glad
2. Spoonful
3. Outside Woman Blues
4. Pressed Rat and Warthog
5. Sleepy Time Time
6. Tales of Brave Ulysses
7. N.S.U.
8. Badge
9. Politician
10. Sweet Wine
11. Roll and Tumble Blues
12. Call It Stormy Monday but Tuesday Is Just as Bad
13. Deserted Cities of the Heart
14. Born Under a Bad Sign
15. We’re Going Wrong
16. Cross Road Blues
17. Sitting on Top of the World
18. White Room
19. Toad
20. Encore
21. Sunshine of Your Love

Photo: Cream (l to r) Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, and Eric Clapton in concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, May 2, 2005 (Shutterstock/521757h)