Eric Clapton Video:

		List Price: $14.99		Label: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT Salesrank: 13239 Released: October 4, 2005
		Our Price: $7.47
		Used Price: $5.67
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
On guitar: Eric Clapton. Lead singer and bass guitarist: Jack Bruce. On drums: Ginger Baker. Their motto: "Forget the message, forget the lyrics, and just play." Their name: Cream. For two glorious years, Cream's high-volume blues, jamming and extended solos blazed a path into rock history. But the time to part had come, and all that remained was one wild, unforgettable concert. Now you are there, on November 26, 1968, inside London's illustrious Royal Albert Hall, jammed to its gilded rafters with rock fans ready for the final concert of what many still consider the greatest band that ever played. Includes rare off-stage interviews with the band members. BURST: Five Additional Songs! SONGS: Sunshine of Your Love • White Room • Politician • Improvisations • Stepping Out • Sitting on Top of the World • Spoonful • Toad • I'm So Glad • Improvisations • Crossroads Blues

Description of Cream - Farewell Concert:
Cream's 2005 reunion (after a mere 37 years apart) was big news and a very hot ticket. But anyone wondering what the fuss was all about is unlikely to get much enlightenment from Cream - Farewell Concert. The trio's (guitarist Eric Clapton, bass player Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker) November 1968 gig at London's Royal Albert Hall, the same venue chosen for their reunion, may have been a spectacular display of their instrumental virtuosity and legendary improvisational skills, but you'd never know it from this sub-par document. The sound has been digitally remastered, but the audio is still a turgid sonic sludge. The visuals are even worse, with director Tony Palmer jerking the camera around as if this were an episode of NYPD Blue, layering the picture with dated and distracting psychedelic light effects, and providing far too many close-ups of Bruce's teeth (and almost no wide shots of the entire band). As for the music, well, it's apparent that these boys really could play; surprisingly, Baker's jazz-inflected drum solo is one of the highlights. But their reliance on extended blues jams ("Spoonful," "Sitting on Top of the World," etc.) belies the fact that despite their dismissal of commercial rock music (cf. Bruce's lofty claim in an accompanying interview that "we wouldn't dream" of trying to write a hit single), Cream's four studio albums contain some wonderful pop songs. Farewell Concert includes "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room," but for a much more satisfying taste of what they were all about, try the CD or DVD versions of Cream - Royal Albert Hall - London May 2-3-5-6 2005 instead. --Sam Graham

Cream - Farewell Concert Reviews:
what it be like
2009-11-01 - The dvd was made when production values were rather low. The sound is not very good especially compared to recent dvd's.
The camera work is not much better. However, the performance is quite good. They are playing at or near their peak.
I would still recommend this dvd because I remember seeing cream back in the old days.
Well my memory is not that good either.

Worth seeing in spite of the bad camera work
2009-09-28 - Forget about the poor camera work, the music is great and you have a choice to hear it in Dolby Digital 5.1 or Mono. These are fantastic versions of Cream songs, most are complete and only Spoonful is interrupted by a 30 second narrative, and the start of Steppin' Out is merged with the Clapton narrative, other than that, they are complete. I especially like Steppin' Out because it features a devastating guitar solo--longer than the BBC Sessions version but shorter than the Live II version. And, I'm always looking for another version of the masterpiece Crossroads, which I found on this DVD. This DVD is worth watching just for the interviews of Clapton and Baker as they explain their instruments. I love the way Clapton explains using the guitar to show aggression and his demonstration of vibrato and putting together "stock phrases". Baker goes through each part of his drum kit and explains how he creates different effects. Baker is shy at the beginning of the interview but eventually really gets into it.

The worst thing about the camera work is not showing Clapton's or Bruce's hands, musicians like myself appreciate that sort of thing. I'm deducting a star because of that, but still worth hearing (and seeing).

Here's the track listing:

1. "November 26, 1968"
2. "Sunshine of Your Love"
3. "Jack Bruce"
4. "White Room"
5. "Politician"
6. "Crossroads"
7. "Eric Clapton"
8. "Steppin' Out"
9. "Sitting on Top of the World"
10. "Spoonful"
11. "Ginger Baker"
12. "Toad"
13. "Behind the Music"
14. "I'm So Glad"


The mythic legend still shines!
2008-07-14 - Cream - in the brief period of just two years - earned and gained the respect, admiration and countless praises of thousand and thousand people by then. Leonard Bernstein, believe o not, was one of his most fervent hard fans. In my personal case, Cream was one of my top bands between 1968 and 1970, the others were Steppenwolf, Vanilla Fudge, Doors, Ten years after and Band of Gypsies.

Their sound was utterly original, innovative and vibrating. Additionally every one of them was among the top list of virtuosos in every discipline. 100 % creativeness and full inspiration arouse a mesmerizing atmosphere wherever they appeared.

"Farewell Concert" is a nostalgic documental that revises the most exciting performances of these three young (by then) virtuosos. Nine songs were more than enough, Sunshine of your love, White room, Politician, Crossroads, Steppin' out, Sitting on the top of the world, Spoonful, Toad and I'm so glad to demonstrate us why they were the most remarkable Rock Trio ever existed.

The footage was extremely elemental. There are excessive and obstinate close ups, but despite of this minor flaws, between tracks there are thoughtful reflections of every integrant of this "Dream Team" . Jack Bruce (27) reflections, the brilliantly brief but effective interview with Eric Clapton and finally the monster of drum, Ginger Baker, with an unforgettable solo drums in Toad, make of this document an invaluable document for the posterity that you should not miss it.

Curiously Royal Albert Hall was the alpha and omega that unconsciously would prepare them for their monumental reappearance in 2005.



with a caveat
2008-03-16 - My caveat to my five star rating is that you skip from song to song and ignore the rest of the documentary. That way you get an hour of excellent music. The proper order of the songs, having seen two of the Cream's Farewell Tour performances, is White Room, I'm So Glad, Politician, Sitting on Top of The World, Steppin' Out, Toad, Crossroads, Spoonful and Sunshine of Your Love. Three songs, that Cream played during the concert, were cut out of the film by the director and were never on any VHS or DVD version of the movie, Sweetwine, NSU and Traintime. Cream also most likely performed another version of Sunshine of Your Love during the concert. The encore, which Cream had never done before, because they considered it too "Vegas," was not a normal part of their set and was a result of the audience refusing to leave Albert Hall for 45 minutes! However, Sunshine was a part of their set. The only other improvement would be to remove the light show mask from Stting on Top of The World and Spoonful. Most likely, however, this will be the last version of the film. The only way there would be a new and improved version would be if Cream did another big reunion concert or tour. Given the age of the members of the group this seems not to be in the cards.

It Should Have Been Great, but ...
2008-01-16 - We know the boys were giving it their bloody all, based on everything we've read about their farewell. Unfortunately, this production is nearly ruined by terrible sound, echoing all over the place, and then the abysmal camera work, which reaches a frustrating nadir when the stoned cameraman goes absolutely berserk with the zoom apparatus, wanking that thing for all it's worth in an apparent attempt to simulate an LSD trip (?) (and, my god, the editor left it in!) Other than that the camera is content to crawl up the nostrils of the trio or examine their dental work.

That being said, the interviews are rather amusing, with the lads innocently talking gear and technique.