Melissa Kate

After the demise of blues-rock giants Cream in 1968, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker bounced back by forming supergroup Blind Faith with Traffic frontman Steve Winwood and bass player Ric Grech from cult prog-rock favourites Family. Clapton's reputation as a top guitarist was well-established after stints with The Yardbirds and The Bluesbreakers and with Baker's wild energy and atomic, jazzy drum rhythms, Cream became a monstrous power trio beloved by Jimi Hendrix and regarded as pioneers of heavy metal and prog-rock. Winwood, too, was highly respected as one of the great British, blue-eyed soul singers of the era, and had found fame as a teen idol with The Spencer Davis Group and, later, with psych-pop stompers Traffic, while Grech was less known but widely admired for his thunderous, fuzzy bass lines and ability to jam and anchor the chaos.

Clapton was initially reluctant to launch a new band on such a huge scale and was said to be disappointed with their performance when they played their first gig in London's Hyde Park in front of 100,000 people in 1969. Their hastily recorded, self-titled debut album followed soon afterwards, however, and went on to top the charts in the UK, USA and Canada, despite controversy over its cover art which featured a topless young girl and had to be changed for the American audience. Promotional singles 'Can't Find My Home' and 'Presence of the Lord' marked them out as a soulful blues-rock outfit while the second half of the record descended into a meandering swampy jam on the 15-minute Ginger Baker number 'Do What You Like'. Despite massive interest in the group and a successful tour of Europe and America, upon their return to Britain, the band split less than a year after forming.

Winwood and Clapton went on to have successful solo careers as well as collaborations with other artists. Grech became a session musician for a time before retiring from the music business in the mid-'70s. He passed away at the age of 43 in 1990. Baker formed Ginger Baker's Air Force in the wake of Blind Faith, also performing with many artists before his death in 2019 at the age of 80.