Blind Faith at Hyde Park DVD

Eyes Wide Shut

It's been 37 years since Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Rick Gretch came together to record one album as Blind Faith, the first true supergroup in rock. For those of you unfamiliar with music recorded prior to this decade, a supergroup is a group consisting of established stars of other bands. Some current examples would be Audioslave, born from the ashes of Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine or Velvet Revolver doing the same with former Guns n' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots bandmembers.

Anyways back to 1969, Clapton and Baker have just rid themselves of their former band Cream, even though they are two thirds of it. Winwood is fresh from the defunct psychedelic band traffic and bassman Rick Gretch has just left Family, a roots rocking outfit. Working on an album together the quartet decide to take it on the road with a free concert at Londons' Hyde Park, resulting in an hour long set captured in this film along with a documentary introduction to it. The songs are up to par, with a version of "Can't Find My Way Home" superior to the album cut and a good cover of the Stones' "Under My Thumb" and Traffics' "Means To An End." The sound quality is not bad considering stereo music was roughly a decade old. The camera work is interesting albeit dating this concert as something from 1969.

We also get some bonus goodies in promo clips of Traffic, Cream and Family. VH1 classic eat your heart out.