Cream rises again

Now it’s time for Cream.

Fans crossed the Atlantic and paid up to 2,000 pounds($3,800) a ticket for the reunion of the sixties supergroup, 36 years after their acrimonious split.

The atmosphere at the first of their gigs at London’s Royal Albert Hall may have been, as one critic said, more like a corporate hospitality tent at the Wimbledon tennis tournament than a rock concert, with balding fans outnumbering long-haired devotees.

But most reviews were more generous about the gyrating geriatrics.

Guitarist Eric Clapton joined forces with drummer Ginger Baker and bass player Jack Bruce to re-create hits such as Sunshine of Your Love that helped to sell 35 million records in less than three years together.

The trio, already renowned musicians on the British blues and rock scene when they formed in 1966 at Baker’s suggestion, last reunited briefly in 1993 when inducted into the Los Angeles Hall of Fame. All are now in their 60s, with Bruce recovering from a liver transplant, Baker suffering from osteoarthritis and Clapton clean after years of drug and alcohol abuse.

‘‘Thanks for waiting all those years,’’ Clapton told fans who gave them a standing ovation at Monday night’s concert. ‘‘We were cut off in our prime.’’ ‘‘This is our prime,’’ Bruce yelled back.

Cream was a classic case of rock excess with Clapton freely admitting that their legendary extended solos were due more to insobriety than creativity. ‘‘We’d be in the middle of a song and not remember what it was. You just kept playing until you recalled what it was you were coming back to,’’ he recalled in a radio interview before the gig.

Despite the well documented clash of three rock super-egos, Clapton said: ‘‘Some of the nights I played with the band have never been equalled because to really get to that level, you have to play together every night with nothing to distract you.’’ —Reuters