Blind Faith

Blind Faith were an English rock supergroup that consisted of Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech. They followed the success of the members' former bands, including Clapton and Baker's former group Cream and Winwood's former group Traffic, but they split after a few months, producing only one album and a three-month summer tour.The group originated with informal jamming by Clapton and Winwood in early 1969 following the break-ups of Cream and Traffic. Baker joined them in rehearsals and they decided to form a group. Grech joined as the fourth member from the band Family in May, and they began recording their eponymous debut album. It drew controversy for featuring a photograph of a topless 11-year-old girl on the front cover, which was quickly withdrawn and reissued with a different cover in the United States.The first Blind Faith concert was on 7 June in front of an estimated 100,000 fans in Hyde Park, London, but they felt that they had not rehearsed enough and were unprepared. They subsequently played concerts in Scandinavia and the United States, but the lack of material in the live set led them to play old Cream and Traffic songs which pleased the audience but disillusioned the band. Clapton became increasingly isolated during the tour, preferring to spend time with support act Delaney & Bonnie, and Blind Faith disbanded immediately after their last performance. Clapton and Winwood both enjoyed the music that they played together in the group's limited time, and they have since collaborated on several tours playing Blind Faith material.The origins of Blind Faith lay in the break-up of Cream in late 1968. The trio was a major critical and commercial success, with millions of record sales in a few years, bringing international popularity to the group and each member. However, the band was crumbling from within, because of frequent animosity between bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker, with Eric Clapton doing his best to mediate. Additionally, Clapton grew tired of playing commercially driven blues and hoped to progress with a new, experimental, less straitjacketed approach to the genre. The group disbanded in November 1968 following two concerts at the Royal Albert Hall.Steve Winwood had faced similar problems to Clapton in the Spencer Davis Group, where he had been the lead singer for three years. Winwood wanted to experiment with the band's sound by infusing jazz elements, but left due to his musical differences, instead forming a new band, Traffic, in 1967. While that band was on hiatus in Christmas 1968, Winwood started to jam with his good friend Clapton in the latter's basement in Surrey, England. Clapton was pleased with the jam sessions with Winwood, but was hesitant to start a serious group. The music press were hopeful that Clapton would form a band even better than Cream. At one point, Clapton and Winwood thought they might record with Duck Dunn and Al Jackson Jr., the rhythm section of Booker T. & the M.G.'s.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.