When Cream, the first rock “supergroup”, broke up in 1968, it was widely assumed that bassist/singer Jack Bruce was bound for stardom while Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker would merely go back to playing journeyman blues and jazz. After a further attempt at high-profile rock coalition with Blind Faith, Baker went on to a career in Afro-rock (plus some jazz and much notoriety), while Clapton, after various personal disasters, became an Armani-suited statesman of mature, middle-ground pop, filling the Albert Hall – where Cream held their farewell concert – for weeks at a time. Bruce, meanwhile, went off to craft a series of complex, highly personal records, marked out by unusual time signatures, dense harmonies and searching, poetic lyrics, often written by his collabo