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Monday, October 28, 2019

Relatives of British rockers Cream to play Weill Center in Sheboygan - Sheboygan Press

SHEBOYGAN - Legendary British super group Cream has been a rock 'n' roll institution for five-plus decades.

Featuring iconic guitarist Eric Clapton, versatile bassist Jack Bruce and erratic-yet-talented drummer Ginger Baker, the band has sold more than 15 million records worldwide and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

With the recent passing of Baker on Oct. 6, as well as the death of Bruce in 2014, surviving member Clapton continues to dazzle with his amazing body of solo material and various musical collaborations.

However, Cream’s musical legacy lives on with The Music of Cream, a tribute band featuring relatives of the original band in drummer Kofi Baker (Ginger’s son), bassist Malcolm Bruce (Jack’s son) and guitarist Will Johns (Eric’s nephew by marriage).

The trio will be making its Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts debut in Sheboygan on Saturday night on its 50th Anniversary World Tour.

The band has been performing to sell-out shows on its current U.K. tour and is excited about coming to the U.S. Although Johns and his bandmates are having a great time in in their homeland, the guitarist loves how American audiences hold nothing back.

“I love the American audience,” Johns explained during a recent phone interview with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. “They're very free and giving us their energy and their appreciation and they just love the music so much. As you can probably imagine, English audiences are somewhat reserved. Whether they're being polite or whether they're being judgmental, you never know. They're definitely very appreciative, but we have a really good time in the States.”

For the Weill Center show, besides hearing iconic Cream rock tunes such as “Strange Brew,” “White Room,” “Sunshine of Your Love” and more, the trio presents an ample amount of storytelling along with some rare “walk down memory lane” photo and video footage throughout the night.

“There’s quite a lot of photos,” Johns said. “Of course, these days everybody's got a mobile phone with a video camera on it. Back then, having a video camera was kind of a special thing. Going through the '80s and '90sand stuff like that, most people who had something — a bit of video footage or something — would have sold it to go into one of these beautiful documentaries or whatever. Mostly, we’re telling our stories from personal experience and what it was like growing up in these situations.”

With a span of four Cream studio albums, the Music of Cream’s set list consistently ebbs and flows, always changing from night to night.

“We played a number of different songs in rehearsals that didn't quite make it into the set just because they didn't stand up next to the other ones,” Johns explained. “In order to create a show with natural builds and make a good performance, we chose the amount of songs. But we're looking forward to our spring run as well, where we're going to be performing songs from the ‘Disraeli Gears’ album, and that will be the ‘Disraeli Gears’ tour.”

The original Cream were notorious for never playing their songs the same way twice in concert. Hence, the Music of Cream change it up every night as well, complete with creative improvisation and elongated guitar jams during each track.

“We are definitely stretching out; every night is different,” Johns admitted. “(There’s) a lot of improvisation. Kofi always says that Ginger said, ‘If they (Cream) played the songs the same way twice, then he'd get mad.’ So, we really do that.”

When the elder Baker passed away two-plus weeks ago, the Music of Cream were on tour in the U.K. Although it was public knowledge that the younger Baker had a cantankerous relationship with his father, he was able to have one last visit before his passing.

As Johns told me, “The show must go on.”

“Kofi’s doing fine,” he said of Baker’s passing. “It can be pretty tough and pretty emotional as you can probably imagine, but the show must go on. The whole thing that we’re doing here is honoring a very strong and superb musical legacy. I think that on some levels it’s definitely therapeutic and, of course, it being so recently, it's also maybe at times a little overwhelming.”

See the Music of Cream perform at the Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday night, sponsored by Bank First National and Quality Cleaning Service.

If you go ...

What: The Music of Cream

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts, 826 N. Eighth St., Sheboygan

Tickets: Tier 1, $38 plus tax; Tier 2, $32 plus tax; Tier 3, $24 plus tax. Tickets are available online at weillcenter.com, in person at the ticket office or by calling 920-208-3243

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Relatives of British rockers Cream to play Weill Center in Sheboygan - Sheboygan Press
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