"Uncle Russ" Takes "Slow Hand" Out for a Day of Shopping

In October 1967 Cream played the Grande for three nights in October.

The Grande, Then and Now

This video shows the Grande Ballroom mostly in it's present ruinous condition, but there are also shots from it's heyday. There's a shot of the front on opening night, the people from Magic Veil Light Company, the crowds, and the bands. Oh the bands that played there! The Frost, whose song "Rock 'n' Roll Music" you hear throughout the video were as musically air-tight solid as any band that played the ballroom, local or national. There are also shots of Cream and the Who playing one of their favorite venues. It's a little known fact that Cream did most of their touring Stateside and the Grande was the venue they played the most. In fact, they recorded an album there.

A Night Never to be Forgotten

It's Saturday October 12, 1968. Cream, who are on their "Goodbye Tour" have just finished their concert at Olympia Stadium (the Old Red Barn for all you fellow Red Wing fans out there). It's still early, so the band makes the short trip down Grand River to catch Clapton's friend and mentor John Mayall at the Grande Ballroom. Well, it just so happens that your friendly correspondent was at the Grande on this particular night and at some point you could sense a buzz running through the crowd...over and above the buzz most of us came there with! (When the Grande first opened in 1966 there was no stage entrance for the bands to enter through...they had to walk through the front door like everybody else!) I don't know if this had changed by October of '68 but it might explain why the crowd sensed that something memorable was in store. Memorable doesn't do the night justice. Eric borrowed Mick Taylor's Les Paul Bigsby Burst (see pictures above) and sat in with his old band mates. The crowd ate it up. Me...I thought I had died and gone to heaven. BTW, that's Ginger Baker in the background with Eric in the next to last photo. I have no idea who the bloke (I'm guessing he's from the UK) facing the camera is. The last photo is of the guy who loaned EC his guitar and a guy who was and is massively talented, yet almost always overlooked or an afterthought when discussing Rock's greatest guitarists...Mick Taylor.