How Edinburgh rocked with the Cream of bands - Steve Cardownie

Cream in 1967, (from left) Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton

During a refreshment in a Rose Street hostelry on Monday, I struck up a conversation with a fellow drinker.

He told me that he wrote songs for and sung with the rock band “Emotional Debris.” As we were of the same age we reminisced about the bands we had seen in Edinburgh when, to paraphrase Billy Joel, again, we wore a younger man’s clothes.

I told him that I had seen “The Fleetwood Mac Story” at the Fringe and that it brought back memories of seeing the real Fleetwood Mac playing in The Usher Hall when they performed a note perfect rendition of “Albatross.”

We spoke about “Ten Years After” supported by” T-Rex” also at the Usher Hall, (in 1970) which was one of the main venues in Edinburgh at the time for touring bands. Chicken Shack, Taste, Family and Stone the Crows were all concerts that we both attended.

I mentioned that although I never saw Cream I did see their former drummer’s new band Ginger Baker’s Airforce, also at the Usher Hall in 1970. Another renowned drummer at the time was Aynsley Dunbar, who I “roadied” for at Frisco’s in Chalmers Close off the High Street.

Roadied is stretching it a bit as I was standing outside, ticketless, when the band’s equipment was being loaded in. My offer of help was thankfully accepted and “boab’s yer uncle,” I was in.

Many other bands were namechecked before I left to go home and tune in to Youtube where I wallowed in the concerts of old and remembered times past. Memories of a bygone era but which will forever remain with me.