Not my era, not really my kind of music but…

…there’s no denying that Cream were a fantastic band. Only three of them but Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker punched well above their weight in talent, influence and musical significance. In the late 60s, they turned rock music into a serious art form which was either a wonderful or awful thing. I think it was wonderful and only became awful when prog rock became pompous, overblown and self-consciously serious – when it lost the purpose and purity of Cream. This morning, there are just two members of Cream because bassist Jack Bruce died yesterday. We should mourn the passing of a great musician. And we should mourn an era when popular music meant so much more than The X Factor.