Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005

Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005
A psychedelic-style line drawing of the members of Cream (from left to right: Ginger Baker, Eric Clapton, and Jack Bruce), circa the late 1960s. The band members are pink with yellow and red highlights and the logo of the band and album name are red on a blue background. The autograph of artist John Van Hamersveld is in the lower right corner.
Live album by Cream
Released 3 October 2005
Genre Blues-rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock
Length 115:35
Label Reprise
Producer Simon Climie
Cream chronology

Cream Gold
(2005)		 Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005
(2005)

Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005 is a live album by the English rock band Cream, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in 2005 during the band's reunion tour. As the title implies, the recording includes songs from their four reunion shows on 2, 3, 5, and 6 May 2005.

Within five months of these performances, this collection of recordings was released as separate double Compact Disc and double DVD sets. Two months later in December, a triple LP set was also released,[1] containing tracks identical to the CD set. A Blu-ray version also exists.[2]

The album reached #59 on the Billboard 200 album chart on 22 October 2005.[3]

Reception

Critical

In his review for Allmusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that the shows at the Royal Albert Hall did not live up to Cream's concerts in the past, including their performance for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is not necessarily all because of their age, although some of it was, but because they have not been together in a while.[4] J. D. Considine spoke much more highly of the shows because Cream were not as fixated with psychedelic jam sessions and sounded better than before.[5]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [4]
Blender [5]

Sales

Shortly after the DVD of Cream's performance at the Royal Albert Hall was released in 2005, the Australian Recording Industry Association certified the release platinum with shipments of over 15,000 units.[6] On 11 July 2006 the Recording Industry Association of America certified the DVD box-set 5 times multi-platinum with sales of over 500,000 units(Video performances only have to sell 100,000 for platinum certification)[7] On 1 December 2005 the Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers certified the DVD platinum.[8]

Compact Disc track listing

Disc one
  1. "I'm So Glad" (Skip James) – 6:18
  2. "Spoonful" (Willie Dixon) – 7:29
  3. "Outside Woman Blues" (Blind Joe Reynolds) – 4:33
  4. "Pressed Rat and Warthog" (Ginger Baker, Mike Taylor) – 3:21
  5. "Sleepy Time Time" 1 (Jack Bruce, Janet Godfrey) – 6:08
  6. "N.S.U." (Bruce) – 6:02
  7. "Badge" 1 (Eric Clapton, George Harrison) – 3:59
  8. "Politician" (Bruce, Pete Brown) – 5:08
  9. "Sweet Wine" (Baker, Godfrey) – 6:28
  10. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" (Muddy Waters) – 5:02
  11. "Stormy Monday" 2 (T-Bone Walker) – 8:09
  12. "Deserted Cities Of The Heart" (Bruce, Brown) – 3:56
Disc two
  1. "Born Under a Bad Sign" (Booker T. Jones, William Bell) – 5:31
  2. "We're Going Wrong" (Bruce) – 8:26
  3. "Crossroads" (Robert Johnson, arr. Clapton) – 4:25
  4. "White Room" 1 (Bruce, Brown) – 5:39
  5. "Toad" 2 (Baker) – 10:07
  6. "Sunshine of Your Love" 1 (Bruce, Clapton, Brown) – 8:46
  7. "Sleepy Time Time" 1 (Alternate) (Bruce, Godfrey) – 6:07

DVD track listing

Disc one
  1. "I'm So Glad" (James)
  2. "Spoonful" (Dixon)
  3. "Outside Woman Blues" (Reynolds)
  4. "Pressed Rat and Warthog" (Baker, Taylor)
  5. "Sleepy Time Time" 1 (Bruce, Godfrey)
  6. "N.S.U." (Bruce)
  7. "Badge" 1 (Clapton, Harrison)
  8. "Politician" (Bruce, Brown)
  9. "Sweet Wine" (Baker, Godfrey)
  10. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" (Waters)
  11. "Stormy Monday" 2 (Walker)
  12. "Deserted Cities of the Heart" 1 (Bruce, Brown)
  13. "Born Under a Bad Sign" (Jones, Bell)
  14. "We're Going Wrong" (Bruce)
Disc two
  1. "Crossroads" (Johnson, arr. Clapton)
  2. "Sitting on Top of the World" (Chester Burnett)
  3. "White Room" 1 (Bruce, Brown)
  4. "Toad" 2 (Baker)
  5. "Sunshine of Your Love" 1 (Bruce, Clapton, Brown)

Notes

The recording of "Sitting On Top of the World", the alternate takes of "We're Going Wrong" and "Sunshine of Your Love" and the interviews are exclusive to the DVD set. All other tracks are identical to the CD release.

Credits

Cream
Production

Charts

Chart (2005) Peak
position
Australian Top 40 Music DVDs[9] 3
Austrian Top 10 Music DVDs[10] 1
Belgium (Flanders) Top 10 Music DVDs[11] 10
Belgium (Wallonia) Top 10 Music DVDs[12] 7
Danish Top 10 Music DVDs[13] 5
Hungarian Top 20 DVDs[14] 4
Italian Top 20 Music DVDs[15] 3
Japanese DVDs Chart[16] 8
Netherlands Top 30 Music DVDs[17] 6
Norwegian Top 10 DVDs[18] 3
Spanish Top 20 Music DVDs[19] 10
US Top Music Videos[20] 1

Certifications

Country Provider Certification
(sales thresholds)
Argentina[8] CAPIF Platinum
Australia[6] ARIA Platinum
Germany[21] BVMI Gold
United States[7] RIAA 5x Multi-Platinum

External links

References

  1. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Cream-Live-Royal-Albert-Hall/dp/B00C1CHOK4/ref=tmm_vnl_title_0/183-3611860-5174322
  2. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Cream-Royal-Albert-London-2-3-5-6/dp/B0009WFFS6
  3. ↑ "Cream Album & Song Chart History". billboard.com. United States: Billboard. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Royal Albert Hall: London May 2-3-5-6 > Review". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 J.D. Considine (10 April 2010). "Live at Royal Albert Hall". blender.com. Alpha Media Group Inc.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2005 DVD". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 RIAA Certification Search Type "Cream" under Artist to see search results.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "CAPIF Search Results" (ASP). Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  9. ↑ "The ARIA Report (Issue 817)" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. Pandora Archive. p. 22. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  10. ↑ "Austria Top 40 – Musik-DVD Top 10" (ASP). Austrian Charts (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  11. ↑ "Ultratop 10 Muziek-DVD" (ASP). Ultratop (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  12. ↑ "Ultratop 10 Musicaux" (ASP). Ultratop (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  13. ↑ "Musik DVD Top-10: Uge 42 – 2005" (ASP). Hitlisten (in Danish). IFPI Denmark. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  14. ↑ "Archivum: DVD Top 20". MAHASZ (in Hungarian). Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  15. ↑ "Archivio: DVD Musicali: Settimana 42, 2005" [Archive: Music DVDs: Week 42, 2005] (PHP). Federation of the Italian Music Industry (in Italian). Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  16. ↑ "Artist Ranking DVD". Oricon Style (in Japanese). Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  17. ↑ "GfK Dutch DVD Music Top 30" (ASP). Dutch Charts (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  18. ↑ "Topp 10 DVD Audio: 2005 – Uke 43". VG-lista (in Norwegian). Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  19. ↑ "Top 20 DVD Musical: Semana 40, 2005" (PDF). Productores de Música de España (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  20. ↑ "Music Video: Top Music Videos". Billboard 117 (43): 93. 22 October 2005. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  21. ↑ "Gold- /Platin-Datenbank" [Gold- /Platinum-Database]. Bundesverband Musikindustrie (in German). Type "Cream" under Interpret to see search results.