ERIC CLAPTON AND STEVE WINWOOD ALWAYS WISHED THEY COULD GET together in a recording studio. Now their wishes are more than reality. Eric, along with Steve, Ginger Baker, and Rick Grech (formerly of the British group, Family) have formed a new group called Blind Faith. They’ve already recorded their first album, which should be released sometime in July.
After Cream broke up, Eric and Ginger were looking for other musicians and came up with Steve, who had just left Traffic. The combination was good, but it was still the same triangle Eric and Ginger had found unworkable with Cream.
The answer was Rick Grech, an electric bassist, whose experiments with an electric violin had pushed him into the upper flights of British musicians. They chose the name Blind Faith because, according to their record company, “it is an acknowledgement of the inspiration that they find in each other’s music.”
The biggest problem once the group was formed was which record company had the rights to them. It was finally settled that in America the group would be on the Atlantic label and in Britain their records would be distributed through Polydor and Island, with Polydor distributing through the rest of the world.
Rick, the least known of the four outside musical circles, is twenty-three. His career began with five years of training as a classical musician which landed him a place in the Leicester Youth Orchestra. Until he joined Blind Faith, he toured with Family, an experimental English group.
Because of previous contractual arrangements the group has two managers, Robert Stigwood and Chris Blackwell. Stigwood heads one of the largest show business empires in Europe, taking in film, television, and stage production in addition to his work as a records producer and manager.
Stigwood’s company manages Jack Bruce, the Bee Gees, John Mayall, Rita Tushingham, Georgie Fame, and others. At the time of Brian Epstein’s death, Robert Stigwood was his joint managing director at NEMS, and held an option on the purchase of the Beatles management company, which he declined to take in order to devote his time to the Robert Stigwood Organization.
Since then, the company has moved into all areas of show business, including the staging of the London version of Hair.
Blackwell owns one of the most successful independent record companies in Britain. He founded Island Records seven years ago primarily as an outlet for West Indian sounds, having an immediate success with Millie Small’s “My Boy Lollipop.”
Island developed Sue Records to take in American rhythm-and-blues product, and now the company’s labels or management cover the talents of Spooky Tooth, Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, Joe Cocker, and the Rolling Stones’ producer Jimmy Miller.
Blind Faith will be making a million-dollar tour of the U.S. in July. One of their stops will be the Baltimore Civic Center.