The group of lads that I knew would often go up to Redcar. It was on a Sunday night. Sometimes they’d camp out on the cliffs at Saltburn and then pack up and go for a few drinks in a pub and then on and join the queue to go in the Redcar Jazz Club. And they had lots of big names passing through there. I certainly didn’t see them all. But one night I went up to see Cream. Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. And it was one of the most amazing musical nights I’ve ever had. It was just electric. You could almost cut the atmosphere with a knife.

I’d never actually seen a three-piece band actually… you were used to seeing four and five and six-piece bands. But this was just a three-piece. One guitarist, one bass player and a drummer. And it just exploded all in front of you. They were all dressed in Paisley shirts and they had their hair permed at the time. Yeah you wouldn’t recognise Eric Clapton from those days! And I’d heard so much about this guy Eric Clapton. He’d come up through John Mayall’s Blues Breakers. He’d been in a few bands and he’d come up and he was almost like a god to anybody who liked or played electric guitar. So that was amazing. Yeah. Along with loads of lads all drinking Newcastle Brown. It left a rather large impression on me.

They were absolutely playing themselves to death. They were sweating. Their shirts were sticking to them. And they did come on for an encore. And right at the end it just ended in a cacophony of noise. Eric Clapton put his guitar down, still fully on, you know, squealing and whistling against the amp. Ginger Baker’s drumsticks and kit just went flying everywhere. And Jack Bruce just fell flat on his face and had to be lifted off and taken to a side room somewhere! To be revived or whatever. Or pumped! Who knows?! [Laughs} I mean you did worry a bit. ‘Was he alright?’ ‘Was this a normal thing..?’ But he did survive for many, many years afterwards. Yeah. Amazing.