Cream were, as has been reasonably argued, the world’s first supergroup. Less contestably, they remain the best-ever supergroup until this day. When guitar deity Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker reconvened for some box-office busting comeback shows at the Royal Albert Hall in 2005–some 37 years after the band had waved farewell at the very same venue–expectations ran high and the faithful weren’t left short-changed. Royal Albert Hall is a splendid souvenir of a band who got their vibe back together for love, self-satisfaction and nostalgia. Nowhere is there any attempt to compromise the band’s integrity, redefine the formula or extend the hand of friendship to a younger generation by toning down some of the more indulgent extravagances of their original era. You get the blues (in the case of “Stormy Weather” gloriously so, Clapton’s fretwork is electric), psychedelia (“NSU”), that leviathan nine minute drum solo (Ginger’s “Toad”), a novelty tune (Ginger’s Kenneth Grahame on acid ditty “Pressed Rat and Warthog”) and anthems of the magnitude of “Badge” and “Sunshine Of Your Love”.