Cream - Madison Sq. Garden - The Before
Review by Rick Kent / Austin, Texas
It's time to see Cream again.
My flight from Austin, TX was late ... I got here at 2:30 Eastern Time .... an hour more than Texas where we're on Central Time. My plan was to head straight to Madison Sq. Garden and stock up on concert posters and a few programs. Just like at Royal Albert Hall shows the posters were numbered but this time the limited edition posters totaled 3000 and not the miniscule 900 of London. Few people got the numbered posters in London due to the mad rush the first day.
The place is slowly becoming a zoo full of souvenier buyers. The prices are ridiculous and unfair.. way over RAH ..same as the tickets. I say wait for the cream2005.com site to sell the stuff at prices I can deal with. T-shirts for $35-$40 in some cases. I saw a jacket for $400. I didn't bother checking it out. All I needed was the posters and programs thank you very much.
I'm just across the street from Madison Sq. Garden at the New Yorker Ramada Plaza. This would keep me close to the action.
I got my posters and went to location number two of mission Cream-New York. Tower Records in the Village had a poster signing by Pinnacle poster legend John VanStamerstand. John did a number of famous posters in the 60's including the Endless Summer movie poster and as the Blue Cheer Jimi Hendrix concert poster. Most recently John drew up the Royal Albert Hall Cream Reunion poster fashioned clearly after the Hendrix poster of the Pinnacle series. I never talked or emailed with anyone that got the connection between these two posters. I had a chuckle over that one :)
I took my just purchased four limited edition posters to Tower Records and had John sign em. Cool! I also had a chance to meet John's wife Alita who I've had a dozen phone conversations with to discuss the Cream artwork and the history of their poster business. She is one sweet lady. They were getting a whooping $100 fee to sign the numbered concert posters! Damn. ... and people were paying it. Lucky for me I knew Alita and she worked me out a sweet deal to sign all four. I'll keep the figures between she and I (thanks Alita!) .
It's 5pm and after a little rest up and a refresher shower I'm headed across the street .... TO SEE CREAM ! Oh baby! It's not Royal Albert Hall.. that's history but new history is about to happen.
I'll try my best to fans and friends up to date on the action of the next three days and nights. It's all happening.
