A short-lived 'supergroup' formed out of the break-up of Cream and Traffic, consisting of Eric Clapton (Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream), Ginger Baker (Graham Bond Organisation, Cream), Steve Winwood (Spencer Davis Group, Traffic) and Ric Grech (Family). The group only released one album, Blind Faith, in August 1969 and were often seen as stylistically similar to the bands which Winwood, Baker and Clapton had most recently participated in (Traffic and Cream). The band helped to pioneer a fusion of rock with the blues.
Blind Faith's beginnings date from mid-1968, with the breakup of Cream. Cream had been massively successful, but the band was falling apart due to frequent animosity between Jack Bruce and Baker, with Clapton doing his best to mediate. In addition, Clapton had tired of playing commercially-driven blues and hoped to move forward with a new, experimental, less strait-jacketed approach to the genre.
Winwood had been facing similar problems in the Spencer Davis Group, where he had been the lead singer for 3 years while they produced straight-laced blues. He wanted to experiment with the band's sound by infusing jazz elements, but left due to his musical differences, instead forming a new band, Traffic, in 1967. That band split temporarily in 1969 and Winwood, a good friend of Clapton, started to jam with Clapton in his basement in Surrey.
Clapton was pleased with the jam sessions and looked seriously towards starting a trio with Winwood, but they were in need of a drummer. Baker turned up to sit in with them in 1969 and the band took near-final form. But Clapton questioned letting Baker in the band, because he had promised Bruce that, if they were to work with one another again, they would all three play. Moreover, Clapton didn't want another band like Cream only weeks after the breakup. But Winwood ultimately persuaded Clapton to agree to Baker's inclusion in the lineup, arguing that it would be hard to find an equally talented drummer.
By May 1969, Ric Grech, bassist with Family, was invited to join them (leaving Family mid-tour).
They laid down most of their album at Olympic Studios under the supervision of producer Jimmy Miller. By then the group was known collectively as Blind Faith, a cynical reference by Clapton to his outlook on the new group.
The eagerly anticipated group debuted at a free concert at Hyde Park on 7th June 1969. The performance was well received by fans, but Clapton felt that it was sub-standard and that the band had not rehearsed enough and was unprepared to tour.
The recording of their album continued, followed by a short tour of Scandinavia, where the band played smaller gigs and were able to rehearse their sound and prepare it for bigger audiences in America and England. After Scandinavia, the band toured the US, making their debut at Madison Square Garden on July 12th for more than 20,000. A major problem with the tour was that the band had only a few songs in their catalogue - barely enough to fill an hour. They were forced to play old Cream and Traffic songs, to the delight of a crowd which usually preferred their older, popular material to their new Blind Faith material.
Clapton was now exactly where he didn't want to be - stuck in a 'super Cream'. Opening acts for the band included Free and a blues-based rock act called Delaney & Bonnie. Clapton particularly liked the soulful, folksy-sounding blues of Delaney & Bonnie and began spending most of his time with them instead of Blind Faith, letting Winwood take a more prominent role in the band.
Upon its release, Blind Faith topped the charts in the US and the UK and sold more than half a million copies within the first month of its release.
After the tour finished in August, the band returned to England surrounded by rumours of breakup or a possible UK tour. By October, the band had effectively dissolved within a year of its creation, and it did not produce another studio or live album - though several live tracks from the band can be found on Winwood's 1995 retrospective album The Finer Things.
Thereafter, Clapton stepped out of the spotlight, first to sit in with the Plastic Ono Band and then to tour as a sideman for Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, with whom he had become good friends since the US. tour. He later took several members from Delaney & Bonnie and Friends to form a new supergroup, Derek and the Dominos.
Unlike Clapton, Baker had enjoyed his Blind Faith experience and looked to carry on an offshoot of the band in the form of Ginger Baker's Air Force with both Grech and Winwood. After a few shows together, Winwood left with Grech and went to Island Records to reunite and reform Traffic.
Winwood later went on to have a successful solo career and Grech was a member of various groups before his death in 1990 due to a brain hemorrhage.