"Around the Next Dream"


The story of BBM (Baker, Bruce, Moore)


In the summer of 1993 Gary Moore received a call from former Cream bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, who needed a guitarist for a show he was to play in Esslingen, Germany, that August. Jack had just lost his then current guitarist, so asked Gary if he fancied stepping in to play the show alongside drummer Gary Husband.

“That gig in Esslingen went so well, I asked Jack if he fancied doing some writing together, because I was planning the next Gary Moore album.” “Jack would come over and would work with me during the day. I'd written some songs, but it was kinda weird because the songs were moving more his way and I was starting to think of Jack singing them.”

At the beginning of November 1993, Jack Bruce celebrated his 50th birthday with an all-star concert over two nights at the E-Werk in Cologne, featuring many of the musicians he had played with over the years, including Ginger Baker, Simon Phillips, Clem Clempson, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Pete Brown and Gary Husband, and Gary Moore was invited to take part.

Gary guested on the second night's performance. He began with Jack and Simon Phillips, playing Jack's frantic Life on Earth. Simon then began the beats to NSU and then left the stage as Ginger Baker picked up the refrain. They carried on with Sitting on Top of The World, Politician, Spoonful and White Room. It was a bravura performance by Gary – truly owning the songs, as Gary Husband observed. The years between Ginger and Jack fell away – they were as powerful as ever, and even Ginger could be spotted smiling at the back.

On their return to the writing studio, Gary and Jack continued to work on early versions of what they hoped would be future album tracks including City of Gold, Wrong side of town and High cost of loving. The project was geared towards Gary's next album, which, on the strength of the songs he was writing, wasn't planned to be another outright blues album. Gary Husband had been told that the project was in the offing and that both Jack and Gary wanted him involved. Yet the weeks went by and the drummer heard nothing, so by the time the call came to go into the studio, this multi-instrumentalist musician was committed to doing an album as Billy Cobham's keyboard player.