Blind Faith’s 1969 Landmark For Half-Speed Vinyl Reissue

The classic 1969 album has been carefully selected by UMC to be part of the half-speed master series.

Published on

February 27, 2019

The only album by blues-rock supergroup Blind Faith will be reissued by UMC/Polydor on 19 April as a half-speed master vinyl disc. The platinum-selling set was first released in August 1969 by the unique aggregation of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood and Ric Grech.

Blind Faith has been cut at half-speed by Abbey Road Studios’ award-winning engineer Miles Showell. The technique, also employed by Showell for UMC’s recent reissues of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s entire seven-album studio catalogue, results in the very highest quality sound reproduction.

The classic Blind Faith album has been carefully selected by UMC to be part of the half-speed series. The Blind Faith reissue will be presented on heavyweight vinyl with high-spec packaging to create a thoroughly bespoke vinyl experience. It will provide a sound quality that is superior to anything else currently available.

The 1969 album was an instant success, coming as it did after the end of Clapton and Baker’s work with Cream, Winwood’s hiatus with Traffic and during Grech’s time with Family. It topped the charts in the UK, the US, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Holland.

The record’s two-week run atop the British charts in September 1969 saw it replace Jethro Tull’s Stand Up at No. 1; perhaps surprisingly, its run among the bestsellers there lasted only ten weeks. In the US, Blind Faith entered the charts at No. 111 in August, then making a spectacular climb to No. 5. Its chart reign there also lasted two weeks, after removing Johnny Cash At San Quentin from the summit. The album’s American chart run lasted 37 weeks and it was certified platinum for shipments of one million copies in 1993.

Blind Faith famously played in London’s Hyde Park in June 1969, ahead of the album’s release, and went on to European dates before their one and only North American tour in July and August of that year.

The half-speed vinyl edition of Blind Faith will be released on 19 April. Pre-order it here.