John Mayall (born 29 November 1933), OBE, is the godfather of the British blues. A singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he has been a bandleader and recording artist since 1965. A generation older than most of his sidemen, Mayall was a mentor; his bands were both a lab and finishing school for iconic musicians — particularly guitarists. Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor served, as did bassists Jack Bruce and John McVie and drummers Mick Fleetwood and Aynsley Dunbar, among dozens of others. Five of Mayall’s first seven albums, including 1966’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, 1967’s A Hard Road, and 1969’s The Turning Point, all placed inside the British Top Ten. After emigrating to the U.S., Mayall cut several albums during the ’70s including Ten Years Are Gone and Jazz Blues Fusion, that showcased veteran blues and jazz players including Harvey Mandel, Jesse Ed Davis, Larry Taylor, and Blue Mitchell.
During the ’80s, Mayall sold out houses across the globe, recorded for several labels, and employed top-shelf guitar slingers including Walter Trout, Sonny Landreth, and Coco Montoya. Mayall issued a series of memorable recordings for Silvertone in the ’90s including Wake Up Call, Spinning Coin, and Blues for the Lost Days. He was appointed OBE (Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005. In 2016, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. In 2019, age 85, Mayall issued Nobody Told Me, a diverse set that garnered massive acclaim for his choice of guests, including Joe Bonamassa. In 2021 Mayall announced his retirement from touring. In 2022, two months after his 88th birthday, he released the star-studded The Sun Is Shining Down. (by Thom Jurek)
And here´s a rare and pretty good sampler from Italy …
… his album is identical with the compilation “The World Of John Mayall Vol.2” (Decca) released in 1970.
But this version has a wonderful booklet (includin many informations about John Mayall, unfortunately only written in italian) with many great and rare pictures of John Mayall live – some of them from an Italy tour with John Mayall and Mick Taylor in 1982)
It´s time to discover one of the most important British Blues musician of all time !
Enjoy the Blues power of John Mayall !
Personnel:
John Mayall (vocals,guitar, harmonica, keyboards)
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many, many studio musicians (I guess you know them all …)
Tracklist:
01. Checkin’ Up On My Baby (Williamson) 4.00
02. Broken Wings (Mayall) 4.19
03. My Time After Awhile (Geddins/Badger) 5.13
04. Ready To Ride (Mayall) 3.34
05. Double Crossin’ Time (Mayall/Clapton) 3.05
06. Leaping Christine (Mayall) 2.26
07. Killing Time (Mayall) 4.48
08. Brand New Start (Mayall) 3.27
09. 2401 (Mayall) 3.47
10. Someday After A While (King/Thompson) 3.04
11. She Is Too Young (Mayall) 2.19
12. I Can Quit You Baby (Dixon) 4.34
More from John Mayall:
The official website:
Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in the mid-1960s by Stan Webb (guitar and vocals), Andy Silvester (bass guitar), and Alan Morley (drums), who were later joined by Christine Perfect (later McVie) (vocals and keyboards) in 1967. Chicken Shack has performed with various line-ups, Stan Webb being the only constant member.
Formed in New Zealand in the late 60s, this blues rock band started out in a similar vein to that which Cream and the Doors mined so successfully. The band grew out of a mid-60s meeting in Auckland of like-minded musicians, including guitarist and vocalist Archie Bowie, guitarists Tony Rawnsley and Harvey Mann, bass player Neil Edwards and drummer Barry Winfield. Known casually as the Magee Street Underdogs, the group underwent personnel changes over the next couple of years during which time they made some singles for Zodiac Records and appeared fleetingly on television’s C’mon. By 1967 the personnel had become vocalist Murray Grindley, guitarists Mann and Lou Rawnsley (brother of Tony), bass player Edwards and drummer Tony Walton. Mann’s departure (he did not like the orthodoxy required by television producers) led to an adjustment of the remaining band members. They made some more recordings, including the popular Sitting In The Rain EP and the Blues Band album, and also toured in a road show version of C’mon.
On its own terms, most of this 14-track compilation of 1965-1967 recordings for BBC sessions (all but one of them dating from 1965-1967) is a worthwhile collection of supplementary work by John Mayall’s best Bluesbreakers lineups. If you’re a serious Mayall fan, however, be aware that you might have already bought this material in some form or another in the year or so previous to the release of this CD in early 2007. For the dozen 1965-1967 cuts all appear as bonus material on the 2006 U.K. expanded CD editions of the John Mayall Plays John Mayall, Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, and A Hard Road albums, all of which also include bonus tracks from non-LP singles, studio outtakes, and the like. If for some reason you do want to zero in on the BBC material exclusively, this has some decent live performances with both the Eric Clapton and Peter Green lineups of the Bluesbreakers. (The liner notes also admit it’s likely that the three tracks from October 25, 1965 feature not only Jack Bruce on bass during his brief Bluesbreakers stint, but also guitarist Jeff Kribit (sometimes spelled Geoff Krivit in other sources), who was in the group during a brief spell when Clapton left the band to go to Greece.)
Another very fine rarity from my archive … a Blues Session with Mr. Pete “Superdrumming” York:
A Hard Road is the third album (and second studio album) recorded by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, released in 1967. It features Peter Green on lead guitar, John McVie on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums and John Almond on saxophone. Tracks 5, 7 and 13 feature the horn section of Alan Skidmore and Ray Warleigh. Peter Green sings lead vocals on “You Don’t Love Me” and “The Same Way”.
Green’s use of thick sustain on this track clearly pointed the way to his use of guitar riffs with elongated, slithery tones on Fleetwood Mac’s “Albatross” and “Black Magic Woman,” as well as anticipating some aspects of Carlos Santana’s style. Mayall acquits himself fairly well on this mostly original set (with occasional guest horns), though some of the material is fairly mundane. Highlights include the uncharacteristically rambunctious “Leaping Christine” and the cover of Freddie King’s “Someday After a While (You’ll Be Sorry).” (by Richie Unterberger)
is worth the price of admission alone. In fact the sustained opening note of “The Super-Natural” is worth the entry fee.
Cuby + Blizzards, also known as Cuby & the Blizzards, were a Dutch blues group, founded in 1964 by vocalist Harry Muskee and guitarist Eelco Gelling. During the 1960s, the band’s mixture of sound, drawing upon a variety of genres which included blues and rock and roll, gave them a pioneering sound which was completely different from any other Dutch band in the same period. The spelling of the name varies, with ‘Cuby’ also written as ‘QB’ and the ampersand (&) also written as ‘and’ or ‘+’ and the ‘and’ sometimes left out. The spelling ‘Cuby + Blizzards’ was used on the first albums.
For many discerning fans, Nine Below Zero far outpaced the Jam wannabes that doomed Britain’s so-called mod revival era. They even opened for the Who, whose favorite producer, Glyn Johns, oversaw this second A&M album. (Like other 1979-era revivalist bands, the group has re-formed on an intermittent basis.) Nine Below Zero show themselves as sharp players with plenty of hooks up their sleeves. Stix Burkey and Peter Clark whack out a disciplined rhythm attack without fussiness or flourishes, leaving the interplay to singer/harpist Mark Feltham and the main songwriter, lead guitarist Dennis “The Menace” Greaves. Greaves’ tunes successfully execute ’60s R&B toughness, yet are updated enough to grace a teen scooter fanatic’s good books. “One Way Street” is a punchy, doing-it-my-way anthem (“They told me to go by the book/But look at the time that it took”), while the roughhouse R&B of the title track and “Treat Her Right” come across like a speedier Yardbirds. The feel’s that close, but Greaves and cohorts have the skill to pull it off. The group expresses their bluesier side on “Ain’t Comin’ Back” and the slow-burning “Sugar Mama,” and also dips back into ’50s-style roots rave-ups with a credible cover of “Rockin’ Robin.”
John Mayall Plays John Mayall is the debut album by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, released in 1965, Decca LK 4680. This album was recorded live at Klooks Kleek on 7 December 1964. Roger Dean stated in an interview that they ran cables out of the window of the club to the Decca Studio about 100 yards away for this recording. (by wikipedia)
Steamhammer was an English blues rock band from Worthing, England, whose origins were with the blues. The band was founded in 1968 by Martin Quittenton (guitar) and Kieran White (vocals, guitar, harmonica). The first stable line-up consisted of Quittenton, White, Martin Pugh (guitar), Steve Davy (bass), and Michael Rushton (drums).
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