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Yorkshire Evening Post |
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John Mayall, the British bluesman who has fostered so many great names in the world of blues and progressive music, appears with his new band at Leeds Town Hall on Thursday, Nov 6th. This 35-year-old “father” of British blues, whose singing, organ, piano, guitar and harmonica playing awakened thousands to the blues boom, has been the target of controversy ever since Eric Clapton left his band to join the Cream, and later Blind Faith. No Drums. Mayall’s latest move has been radical, to put it mildly. He has done away with drums altogether and is concentrating on lower volume music. He now plays electric guitar and harmonica. Teenager Steve Thompson stays on bass, and an accoustic [sic] guitarist is Jon Mark with Johnny Almond on flute, tenor and alto. Despite advance knocks from the critics, the band appears to have brought it off. We hear of packed houses in Scandinavia and 10- minute ovations in Germany, which could explain why he is going back there after his British tour. Already the group has achieved great acclaim in the States, and now Mayall’s “hard road” looks like coming to an end, for the time being at any rate. He has two mansion homes in Laurel Canyon, California, as well as a house in London. He has two albums in the American charts - “Looking Back”, a musical biography of his Bands, and “The Turning Point”. This is the 10th Mayall band. He indicates that he is no longer interested in “training lead guitarists” (that’s his quote, not mine), who include Clapton, Peter Green, of Fleetwood Mac, and new Rolling Stone Mick Taylor. Important. The tour is tight - 21 appearances in 31 days, perhaps the most important being that at the Royal Albert Hall on November 20th. For years Mayall’s bands have been the training ground for so many fine musicians. Now John Mayall himself come forward in Britain, not just as the man who puts others on the road, but as a leader in the blues today |