John Mayall - Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton - 180g Vinyl LP

2023
The groundbreaking 1966 Decca album - John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton - re-issued - faithfully replicating the original 1966 Decca Records UK mono release and pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.

This 1966 landmark album launched the blues-rock revolution of the mid-'60s. The Bluesbreakers were formed in January 1963 and became an ever-evolving lineup of more than 100 different combinations of musicians performing under that name. Eric Clapton joined in 1965 just a few months after the release of their first album. Clapton brought the blues influences to the forefront of the group.

"The blues breakers became one of London's hottest acts as soon as ex-Yardbird Clapton arrived, but that wasn't what he'd bargained for. "He just wanted to play his guitar," Mayall remembered. Except Clapton's solos with the Blues Breakers inspired his cult; this is when CLAPTON IS GOD graffiti first started to appear in London, and this record shows why. Along with the band's expert renderings of Freddie King's "Hideaway" and Robert Johnson's "Ramblin' on My Mind," the LP contains a nutty take on Ray Charles' "What'd I Say," whose long drum solo gave Clapton a preview of what he'd soon experience in Cream." - www.rollingstone.com

Hailing from Macclesfield, Cheshire, and growing up in Cheadle Hulme, John Mayall had already made a name for himself on the Manchester blues scene before relocating to London in 1963 at the urging of Alexis Korner. Eric Clapton joined Mayall from the Yardbirds, disenchanted with the pop direction that that group were taking, away from his beloved blues. As a result, Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton became a touchstone in the blues-rock scene of the mid 60s, from its iconic cover (a disinterested Clapton reading The Beano comic) onwards; it was an earnest homage to the music that so inspired the players, creating a heavy, warm brew; an unmistakably English take on an American form. It represented a chart breaking breakthrough, too – reaching No 6 in July 1966.