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70th Birthday Concert | |
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Live album by | |
Released | 2003 |
Recorded | Liverpool, England on 19 July 2003 |
Genre | Blues |
Length | 137:00 approx (DVD) / 153 min approx (2CD) / 159 min approx (BR) |
Label | Eagle |
Producer | Perry Joseph |
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings | [2] |
70th Birthday Concert is a live electric blues video recording of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers to celebrate Mayall's 70th Birthday. Recorded in Liverpool, England on 19 July 2003, the concert was notable as it featured Eric Clapton as a guest, so marked the first time he and Mayall had performed together in almost 40 years, if one discounts Clapton guesting on Mayall's Back to the Roots . The set also features Mick Taylor and Chris Barber.
The gig was released on different formats. The original double CD contains the entire concert, whereas the DVD omitted the first two tracks sung by Buddy Whittington (which did not feature Mayall) and "California", but included an interview with Mayall as bonus. [3] A CD/DVD issue included a heavily abridged version of the concert on CD. [3] Finally, in 2009 the video was reissued on Blu-Ray Disc with the previously omitted three tracks appended as bonus tracks. [4]
AllMusic praised the recording by stating that John Mayall is "on top of his game as ever", the band "play with plenty of fire, brilliant musicianship, and taste", and the whole concert is "a stinging, overdriven performance of modern electric blues by a master bandleader who shows no signs of slowing down physically, and most importantly, creatively." [1]
All tracks composed by John Mayall; except where noted
The Bluesbreakers (not on Tracks 10 & 11)
Guests
Horn section on Tracks 6-9, 18 & 19
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers were an English blues rock band led by multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter John Mayall. The band has been influential as an incubator for British rock and blues musicians. Many of the best known bands to come out of Britain in the 1960s and 1970s had members that came through the Bluesbreakers at one time, forming the foundation of British blues music that is still played heavily on classic rock radio. Among those with a tenure in the Bluesbreakers are guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor, bassists John McVie, Jack Bruce and Tony Reeves, drummers Hughie Flint, Aynsley Dunbar, Mick Fleetwood and Jon Hiseman, and numerous others.
John Brumwell Mayall was an English blues and rock musician, songwriter and producer. In the 1960s, he formed John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band that has counted among its members some of the most famous blues and blues rock musicians. A singer, guitarist, harmonica player, and keyboardist, he had a career that spanned nearly seven decades, remaining an active musician until his death aged 90. Mayall has often been referred to as the "godfather of the British blues", and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical influence category in 2024.
Michael Kevin Taylor is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1967–1969) and the Rolling Stones (1969–1974). As a member of the Stones, he appeared on Let It Bleed (1969), Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert (1970), Sticky Fingers (1971), Exile on Main St. (1972), Goats Head Soup (1973) It's Only Rock 'n Roll (1974), and Tattoo You (1981).
The American Folk Blues Festival was a music festival that toured Europe as an annual event for several years beginning in 1962. It introduced audiences in Europe, including the UK, to leading blues performers of the day such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson, most of whom had never previously performed outside the US. The tours attracted substantial media coverage, including TV shows, and contributed to the growth of the audience for blues music in Europe.
Blues Breakers, colloquially known as The Beano Album, is the debut studio album by the English blues rock band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, originally credited to John Mayall with Eric Clapton. Produced by Mike Vernon and released in 1966 by Decca Records (UK) and London Records (US), it pioneered a guitar-dominated blues-rock sound.
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Crusade is the fourth album and third studio album by the British blues rock band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, released on 1 September 1967 on Decca Records. It was the follow-up to A Hard Road, also released in 1967. As with their two previous albums, Crusade was produced by Mike Vernon. The album was the first recordings of the then-18-year-old guitarist Mick Taylor.
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Live from Austin, TX is a live album by John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. The performance from September 13, 1993 was for the TV show Austin City Limits and has been released in 2007 on CD and DVD. Only John Mayall is credited on the cover but he can be heard to announce 'The Bluesbreakers': Joe Yuele on drums, Rick Cortes on bass and Coco Montoya on lead guitar. Texas guitarist David Grissom makes a guest appearance on last track.
Buddy Whittington is an American guitarist. He began playing the guitar inspired by his sister's records of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton. At the age of 14 he was already a part of the Dallas/Fort Worth music scene and playing regularly in the clubs along Jacksboro Highway. While attending L.D. Bell High School, Whittington played in a band called Short Change, which opened for Point Blank, a band that he would later join, replacing guitar player Kim Davis. During the early 1980s, he formed and sang with his own band, The Sidemen. In 1991, they opened for John Mayall and when Coco Montoya left the Bluesbreakers in 1993, Mayall called him to take his place in the band. In Mayall's band Whittington sang occasionally and contributed to songwriting. When, after fifteen years, Mayall disbanded the Bluesbreakers, Whittington continued to gig in Texas, but also joined forces with Roger Cotton and Pete Stroud, who had toured with Mayall as part of Peter Green's band.
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