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Gig review: John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers @ Brighton - Oct 24
review
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers Support: Chicken Shack with Stan Webb
John Mayall has for some time been known as the ‘Godfather of British blues’. You may want to include Alexis Korner in that bracket as well, but Mayall is without doubt a key player in the development of blues in Britain. His band has been a kind of finishing school for guitarists like Peter Green, Eric Clapton and Mick Taylor, all who went on to prestigious careers in Fleetwood Mac, Cream and The Rolling Stones respectively.
The 73 year old veteran Mayall has been involved with bands since the 50’s and has over 40 albums to his credit.
Supporting Mayall is another veteran blues man, Stan Webb, who is a fine guitarist himself. During his set though it seemed Stan was determined to sell himself as a vocalist. There is no doubting his stage presence (including cheeky asides) but the audience did at times seem a little non-plussed by the extended vocal finishes and a prediliction for ballads. Stan almost got lost at one point as he left the stage on a jaunt around the considerable recesses of the Dome theatre. Happily he returned for one last ballad.
It was now time for the main event. Mayall’s band were on stage with an instrumental intro for the man himself (apparently he was delayed signing albums in the foyer) and were led by the current lead guitarist Buddy Whittington, a big Texan with a growing reputation as a technically gifted blues guitarist. There was another guitarist on stage who I recognised straight away from my local of all places - Gary Moore who has settled in Hove. I am a fan of Moore’s playing and it was an added bonus that he had joined the band for the night.
Mayall enters on stage and proceedings are under way. It is clear that the audience will get what they paid for. While Buddy is something of a purist with a reticence for the limelight, Moore is certainly no shrinking violet and has to be one of the premier blues players in the world at the moment. His playing is fiery yet technically perfect and he counters Buddy’s more sober style with high velocity solos.
Much of the fayre is from Mayalls days with Clapton, with whom Mayall achieved his greatest success. The track that turned Clapton into a guitar god would propably have to be All Your Love and Moore takes the lead with an immaculate if slightly overblown version. The crowd love it, especially when the two guitarists do their version of duelling banjo’s. It is slightly odd though that Mayall keeps advising us that Moore will leave the stage when he rarely does.
On the whole it is a night that does just what it says on the tin and no one leaves dissapointed - the bluesbreakers get several encore’s. This is definitely a gig worth catching even if you aren’t a blues afficianado. Mayall carries with him a huge slice of British music history and deserves his place in the hall of fame. Whether Moore continues with his support in future ventures remains to be seen.
