1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,280 # ..many things before he died... # 2 00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:08,080 When I joined John's band, 3 00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:12,200 he chose me for how I played - he didn't tell me what to play. 4 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:16,680 # ..trying to tell you Many things before he died... # 5 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,800 What he supplies very often is a platform 6 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:23,400 for people to develop. 7 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:25,920 And in a very giving way, 8 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:28,080 he lets them do that. 9 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:35,280 John did open a door, opened people's ears 10 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:37,560 to the American home-grown, 11 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:42,280 and then that got transported back to America. 12 00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:46,000 Cos at that time, blues was a dirty word. 13 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:51,720 This programme contains some strong language. 14 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:55,000 He attracted good people because they knew they 15 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,480 didn't have to play commercial crap 16 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:02,400 or stupid chart material for a quick buck. He was just into the blues. 17 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:20,960 What is it about John Mayall that enabled him to discover and launch 18 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:23,320 some of Britain's biggest rock stars 19 00:01:23,320 --> 00:01:25,480 by his '60s Bluesbreakers bands? 20 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:28,200 # Looking back through the years... # 21 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:32,480 I had a little meeting with John about two years ago, 22 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:38,160 part of a mission I had undertaken to connect with my past. 23 00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:42,720 I wanted to make amends to John cos I sensed, as the years went by, 24 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:46,440 that to a certain extent I'd used his hospitality, 25 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:52,080 used his band and his reputation to launch my own career. 26 00:01:56,520 --> 00:02:01,440 And I felt that I'd never really given him credit for that personally. 27 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:06,120 But I wanted to sit with him and just say how much he meant to me 28 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:10,080 as, um...as a sort of a guide. 29 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:13,480 # Playing the blues on my wind-up gramophone... # 30 00:02:15,920 --> 00:02:18,640 To be honest, I don't think he changes. 31 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:21,360 He's got some kind of secret, you know, 32 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:25,640 that we all need. But I think he's a great musician. 33 00:02:25,640 --> 00:02:29,600 I just admire and respect his steadfastness. 34 00:02:38,920 --> 00:02:42,680 # I got me a band called the Bluesbreakers 35 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:49,600 # I'm setting out on a life that I never know... # 36 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:54,000 I was only born in Macclesfield because my father was a drinker 37 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,360 and his favourite pub was there. 38 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:00,880 But we lived in Cheadle Hulme, which is in Cheshire. 39 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:03,360 That's where I grew up. 40 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:07,880 My father played guitar and banjo, so there was always 41 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:09,680 a guitar around the house. 42 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:13,600 But the starting point for me was to buy for 2/6 43 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:17,440 the George Formby ukulele banjo tutor book. 44 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:20,680 Later on, when I was about 13, 45 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:26,040 I started to branch out and got fascinated by boogie-woogie. 46 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:29,080 From that point on, I was addicted. 47 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:31,840 PIANO PLAYS BOOGIE-WOOGIE 48 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:54,840 Everybody at the age of 18 had to register for National Service 49 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:58,640 so I signed on for three years and I was sent to Korea. 50 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:00,760 I was like, "Whoa-oa!" 51 00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:03,760 By the time I got there, the Armistice was on 52 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:07,040 and I made myself indispensable in the office. 53 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:09,520 And that's where I stayed for the rest of my term. 54 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:17,480 Flying in from his home in California, 55 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,920 veteran blues man John Mayall is about to settle many of the ghosts 56 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:23,680 from his colourful past. 57 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:31,200 I just love the lifestyle of going out there and going to new places, 58 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:34,480 revisit old venues and whatever. 59 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:38,960 The focus has always been on the road work, 60 00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:42,160 rather than on hoping for some hit record, 61 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:44,320 which has still not happened! 62 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:46,640 So I've done fairly well so far. 63 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:53,080 # Well, standing on the corner watching every kind of car 64 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:56,680 # Friendly people come and say they want to know your star 65 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,040 # I'm walking on Sunset 66 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:01,880 # And I never reach the end 67 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:05,800 # Well, I'm walking on Sunset 68 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:08,440 # Everything is like a friend... # 69 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:11,920 After I came out of the Army, 70 00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:17,240 my future wife was already at Manchester College of Art. 71 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:22,800 I met him in the local parish hall on a Saturday Night Hop, 72 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:26,120 which was our only access to meeting the opposite sex, 73 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:28,520 and run through the local church. 74 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:33,240 At art school, I had a band and we used to play impromptu concerts 75 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:37,520 in the lecture hall at lunch breaks and things like that. 76 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:42,400 Basically, it was playing Sonny Boy Williamson stuff 77 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:47,440 and Leadbelly stuff and anything attached to boogie-woogie. 78 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:51,680 We didn't have a piano at home, so I had to learn on the art school 79 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:54,040 piano and other people's pianos. 80 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:57,920 Anybody who'd put up with me for a couple of hours. 81 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:03,960 He hung himself from a scaffold at the end of the, um...stage, 82 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:08,400 with blood dripping from his mouth and his head right down 83 00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:11,560 and I thought, "Wow, that's some wild guy!" 84 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:14,400 I thought he was insane... 85 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:19,040 ..doing this... And then I just thought he was a showman and... 86 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:21,240 ..I just thought he was funny. 87 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:23,360 I knew him first as a photographer. 88 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:27,440 He turned up at a rehearsal and started crawling around the floor, 89 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:30,640 shooting up the legs of the piano player 90 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:33,560 and taking weird shots from every angle. 91 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:37,920 I first heard of John Mayall when I was about 14 years old 92 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:40,320 and reading the Daily Mirror. 93 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:45,160 There was an article about this Manchester art student 94 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:47,040 who was being evicted from 95 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:49,680 his treehouse for not paying rates. 96 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:56,160 Seriously, that was the first time I actually heard about John Mayall. 97 00:06:56,160 --> 00:07:01,160 After my parents got divorced and we moved up the road to, um... 98 00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:04,440 ..my grandfather's house and my mother's father, 99 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:06,360 so rather than share a room, 100 00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:09,720 I built a treehouse at the bottom of the garden 101 00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:12,080 and spent a lot of time up there. 102 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:14,360 It then got more sophisticated. 103 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:18,280 I had a water tank attached to the outside and a power line 104 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:20,000 running from the house. 105 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,120 He'd invited the local press to take pictures of him 106 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:26,040 carrying his bride up a rope ladder to this tree. 107 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:29,320 He slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes 108 00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:31,960 and climbed up this rope ladder saying, 109 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:36,240 "Folks, our honeymoon now begins. Take as many pictures as you like." 110 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:39,320 # My baby would sure hate to lose me 111 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,680 # Your baby ain't sweet like mine 112 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:46,560 # Do the right thing every time... # 113 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:50,680 It was my cousin who'd found this youth club 114 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:54,840 and he said, "There's this guy up there, a bit eccentric, 115 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:57,040 "but he's a really nice guy. 116 00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:00,960 "And he's running this youth club music night." 117 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:05,280 John was there. Actually, he was called Johnny Mayall. 118 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:08,720 He had a short crew cut, a kind of sloppy sweater, 119 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:11,440 and he was what we'd call a bohemian. 120 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:16,200 And he just flailed around on the piano, playing endless 12-bar blues. 121 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:21,120 I didn't know he was a player until this trumpet player, John Rowland... 122 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:25,840 We'd been to see the Alexis Korner Blues Incorporated 123 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:29,400 and Alexis playing a bit of guitar and singing. 124 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:32,320 And afterwards, John Rowland said, 125 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:36,720 "We should bloody well do that. Stick a singer up and play jazz all night. 126 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:40,760 "They'll think it's rhythm and blues. 127 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:40,760 Get him to sing some numbers 128 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:42,560 and we'd pack the place out." 129 00:08:42,560 --> 00:08:46,000 I said, "Good idea. Who do you know who could do that?" 130 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,160 He said, "There's this fellow John Mayall I know 131 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:54,200 "who plays boogie-woogie at the Black Lion in Salford Tuesday nights." 132 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:59,160 He very quickly took over the band and when it came to live gigs, 133 00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:02,560 he did all the announcements and introduced US! 134 00:09:02,560 --> 00:09:05,800 PHONE RINGS 135 00:09:02,560 --> 00:09:05,800 Hello. 136 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:07,840 This is John. 137 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,240 Although he lives the sunshine life 138 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,240 in California, 139 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:16,040 Mayall has been constantly on the road throughout his 40-year career. 140 00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:19,160 His next trip back to England will culminate 141 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:22,120 in a 70th-birthday concert in Liverpool, 142 00:09:22,120 --> 00:09:24,400 where he will reunite onstage 143 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:28,120 with Eric Clapton for the first time in 38 years. 144 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:32,160 ..in July in Liverpool. 145 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:32,160 We're celebrating my 70th birthday 146 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:34,640 and Eric Clapton will be joining me, 147 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:38,520 which is the first time in three or four decades. 148 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:42,320 So it's a Bluesbreakers fan's dream come true. 149 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:46,160 The second time I met him 150 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:49,840 was at his house. He told me that on Saturday nights, 151 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:53,080 if I wanted to come and hear some new records, 152 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:56,800 he had an open house at this semidetached 153 00:09:56,800 --> 00:09:58,520 Longsight house he lived in. 154 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:00,280 People rolled up right through 155 00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:02,840 the night and sat and listened to jazz records 156 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:07,560 that he'd either bought or taped from the Voice Of America Jazz Hour 157 00:10:07,560 --> 00:10:11,880 from a 40-foot wireless mast at the bottom of his garden. 158 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:16,720 John was like a DJ. He'd jump up and down, have everything prepared 159 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:20,520 and he had music taping, all reel-to-reel stuff. 160 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:25,080 He used to tape AFM, Voice Of America, 161 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:29,760 French and German programmes that played a lot of jazz and blues then. 162 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:32,280 If things were flagging, you know... 163 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:34,520 ..there was a bit of dope smoked 164 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:36,880 and people would be nodding off, 165 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:38,800 and he'd liven things up. 166 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:43,440 He'd go upstairs and change into his Roman centurion outfit. 167 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,520 He'd come down the stairs and go, "Ha!" 168 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:50,080 I mean, what else did I expect on a Saturday night? 169 00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:53,680 It was hardly going to the Ivy or anything like that. 170 00:10:53,680 --> 00:10:57,240 I'd got small children and a day job. 171 00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:00,480 I went to bed. It didn't bother me. 172 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:03,960 I met Pamela and she was very beautiful. 173 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:08,440 Dark hair, very long Pre-Raphaelite hair, I seem to remember, 174 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:11,840 and a couple of kids, but we never saw them, 175 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:15,760 So it was the beginning of my apprenticeship with John 176 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:18,760 in terms of getting to know a lot of music. 177 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:29,240 So I went out for a meal and I sat down, 178 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:32,440 thinking up titles and things like that. 179 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:35,400 So at least we've got keys now and some idea 180 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:38,920 what we're going to do. We'll get on the stage now. 181 00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:42,200 You could scream out a title... It wouldn't mean a light. 182 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:45,000 It would mean nothing! I don't know the titles! 183 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:47,040 Yeah, baby! 184 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:57,560 We never considered taking it up professionally. 185 00:11:57,560 --> 00:12:02,320 It wasn't in my mind and it certainly wasn't in his in the very early days. 186 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:05,880 And only when our great friend Alexis Korner 187 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:08,720 used to come and play in Manchester 188 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:12,080 and would always stay with us and we then discussed, 189 00:12:12,080 --> 00:12:15,400 "Now's the time to move, now's the time to move," 190 00:12:15,400 --> 00:12:20,480 that we considered that he'd become a full-time musician. 191 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:24,520 We were playing a private party, a girl's 21st-birthday party, 192 00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:29,040 at the Whaler Room at this big hotel in Wilmslow. A very good job for us. 193 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:32,280 We were well paid, an appreciative audience, 194 00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:35,080 and 195 00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:35,080 at the end of that night, John said, 196 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:37,960 "That's it. I'm turning professional. 197 00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:41,080 "Now, straight away, I'm going to London. 198 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:44,080 I'm going to go to London within a month. 199 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:48,160 "Anybody who wants to join me is in. Anybody who won't is out." 200 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:50,520 Many British kids were as excited 201 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,440 by the discovery of this alien music from black America 202 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:58,120 as the previous generation had been by rock and roll. 203 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:01,840 I thought I'd give it a go and went down to London, 204 00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:04,240 I'd met Alexis in Manchester, 205 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:08,960 and he said, "If you come to London, I'll introduce you to a few people." 206 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:13,320 So he introduced me to, um...several musicians 207 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:17,080 and more importantly, Rick Gunnell at the Flamingo. 208 00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:21,440 So we did three gigs at the weekend with the Manchester guys 209 00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:24,360 and that showed me it was where I wanted to go. 210 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:27,200 London was very fortunate in the '60s 211 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:32,040 to have many clubs where you could see bands, either above pubs 212 00:13:32,040 --> 00:13:37,080 or down below in very hot, steamy basements. 213 00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:41,280 Ideal, really, for hearing a hot blues band playing. 214 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:44,480 It was the start of the blues boom. R&B was all the rage. 215 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:47,320 It seemed like there was a new group every week. 216 00:13:47,320 --> 00:13:51,840 But behind all the new groups, like the Spencer Davis Group 217 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:54,360 or the Yardbirds or the T-Bones, 218 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:58,360 was John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Everybody looked up to them. 219 00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:00,560 The first time I ever met John 220 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:05,480 was at the Flamingo in Wardour Street. I remember thinking that 221 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:10,040 there was something about John's sound and him as a personality 222 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:14,960 that made him just that little bit more interesting, musically, 223 00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,240 than other bands I went to see. 224 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:20,000 Most of the other bands were copying 225 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:23,520 American black R&B and blues products. To me, 226 00:14:23,520 --> 00:14:27,040 John was the closest to something new and original 227 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:29,920 in the blues framework. That excited me. 228 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:34,400 Most of the bands in those early days - that was another thing 229 00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:36,760 that was different about John - 230 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:40,960 most of the R&B bands in London had come out of jazz. 231 00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:43,480 They'd come out of trad, perhaps, 232 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:48,040 but the great majority of them had at least one modern jazz musician. 233 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:50,520 In the case of the Manfreds, three or four. 234 00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:58,720 Even politicians get the blues. 235 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:02,440 Mayall and his bemused American band members have been invited 236 00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:06,600 to the Houses of Parliament as a result of their forthcoming 237 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:10,160 concert in aid of the children's charity, UNICEF. 238 00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:15,040 Lovely to see you again. Better weather than last time. Definitely. 239 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:17,480 Hello. Nice to meet you. Mrs Mayall. 240 00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:20,320 Hi. This is Sampson. Nice to meet you. 241 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:22,360 Do come in. 242 00:15:26,320 --> 00:15:28,520 Mr Chales Kennedy, Mr John Mayall, 243 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:32,160 Mr Robin Millar, Buddy Whittington... Hello, sir. 244 00:15:32,160 --> 00:15:33,840 OVERLAPPING CHATTER 245 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:36,000 ..little John Mayall... Right. 246 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:38,600 ..and Mrs John Mayall behind him. Yes. 247 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:41,120 Can you stand next to John? 248 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:45,720 Great privilege to meet you. Thank you. Nice to meet you. 249 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:51,240 The leader of the Tory Party hosted a reception here last night 250 00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:53,960 for the relaunch of the Carry On films. 251 00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:56,960 Oh, really? There is no competition! 252 00:15:56,960 --> 00:16:00,480 No competition! I agree. I totally agree. 253 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:03,960 Hitting London after his apprenticeship, 254 00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:05,880 John Mayall was older and cannier 255 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:08,960 than most of the emerging young players on the scene, 256 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:12,920 and as a band leader, he had a nose for business and an eye for talent. 257 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:16,440 Some of the gigs were on a percentage of the door. 258 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:20,440 It'd be a guarantee against so much percentage of the door. 259 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:23,560 So John bought a clicker, as they were called, 260 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:27,080 and as soon as the door opened, he'd go to the door 261 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:30,000 and he'd stand there clicking the thing 262 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:34,640 as each punter came in until it was time to go onstage, 263 00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:39,640 then we'd play, and he'd know exactly how many people were in that hall, 264 00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:42,120 so he'd go to the manager and say... 265 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:44,840 ..so he was very astute. 266 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:50,840 He was more sort of your actual businessman band leader 267 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:53,280 and I-pay-you type of bloke. 268 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:55,280 He told you what you should do 269 00:16:55,280 --> 00:16:58,240 and when he thought you didn't do it right. 270 00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:03,280 The day I joined John was the first day I started work. I was 16. 271 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:09,400 Here I was, launching on a career, a job with a tax office! 272 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:16,440 And also, in the evenings, playing in a band. That was very exciting. 273 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:18,680 It was travelling, and... 274 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:20,920 ..it was fun. 275 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:23,160 When I first started, I was young - 276 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:28,000 I was 16, 17 - and he was quite a bit older. 277 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:31,320 At that time, I thought he was a complete nutcase. 278 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:34,520 He had these harmonicas and his weird gadgets. 279 00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:36,560 He used to live in trees. 280 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:45,000 Until The Yardbirds with Eric Clapton, 281 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:49,840 I felt I was the only one who had the background and understanding 282 00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:52,240 of what the blues was all about. 283 00:17:54,120 --> 00:17:58,320 He'd done about a year with them, and their first record, 284 00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:01,600 For Your Love, went to the top of the charts, 285 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:06,720 and made them into a pop group, which is what Eric didn't want, 286 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:09,160 so he walked out on them. 287 00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:13,840 On the B-side was an instrumental which was totally Eric. 288 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:17,360 MUSIC: "Got To Hurry" by The Yardbirds 289 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:23,360 It was just an amazing piece of blues. 290 00:18:24,560 --> 00:18:27,560 I heard that record, and would play that over and over, 291 00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:30,080 and I just wanted to work with him. 292 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:36,320 I got a call from John. 293 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:40,200 He was asking if I was interested in joining his band. 294 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:42,760 I think he had a guy called Roger Dean, 295 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:45,240 who was the guitar player before me, 296 00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:48,080 and I don't know whether Roger had left 297 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:52,640 or John was wanting to replace him, but I was intrigued by him. 298 00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:57,680 That's when I made him the offer to play blues with the Bluesbreakers 299 00:18:57,680 --> 00:18:59,840 and, of course, he accepted. 300 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:04,080 It was just a partnership that was meant to be. 301 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:12,760 When Eric came into the band, it really took off, 302 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:15,840 because he was such an exciting player. 303 00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:21,560 Friends used to come to see the gigs and they'd say, "He's fantastic!" 304 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:26,560 He was obsessed with making it as a blues player. He was a blues purist. 305 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,760 That was his total focus. 306 00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:33,160 That was a powerful band. It wasn't just John. 307 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:37,280 God bless him - he was the focal point and the custodian, 308 00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,280 and all of it comes from his choice in musicians, 309 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:43,320 and he always had great people passing through, 310 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:45,680 but the net result was the combination 311 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:48,480 of Hughie Flint and John McVie and me and John. 312 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:52,800 We'd been on the road long enough to go in and play our set. 313 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:06,440 The whole time this was going on, I'd been plugging away at Decca, 314 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:11,760 "You must sign John Mayall. Not only has his band improved tenfold, 315 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:16,720 "but he has a star in the making within the band in Clapton. 316 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:19,840 "If you miss out on this, you'll miss out on something big, 317 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,520 "because this guy, Mayall and the band, are going. 318 00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:26,920 "They'll go big time, and if we don't get in now, somebody else will." 319 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:30,320 So we went into the studios, the Decca studios, 320 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:32,880 with that band, with John and Eric, 321 00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:34,920 which became the Beano album. 322 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:37,840 My recollection of that date in the studio 323 00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:41,000 was we were unloading the gear, taking it in, 324 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:43,480 playing, packing up and leaving. 325 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:47,760 We played the same way we did in the clubs in the studio. 326 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:52,480 MUSIC: "Have You Heard" by The Bluesbreakers 327 00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:58,440 The Bluesbreakers' Beano album with Clapton became the benchmark 328 00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:00,840 British blues album of its era. 329 00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:12,560 The engineer, Gus Dudgeon, wasn't too pleased about it, 330 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:16,880 cos it was distorting or louder than he would've liked. 331 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:20,280 Mike said, "This is the way it should be." 332 00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:23,680 With Eric playing at the volume he was playing at, 333 00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:27,400 they didn't know what to do, so we had to find the way to do it, 334 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:28,920 and that was exciting. 335 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:32,480 That was the most exciting part of the project - 336 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:36,280 when we found how to deal with it, we had the sound. 337 00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:51,960 What they were doing was using their excitement and their love 338 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:54,080 of artists like Freddy King, 339 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:58,600 and saying, "I'm going to play those licks and put my own sound 340 00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:03,640 "on top of the sound I hear on King's record, and make that MY sound." 341 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:30,840 It did really well in the charts and I think it was one of the ones 342 00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,640 that really helped us to get to America. 343 00:22:33,640 --> 00:22:36,160 Hi, come on in. This is the cinema. 344 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:39,520 We're just having a movie day today, 345 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:43,600 which means we have this great place in here 346 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:46,800 that I constructed and decorated myself. 347 00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:48,720 It's full of memorabilia 348 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,720 which you can look around. 349 00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:55,280 Right now, I'm going to get some popcorn going. 350 00:22:56,280 --> 00:23:00,320 This is the museum, a blues museum or whatever. 351 00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:03,560 I'll just put one batch in there. 352 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:11,840 Over here is one of our showcases of weird memorabilia. 353 00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,240 A mongoose and a snake 354 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,360 donated to me by John McVie, 355 00:23:17,360 --> 00:23:22,600 and various other strange and wonderful things. 356 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:28,040 I came to John's house one day and he'd been out in the garden 357 00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:30,560 reading Melody Maker and he was furious. 358 00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:34,960 He said, "Eric's rehearsing with a man in some church." 359 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:40,200 I said, "Is he?" So the next thing I know is John has sacked Eric. 360 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,480 There may be more to this story, 361 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:45,120 but that's how I understood it then. 362 00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:49,320 It was after I'd been in the band that he started experimenting 363 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:51,360 with drink and all that stuff, 364 00:23:51,360 --> 00:23:54,560 and women, too, because I was a complete 365 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:58,240 absolute sex maniac at that point, 366 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:00,400 and we, at the end of our collaboration, 367 00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:03,800 were fighting over one woman, if I remember. 368 00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:08,880 We fell out pretty big time over one lady in particular. 369 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:13,000 We were both into the ladies, that's for sure. 370 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:17,240 I've seen that tape where he says there was a battle of some sort. 371 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:19,200 I have to ask him who that was. 372 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:22,320 I don't know! 373 00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:27,200 He now had to replace God. Wherever you went, you saw it written 374 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:29,800 on walls - "Eric Clapton is God". 375 00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:34,800 He had to find someone to replace him who at least had the spirit Eric had. 376 00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:37,840 We had a good chemistry together. 377 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:42,880 It was like... The illusion I created to a certain extent in my own head 378 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:47,760 was, "Now I can take this and go anywhere with it." It wasn't true. 379 00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:49,440 When I went to Cream, 380 00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:53,760 I thought I'd go to a higher platform, but it didn't. 381 00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:57,000 A lot of the energy that I had managed to... 382 00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:01,880 ..formulate with John, stayed there, you know, 383 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:05,760 and Peter Green actually moved in and got hold of that. 384 00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:10,800 Basically, Peter was somebody who used to come to The Flamingo 385 00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:12,840 and hear us a lot, 386 00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:15,160 and he wanted to have a go. 387 00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:18,680 He thought he was qualified enough, 388 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:22,040 so, like I say, when Eric went off to Cream, 389 00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:25,720 I gave him a shot and he was really remarkable. 390 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:29,480 MUSIC: "Someday After a While..." by The Bluesbreakers 391 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:46,000 John usually chooses the people he wants, 392 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:50,000 chooses very carefully. He knows what he wants. He usually gets it. 393 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:55,400 How long he keeps what he gets - this goes for anyone - 394 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:57,840 is a different matter. 395 00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:01,760 There are great guitar players who technically you can't fault, 396 00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:03,920 but they don't have what Peter has - 397 00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:05,960 the inner soul. 398 00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:15,640 Mayall clearly had an extraordinary knack as a band leader, 399 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:19,160 attracting one future rock star to his band after another. 400 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:23,440 Once Eric Clapton had left to form Cream, the future guitar hero 401 00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:25,960 of Fleetwood Mac fell into his place. 402 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:32,240 Good though Peter was, he hadn't got the flair yet that Eric had. 403 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:35,280 He wasn't as mature as Eric's playing was, 404 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,120 and I was grumbling and very unhappy, 405 00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:40,960 so John Mayall one day rang me up and said, 406 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:44,360 "The Marquee on Saturday will be your last gig." 407 00:26:44,360 --> 00:26:47,640 So I said, "OK." I was fed up with it. 408 00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,000 "But, anyway, OK, if that's what you want." 409 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:52,360 No kind of discussion, no kind of, 410 00:26:52,360 --> 00:26:56,640 "We've been together for ten years, we're old mates," but, 411 00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:59,480 "Your last gig is on Saturday"! 412 00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:03,520 MUSIC: "Down In Mississippi" by The Bluesbreakers 413 00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:14,720 On the one hand, you're kind of sorry 414 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:18,280 to not be with that person onstage any more, 415 00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:21,360 but on the other hand it gives you...you 416 00:27:21,360 --> 00:27:25,320 put somebody else in, and it alters the chemistry, 417 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:29,720 and it gives you a new lease of life on the music that might have 418 00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:32,440 otherwise gotten a little bit stale. 419 00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:37,040 He said, "Bit of a hard week this week. We only did four gigs, 420 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:38,480 so instead of £35, 421 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:42,920 "I'm afraid I can only pay you £30"! Thanks, John. 422 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:44,960 One, two, three... 423 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:56,760 Nearing 70, Mayall has been keen to make peace with his past. 424 00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:00,920 Recently, he's played with many of his old Bluesbreakers, 425 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:03,800 including his one-time rhythm section 426 00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:06,120 John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. 427 00:28:06,120 --> 00:28:11,200 # Can't figure it out But she understands... # 428 00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:16,800 The behaviour thing really wasn't an issue until, um, 429 00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:21,400 the demon drink took over John McVie. 430 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:27,480 I was drinking too much, which John took care of... 431 00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:30,800 ..by firing me. Twice. 432 00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:35,680 He'd get turfed out of the van in the middle of...up north, you know. 433 00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:41,200 At the top of the M1, John would chuck John out of the van 434 00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:44,080 with a bottle of rum in his hand, swearing, 435 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,920 then the next day it would be as if nothing had happened. 436 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:52,320 That became difficult because it would affect the performances. 437 00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:56,800 I didn't have any rules as long as people showed up to do the job. 438 00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:58,840 He's the boss. 439 00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:01,880 To a point. 440 00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:07,120 I mean, hell, if you want to go by those rules, then everything's fine, 441 00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:10,600 but if you...um, 442 00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:15,000 step outside of that, then it's his prerogative. 443 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,520 HE PLAYS BASS GUITAR 444 00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:22,760 No doubt about it, he was a great bass player, 445 00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:26,520 and he was the right person for The Bluesbreakers. 446 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:28,800 He and Peter got on great, 447 00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:32,080 and Mick Fleetwood came in the band. 448 00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:48,280 Peter said, "I know this guy that can do a two and four! That's about it. 449 00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,800 "He can just about do a drum roll, 450 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:55,000 "but he keeps good time and he's a great friend of mine." 451 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,880 That's how it happened, I do believe. 452 00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:05,080 I just lucked out, because it suited my playing. 453 00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:06,600 I'm not a technician. 454 00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:08,120 I play from the heart, 455 00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:11,880 so the music that John Mayall was playing, 456 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:16,480 and then, later on, Peter Green and John McVie and myself, 457 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,480 we were a blues band, pure and simple. 458 00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:34,920 There was a solidarity there that was obviously going to move on. 459 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:37,080 I mean, you could tell that, 460 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:39,960 and they knew John McVie would 461 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:39,960 eventually come. 462 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:43,120 That's why they 463 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:43,120 came up with the name Fleetwood Mac. 464 00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:49,280 When someone's ready to move on, John knows that, and it's like... 465 00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:55,400 ..what he supplies very often is a platform for people to develop 466 00:30:55,400 --> 00:31:00,440 and, in a very giving way, he lets them do that, 467 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:03,320 and when it's time for them to go 468 00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:07,080 or you can feel the horse is pulling a bit, 469 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:10,600 it's like, "Sure," and that's what he's done. 470 00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:13,040 # The odds are stacked 471 00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:17,560 # They're up and down 472 00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:20,280 # Got a yoyo man... # 473 00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,680 Of course it was a totally different lifestyle 474 00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:28,440 and it was something that led to the split up of our marriage, you know. 475 00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:30,680 In 1966, we split up, 476 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:35,520 because I'd never had an experience in life like... 477 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:38,680 ..you know, doing music for a living... 478 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:41,640 I don't know, just the whole thing. 479 00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,080 It was a turnaround in my life. 480 00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:48,600 It was the early days of the '60s, loads of girls around, 481 00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:52,000 and he felt he was trapped within a marriage. 482 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:56,160 He couldn't stay out all night or one time he wanted to build 483 00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:58,560 a thing at the end of our big garden 484 00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:04,160 and be able to bring people back, which didn't fit in with my views. 485 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:05,920 I'm fairly liberal. 486 00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:11,040 We'd adopted a fourth child, and he left when he was two months old. 487 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:15,400 He went off with his fan club secretary! There you go! 488 00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:20,240 With the American members of the band now recovered from jet lag 489 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:22,520 and their visit to the House of Lords, 490 00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:27,080 the band is on the road to Liverpool 491 00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:27,080 to meet up with Eric Clapton, 492 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:31,480 Chris Barber - the man who first brought many American blues artists 493 00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:33,520 to Britain in the '50s and '60s - 494 00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:36,080 and Mick Taylor. 495 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:41,280 I was 15 and I was very much into rhythm and blues. 496 00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:44,520 Playing the music that John plays, 497 00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:48,640 it gives you a lot of opportunity to develop your own ideas - 498 00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:53,480 it gives you a lot of freedom, you know, within the blues framework. 499 00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:57,880 So it did do me a lot of good, being with John. 500 00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:00,680 Do you respect him as a musician? 501 00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:03,200 Oh, yeah. He knows what he's doing. 502 00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:19,480 I went to this show at Welwyn Garden City Community Centre, or something. 503 00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:23,000 I said to John Mayall when I got backstage, 504 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:29,240 "John, would you mind if I, um...sat in with you 505 00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:32,920 "and had a play?" And, much to my amazement, 506 00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:37,040 he looked up at me and said, "Yeah, why not?" 507 00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:50,320 He really loved it, and we said that we would keep in touch 508 00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,200 with each other, and exchanged phone numbers. 509 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:56,960 But I think we lost touch with each other somehow. 510 00:33:56,960 --> 00:33:59,520 I put an advert in the Melody Maker. 511 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,120 I didn't mention who it was for, 512 00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:04,640 just, "Blues guitarist wanted 513 00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:07,960 for well-known blues band, blah-blah," 514 00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:11,520 and Mick Taylor answered that advert, 515 00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:15,560 I think maybe on the second day, or something like that. 516 00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:19,640 I didn't really need to answer the phone after that. 517 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:23,400 I've never been as nervous in my life, 518 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:26,880 because I was following in the footsteps 519 00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:29,720 of Eric Clapton and Peter Green. 520 00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:33,880 It was about 18 months before I really found my feet, 521 00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,680 and would improvise more and more, 522 00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:41,960 and play different things every night, and, um...still do. 523 00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,400 One of his great qualities was his slide guitar playing. 524 00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:54,920 We hadn't had anybody in the band who'd been into that. 525 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:00,320 Mick, also... 526 00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:03,120 he had a more jazzy background than the other two. 527 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,840 We used to do all kinds of stuff with John Mayall. 528 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:33,880 We never used to know what he was going to do next, 529 00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:36,760 and I learnt a lot 530 00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:41,400 about different types of blues music and styles of playing and sounds. 531 00:35:52,720 --> 00:35:55,600 Some American...jazz orchestra 532 00:35:55,600 --> 00:36:00,040 had put together something which was a suite - a jazz suite - 533 00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:05,080 and I thought this would be a good idea, to...to actually tell a story, 534 00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:10,000 a complete story, like chapters, and have them all joined together. 535 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,320 In the Bare Wires Suite, Mayall began to add 536 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:16,040 some jazz flavouring to his blues, 537 00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:19,520 while his personal diary-style songs explored 538 00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:22,160 the break-up of his first marriage. 539 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:26,080 Considering the musicianship I had at my disposal, 540 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:30,320 it was an opportunity to do that and write a whole story, 541 00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:32,760 which filled one side of the LP. 542 00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:35,400 Bare Wires stands up, 543 00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:40,520 and it was, I have no doubt, the forerunner of the jazz-rock movement. 544 00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:44,560 I do think Bare Wires is a groundbreaker, I really do. 545 00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:48,600 It just kind of focused a lot of that stuff in a completely different way, 546 00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:52,800 and I think partly it had to do with the fact that John hadn't had a lot 547 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:54,800 to do with jazz up to that point. 548 00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:57,880 He thought, "I could get into this!" And he could! 549 00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:00,240 I learnt that you could write a song 550 00:37:00,240 --> 00:37:04,000 about going down to the supermarket and meeting a girl. 551 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:08,280 I mean, he just used to write some songs off the top of his head 552 00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:10,040 without even thinking. 553 00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:14,400 And if you read them - if you just read them as lyrics, 554 00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,160 they'd sound ridiculous, you know? 555 00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:19,440 But... 556 00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:24,720 You know - "I went down to the supermarket to find myself a chick!" 557 00:37:24,720 --> 00:37:27,440 John was the first person I knew 558 00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:31,160 that was trying to write in a blues format. 559 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:33,840 In the Yardbirds, we would always do covers, 560 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:37,200 and I don't think we had much success at writing things. 561 00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:41,560 So it was interesting to me that John would try and write songs, 562 00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:43,760 but remain in the blues format. 563 00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:08,000 DRILL BUZZES 564 00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:12,160 This isn't my guitar, you see. 565 00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:15,040 This is one of those that I get from the guitar shop - 566 00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:17,640 Norm's Rare Guitars. 567 00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:26,280 And he lends them to me, and then I do some of my artwork on them, 568 00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:30,000 and then he lets me have two in exchange, 569 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:32,600 so it's a pretty good deal. 570 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,040 It had been nearly four years, 571 00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:56,640 and then he certainly felt that it was not only time for a change 572 00:38:56,640 --> 00:39:00,800 for him musically, but time for a change of personnel, 573 00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:05,040 and also it was time for him to move to America. 574 00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:08,880 I wanted to do something different, 575 00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:08,880 quite frankly. 576 00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:13,640 I was kind of bored with the same line-up of guitar, bass, drums, 577 00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:16,120 and whatever else I played. 578 00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:20,200 So conveniently, Mick Jagger called me up around that time. 579 00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:25,240 He wanted a replacement for Brian Jones so they could go on the road, 580 00:39:25,240 --> 00:39:29,280 and so I told him that I was going to be changing over my line-up 581 00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:31,840 and Mick Taylor would be available. 582 00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:36,800 John Mayall called me and told me that the Stones were interested in... 583 00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:39,400 ..in trying me out as a guitar player, 584 00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:44,280 I thought for some session work, but apparently it turned out 585 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:46,320 to be a bit more than that. 586 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:50,200 Everybody thought that he was forever 587 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:50,200 going to have a band featuring 588 00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:52,320 the new Eric Clapton or Peter Green. 589 00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:56,600 He reached a point where he got sick of that, and put together an album 590 00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:58,760 with a band called Turning Point. 591 00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:02,800 He turned his back on the expected format of guitar, bass and drums 592 00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:05,680 and brought in acoustic instruments. 593 00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:10,240 I just wanted to do something 594 00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:10,240 different with a little less volume, 595 00:40:10,240 --> 00:40:13,040 experiment in that area. 596 00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:22,600 It worked very well, but it had its limitations 597 00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:27,160 and that particular line-up only lasted pretty much a year, 598 00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:28,960 to the exact month. 599 00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:31,600 Of course it did widen my audience, 600 00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:33,800 particularly in the States. 601 00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,960 Previously, we'd made our first American tour, 602 00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:47,480 and I was really thrilled with that. 603 00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:52,000 It wasn't just the appreciation for the music, it was the way of life 604 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:54,040 and everything else about it. 605 00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:58,800 And so at that point I had decided that was where I wanted to move to. 606 00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:17,560 I think the move to America was a recognition of where I belonged. 607 00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:23,720 I'd always been connected to America 608 00:41:23,720 --> 00:41:27,680 via movies, literature and music, of course. 609 00:41:30,240 --> 00:41:32,880 So I moved there and it felt right. 610 00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:35,720 35 years later, it still feels right. 611 00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:48,720 And we recorded the album USA Union in Los Angeles, 612 00:41:48,720 --> 00:41:51,320 and that became the next chapter, 613 00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:55,000 but the first chapter with American musicians. 614 00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:57,840 # My, my pretty girl 615 00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:01,800 # Sitting in her room of red 616 00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:05,400 # My pretty girl 617 00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:09,560 # Lying on her furry bed 618 00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:15,960 # Pretty as the moonlight I only want to treat her right... # 619 00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:21,480 I'd left school at 15, did a year in Wales in a sixth-form college, 620 00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:26,880 farting about - taking mushrooms and making home-brew - 621 00:42:26,880 --> 00:42:31,840 came back to London, three-day week, 10.30 the BBC's off. 622 00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:36,560 Remember that time, when they used to cut television alternate nights? 623 00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:40,360 I thought, "Fuck this for a laugh! I'll go and make a fortune, 624 00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:42,640 become a millionaire in America." 625 00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:47,600 So I called up me dad, and I said, "Hey, John, it's your old son here. 626 00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:50,040 "I'm going to come out to LA." 627 00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:52,920 # It's so... # 628 00:42:52,920 --> 00:42:56,720 The only place I lived during those years was the house in Laurel Canyon 629 00:42:56,720 --> 00:42:59,160 that inspired several songs. 630 00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:04,520 In Laurel Canyon, Mayall found himself 631 00:43:04,520 --> 00:43:08,160 at the epicentre of the new Californian counter-culture, 632 00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:11,640 rubbing shoulders with the likes of Joni Mitchell 633 00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:14,160 and his new neighbour, Frank Zappa. 634 00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:18,320 Living in Laurel Canyon without a car, we relied on everybody else. 635 00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:21,920 But mind you, he was a real drinker, so it would have been 636 00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:24,360 not a good 637 00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:24,360 thing to be driving as well. 638 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:26,320 I drank extensively 639 00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:31,240 and wholeheartedly for...about 14 years, I think. 640 00:43:31,240 --> 00:43:33,760 I started late. 641 00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:38,120 I think I didn't take my first drink until 1967 or 8. 642 00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:40,720 And I had a beer. 643 00:43:40,720 --> 00:43:43,080 And I was out of it! 644 00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:47,400 It was known as the Brain Damage Club in those days. 645 00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:50,480 We had the best-stocked bar in Hollywood. 646 00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:54,600 The bottles were this big, with big plungers on the top, 647 00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:57,000 you know, for your shots. 648 00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:59,040 You had your vodka and your whiskies, 649 00:43:59,040 --> 00:44:02,720 then you had a million other - creme de menthes and every mixer 650 00:44:02,720 --> 00:44:06,800 and books on how to mix every kind of drink under the sun. 651 00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:11,840 And it was... I did my very best to drink that bar dry with my new mates, 652 00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:15,840 skateboarding buddies! Dogtown And Z-Boys, all of that. 653 00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:21,280 My favourite period with my dad's band was when he moved to America 654 00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:25,320 and I had hit pubescence - I was like, 13, 14 - 655 00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:29,040 and I started to go over there a lot on my own 656 00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:31,960 and hang out with him at the Brain Damage Bar 657 00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:34,960 with all the gangsters and all the movie stars 658 00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:39,000 and the famous musos and the Vietnam vets. 659 00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:41,440 Some fantastic nights there. 660 00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:45,760 I was one of those drunks that could drink first thing in the morning, 661 00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:49,640 all the way through the day until last thing at night, 662 00:44:49,640 --> 00:44:54,240 and rarely show any side-effects, other than a happy glow! 663 00:44:54,240 --> 00:44:56,520 But I always took care of business. 664 00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:59,760 He wasn't like a binge drinker - he just started drinking, 665 00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:02,280 but got a real taste for it, cos it was fun! 666 00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:06,760 I was telling myself that I was experimenting - 667 00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:09,280 seeing what it would do to my head. 668 00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:13,640 If there was a good side to it at all, it might have been my total 669 00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:15,800 freedom to go out with any band 670 00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:18,640 and say, "OK, we're not going to have any set list, 671 00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:22,040 "we're just going to play. I'll call a key, we'll just do it." 672 00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:24,440 That was one of the ingredients 673 00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:26,920 that made the jazz-blues fusion 674 00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:28,640 thing kind of unique, 675 00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:32,800 because it was a lot of fun to go out and improvise the whole set. 676 00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:35,640 # Oh, what you do... # 677 00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:40,520 At that time, the industry changed - disco came in 678 00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:45,520 and there was less interest in the blues. It was left to us 679 00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:48,640 to put out the albums, and they just didn't 680 00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:51,560 do the business they thought they would, 681 00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:55,600 cos there wasn't the market for that kind of music any more. 682 00:45:55,600 --> 00:45:58,920 We were left out in the cold, really. 683 00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:01,600 # ..life is a gamble 684 00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:04,560 # Gave up the 9 to 5 685 00:46:04,560 --> 00:46:08,680 # It always stored up 686 00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:12,040 # Get up in the morning just to survive... # 687 00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:19,280 Yeah. I could not remember the exact year - '72 or something. 688 00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:28,720 Oh, it's reflected. You'll have to move over, dear. 689 00:46:28,720 --> 00:46:33,360 It's not working. There - that's sort of. 690 00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:38,160 There we are in the garden on Grand View Drive, Laurel Canyon. 691 00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:41,120 I was singing with Harvey Mandel, 692 00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:44,680 and John sat in with the band... 693 00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:49,080 ..and we started a torrid affair. 694 00:46:49,080 --> 00:46:52,840 He was the strangest man I've ever met. 695 00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:55,080 Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. 696 00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:59,800 He was very eccentric - he still is - and a renaissance man. 697 00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:04,440 When I met him, he was wearing these cut-off shorts 698 00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:06,720 that he'd sewn himself, 699 00:47:06,720 --> 00:47:12,040 no shirt, he was tanned and gorgeous, flowing hair, no shoes. 700 00:47:12,040 --> 00:47:15,680 Another thing on his belt that he'd made, 701 00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:18,960 that he had his harmonicas stuck in. 702 00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:24,160 John had been hustling me for rent, so I said, "There you go - $400." 703 00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:27,480 And I go off to work with my next-door neighbour, 704 00:47:27,480 --> 00:47:30,440 leave my nice little car outside the yard, 705 00:47:30,440 --> 00:47:34,480 and we drive off in his jeep to work at Universal Studios, 706 00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:38,040 and at lunchtime we come out, look up - 707 00:47:38,040 --> 00:47:41,680 "That's Laurel Canyon! That's a fire!" 708 00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:46,000 So we drive back up, and just see the house burning down 709 00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:50,080 from the bottom of Sunset Strip, going, "There's my house, 710 00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:53,240 "but yours is gone!" 711 00:47:53,240 --> 00:47:55,480 MAGGIE: We'd just had a swim, 712 00:47:55,480 --> 00:47:59,440 and went into his cinema to watch The French Connection. 713 00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:01,880 I don't think we even had shoes on. 714 00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:04,640 We just had to get out really quickly. 715 00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:11,400 The house across the street blew up right in front of our eyes. 716 00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:13,520 In the panic, you don't really think. 717 00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:16,840 It was snowing ash 718 00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,680 and the helicopters were there. 719 00:48:19,680 --> 00:48:21,760 It was pretty scary. 720 00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:32,280 A friend had come over to visit and so we went off in his vehicle 721 00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:36,400 and left everything behind, thinking that we'd come back later. 722 00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:39,040 Of course, we never did come back later. 723 00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:44,640 It wiped out everything I'd ever had. 724 00:48:44,640 --> 00:48:48,120 All my possessions, everything I'd ever had. 725 00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:56,000 Hard to imagine that... 726 00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:00,480 Quite a blow. Never got over it to this day, really. 727 00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:03,440 I think it's one of the only times 728 00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:06,160 I've really known him to break down. 729 00:49:07,720 --> 00:49:11,760 And...it was a terrible loss. 730 00:49:11,760 --> 00:49:14,960 I think he was gutted because he lost his diaries, 731 00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:17,640 he lost his porn collection, 732 00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:20,280 he lost everything. 733 00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:23,200 He lost the 400 bucks I gave him. 734 00:49:23,200 --> 00:49:27,000 He lost his passport. I mean, you just lose everything. 735 00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:31,440 But at the same time you go, "God! That was close!" 736 00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:36,440 Up to that point, Laurel Canyon had been the ideal place for me. 737 00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:40,480 After the fire, we did rebuild, but it was never the same. 738 00:49:40,480 --> 00:49:44,640 It was like we were trying to recreate what had been there, 739 00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:49,440 and there was a magic there that really was lost. 740 00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:54,920 And then John married and moved off and then moved back up there, 741 00:49:54,920 --> 00:49:59,160 then had kids. And his whole life changed after the fire. 742 00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:03,920 He became more stable. Second wife, 743 00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:03,920 second life, second family - 744 00:50:03,920 --> 00:50:07,840 and got his career on the move again. 745 00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:10,280 I stopped drinking in '84 746 00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:17,160 and around that time I put together - after various different bands - 747 00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:21,360 I put together the traditional quartet line-up. 748 00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:25,000 I actually had two guitar players - 749 00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:28,080 Coco Montoya and Walter Trout. 750 00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:34,640 # And you know that I can't be in love, child 751 00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:38,040 # Something you never know... # 752 00:50:56,800 --> 00:50:59,320 We went to Hungary and I had one of 753 00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:02,840 the little tape machines on the 754 00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:02,840 sound board, 755 00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:05,760 and recorded an outdoor concert, 756 00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:08,960 and it came out really well. 757 00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:35,080 I shot this thing around with GNP/Crescendo. 758 00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:38,680 I didn't tell them it was just a cassette. 759 00:51:38,680 --> 00:51:41,240 I had the cassette copied onto a reel-to-reel thing, 760 00:51:41,240 --> 00:51:44,560 said "this is it" and let them play it on that. 761 00:51:44,560 --> 00:51:48,000 So they took that and it was like the foot in the door. 762 00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:52,880 So we went to Germany and recorded the album Chicago Line 763 00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:56,560 which was then picked up by Island Records. 764 00:51:56,560 --> 00:51:58,960 So, step by step, we worked back 765 00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:02,680 into the mainstream of known record companies. 766 00:52:02,680 --> 00:52:05,360 And it's been a step up each time. 767 00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:09,480 And albums have just been accumulating along the way. 768 00:52:11,280 --> 00:52:14,560 The Bluesbreakers have now arrived at Liverpool Dock, 769 00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:16,560 where 4,500 of the faithful have 770 00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:19,480 gathered to celebrate John Mayall's 771 00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:19,480 birthday 772 00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:23,560 and to reunite with some of his more 773 00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:23,560 famous former band members. 774 00:52:23,560 --> 00:52:26,600 It's been a long journey to his historic gig 775 00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:30,760 for the godfather of British blues, who now has an all-American line-up 776 00:52:30,760 --> 00:52:34,200 of musicians, featuring Buddy Whittington on lead guitar, 777 00:52:34,200 --> 00:52:38,240 in the latest incarnation of the Bluesbreaker band. 778 00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:43,400 Now, at last, Mayall is back onstage in Britain 779 00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:46,920 with his most famous original Bluesbreaker. 780 00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:51,240 For Eric Clapton, it's time to take the measure of this mentor. 781 00:52:51,240 --> 00:52:55,200 I mean, if there's anything missing it's self-doubt. 782 00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:58,720 I don't know if John has ever experienced self-doubt, 783 00:52:58,720 --> 00:53:03,680 and I don't know that any artist is really 100% without that. 784 00:53:03,680 --> 00:53:06,120 John has always been an incredible 785 00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:09,720 optimist with a tremendous ability to move forward 786 00:53:09,720 --> 00:53:14,760 without ever seeming to question where he's going. He's focused. 787 00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:19,360 I admire and respect it, but at the same time, I wonder, you know, 788 00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:24,120 if there is any of that in him or not. He keeps it well hidden. 789 00:53:24,120 --> 00:53:25,880 I count my two as the one with the... 790 00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:27,240 # Dalala dalala la. # 791 00:53:27,240 --> 00:53:29,560 That's the first one of my two. 792 00:53:29,560 --> 00:53:31,960 Otherwise, I'll need three! 793 00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:36,480 So we break at one, then the next one 794 00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:36,480 and then we're free to go. 795 00:53:37,640 --> 00:53:39,680 One, two, three! 796 00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:04,080 John showed me by example how to be a successful band leader. 797 00:54:16,480 --> 00:54:18,640 You hire a musician for what he's going to bring, 798 00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:20,480 not what you tell him he's going to play. 799 00:54:20,480 --> 00:54:24,240 I learned that as being the ideal way of being a band leader. 800 00:54:24,240 --> 00:54:25,760 When I joined John's band, 801 00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:29,320 he chose me for the way I played - he didn't tell me what to play. 802 00:55:21,920 --> 00:55:25,600 John did open people's ears. 803 00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:30,880 Think what he's...he's done. 804 00:55:30,880 --> 00:55:35,000 People in his bands, what they've done and come out 805 00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:39,080 and made people aware of American blues. Amazing. 806 00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:45,800 He gave people so much room to experiment. 807 00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:48,000 In other bands, you'd never get 808 00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:52,200 as much solo space as you did in a year of two with John Mayall. 809 00:55:53,680 --> 00:55:56,960 To me, John is still as exciting 810 00:55:56,960 --> 00:55:59,320 and in-your-face as he always was. 811 00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:06,160 When you have someone who creates that much of a spot for himself 812 00:56:06,160 --> 00:56:11,360 in the music industry, it's like a flashing beacon. You can't ignore it. 813 00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:15,520 My life would've been very different if it hadn't been for John. 814 00:56:17,440 --> 00:56:22,000 I'd still be dealing with drunk Irishmen in the tax office. 815 00:56:22,000 --> 00:56:25,920 He's going to be rocking on and on and on. 816 00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:29,480 Believe me. What's he going to do on his days home? 817 00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:49,880 Is everybody ready to commence with the festivities? 818 00:56:49,880 --> 00:56:53,440 CROWD CHEERS 819 00:56:49,880 --> 00:56:53,440 Ladies and gentlemen, 820 00:56:53,440 --> 00:56:56,840 would you welcome Mr John Mayall! 821 00:56:56,840 --> 00:56:58,920 CROWD CHEERS 822 00:56:58,920 --> 00:57:02,320 If you call him the godfather of British blues, that's cool with me. 823 00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:06,840 He is the father figure. Who else are you going to look to? 824 00:57:28,360 --> 00:57:31,640 It's the creative enjoyment which is first and foremost 825 00:57:31,640 --> 00:57:34,040 but also I just love the lifestyle. 826 00:57:34,040 --> 00:57:38,480 We just get up there onstage and get our rocks off. 827 00:57:38,480 --> 00:57:41,320 You know, there's nothing like it. 828 00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:44,000 # All the love I miss loving 829 00:57:46,000 --> 00:57:48,240 # All the kiss I miss kissing 830 00:57:50,080 --> 00:57:52,840 # All the love I miss loving 831 00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:57,360 # All the kiss I miss kissing... # 832 00:57:58,480 --> 00:58:03,400 As a singer and the writer of the songs, I have full confidence 833 00:58:03,400 --> 00:58:05,840 in whoever I'm working with. 834 00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:09,080 I'm very proud of all the associations I've had 835 00:58:09,080 --> 00:58:12,200 and it's been a great ride so far. 836 00:58:34,000 --> 00:58:35,400 Yeah!