John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers

John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are a pioneering English blues band, led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall, OBE. Mayall used the band name between 1963 and 1967, but then dropped it for some fifteen years. However, in 1982 a 'Return of the Bluesbreakers' was announced and the name was in use until the band again dissolved in 2008. The name has become generic without a clear distinction which recordings are to be credited just to the leader or to leader and his band. The Bluesbreakers have included luminaries such as:

• Eric Clapton (April–August 1965, November 1965–July 1966) and Jack Bruce, both later reuniting in Cream,
• Peter Green, who had replaced Clapton, played until August 1967, when he departed with Mick Fleetwood and then also enticed Bluesbreaker John McVie a few weeks later to form Fleetwood Mac,
• Mick Taylor (August 1967–July 1969) who later joined The Rolling Stones, and reunion tours in 1982–83 and 2004,
• Harvey Mandel, Walter Trout, Larry Taylor (Mandel, Trout and Taylor left Canned Heat to join Mayall),
• Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Randy Resnick, Aynsley Dunbar, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Andy Fraser (Free), Chris Mercer, Henry Lowther, Johnny Almond and Jon Mark (later of Mark-Almond).