John Mayall and West Hampstead

Sadly, John Mayall a pioneer of British Blues, died on 22 July 2024 at his home in California and there have been numerous tributes in the media. 

There is a double connection to West Hampstead. With his band The Bluesbreakers John played 33 times at Klooks Kleek, the jazz and blues club run by Dick Jordan and Geoff Williams on the first floor of the Railway Hotel in West Hampstead. He also recorded many albums at the Decca Studios in Broadhurst Gardens.

The first was ‘Mayall Plays Mayall’ recorded at Klooks Kleek on 7 December 1964, when cables were run over to the next door studios. The band at this time was John Mayall (vocals, keyboards and harmonica), Roger Dean (guitar), John McVie (bass), Hughie Flint (drums) and Nigel Stanger on sax.

John with his band playing at Klooks Kleek in May 1965. Photo by Paul Soper, used by kind permission.

Probably the most famous album ‘Blues Breakers: John Mayall with Eric Clapton’, was made in Broadhurst Gardens in March 1966. The band was Mayall on keyboards and vocals, Eric Clapton (guitar), John McVie (bass), and Hughie Flint on drums. A horn section was added later. It was produced by Mike Vernon and engineer Gus Dudgeon, who lived locally, first in Lymington Mansions and then Kings Gardens in West End Lane. The ‘Beano album’ as it was called because Eric is seen reading the comic on the cover, was released on 22 July 1966.

The cover of ‘Beano’ album.

After the recording Clapton left Mayall’s band to form ‘Cream’ with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, who had previously been in the Bluesbreakers. John persuaded his friend guitarist Peter Green to come back and replace Eric, and a series of recordings were made at the studios in September and October 1966. The album called ‘A Hard Road’ was released in February 1967. In June Green left to form Peter Green’s ‘Fleetwood Mac’ with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. At this point Mayall hired 18 year old guitarist Mick Taylor and in July 1967 they recorded the album ‘Crusade’ with John McVie on bass and Keef Hartley on drums. After Brian Jones death, Mick joined the Rolling Stones for the famous Hyde Park concert on 5 July 1969.

In April 1968 with producer Mike Vernon and engineer Derek Varnals, Mayall recorded the ‘Bare Wires’ album. This included a 23 minute ‘Bare Wires Suite’ with a jazzier feel. 

After staying with Frank Zappa, John moved to Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles in 1968, and recorded ‘Blues from Laurel Canyon’ on 26-28 August 1968 at Decca studios, again with Mick Vernon and Derek Varnals.

John had a reputation as a difficult band leader, but people who worked with him said he was very fair. When Keef Hartley was asked what it was like to work with Mayall he jokingly said, ‘John made us get up at 6.00 in the morning and run round Hyde Park’, which wasn’t true. But John didn’t allow the band to be drunk or take drugs, so they developed techniques to hide their ‘habits’ from him. 

John Mayall was well known to both hire and fire people in his band at short notice. At the beginning of the Keef Hartley ‘Halfbreed’ album, as a joke, John Mayall and Keef recreate the moment when John fired Keef. The album was issued in 1969 by Deram, in a striking gatefold sleeve. This showed Keef dressed in full native American costume, which reflected his admiration for first nation American culture. 

Trumpet player Henry Lowther told me he went to hear Mayall playing one weekend and John said, ‘Do you want a job?’ The following Monday Henry was in the van with the rest of the band travelling to Southampton to play a gig. Henry said, there were never rehearsals, we just got there and played.

John Mayall was very good at spotting new young musicians for his band who later went on to fame.