English bluesman John Mayall entertains fans, Padua, Italy 10/12/2012

A very spritely 79 year old John Mayall (born in 1933) is still amazing audiences with his great blues music.  Mayall’s group touched down at Padua’s wonderful Geox Theater, thanks to the folks over at Zed Live promotions, in front of a several thousand die-hard blues fans.  His 90-minute show was preceded by Italy’s rather unique group, “The Cyborgs”, with welder’s hats and all. 

Mayall was once famous for his “John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers”, a band that once included some pretty illustrious musicians, such as Eric Clapton, John McVie, Jack Bruce and a very young Mick Taylor, who had played from 1967-1969 with Mayall’s stellar band (it was thanks to Mayall’s suggestion that Taylor would then go on to play for 5 years with the Rolling Stones).  Back in 1964 Mayall’s band had backed up another great bluesman, John Lee Hooker, during his British tour.  Excerpts from his very first album in 1964 were also played in Padua.

A rather epic reunion took place on July 19^th, 2003 during Mayall’s 70^th birthday with special guests Clapton and Taylor and Chris Barber, the man who had brought the blues to England from the U.S., all on the same stage too.  And in recognition of his role as the “father of British blues”, Mayall was appointed in 2005 “Officer of the Order of the British Empire” (OBE).  

In Padua Mayall was backed-up by some mighty fine musicians: Rocky Athas on guitar, a dazzling Greg Rzab on bass and Jay Davenport on drums.  A first indeed as after the show Mayall actually stuck around with his band to sign autographs for his many fans.