John Mayall Bluesbreakers

John Mayall in Sala Kongresowa

I hadn't heard anything from John Mayall for a long long while. In fact I had my suspicions that he was probably dead. I was surprised therefore to see a poster advertising his concert at Sala Kongresowa in Warsaw and happily realised that he probably was not in a state of quietus after all.

I'm not a huge fan of his, but I had once owned, and liked, a couple of his (old) albums - one of which I now realise dated from 1966. The old guy that crept onto stage therefore was considerably older, greyer and more hunched than the guy that had once looked out at me from my LP record cover.

John Mayall was introduced to the crowd as the 'Godfather of British Blues' (he was born in Macclesfield) and played an industrious 90 minute set, variously moving between guitar, keyboards and the harmonica. I recognised a few of the tracks he played but the packed hall of Poles clearly new a lot more of them than me.

Along the way Mayall had learnt how to say the Polish word, "Dziękuję" (thank you) and used it with liberal abandon whenever he needed a cheer. It was a handy addition to his set and almost became like his own personal 'fire-alarm'. Whenever things quietened down John would break the quiet by saying the magic word "Dziękuję" and he'd get the crowd back on-side, cheering and clapping again.

He was joined on stage by Buddy Whittington who despite being the size of a house played a mean guitar and did a couple of very good solos of his own. They made an odd couple on stage, an old grey Englishman and a man-mountain American, weilding a red electric guitar. The strangeness was complemented by a light technician who left both of them in semi-darkness for long periods while the spotlight lit up some other empty area of the stage (perhaps it was to make things more Blues-ey?).

It wasn't the greatest concert I've ever been to, predominantly due to my ignorance of John Mayall's back catalogue (of 56 albums!!), but it was a good night out.

After listening to some of Mayall's incredible mouth organ solos, I've become even more determined to finally get to grips with Amy's harmonica! Look out for me soon, playing the Blues on a street corner near you...