Without John Mayall … no Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Status Quo or Led Zeppelin?

Passing the baton of discourse on the rock and roll racetrack, our Olympian hosts sprint in the following direction …

… watching Toumani Diabaté play in the pitch-black Malian night.

… Laurel Canyon, the Brain Damage Club and the great fire of ‘79.

… the Kinks in Fortis Green Road, the Beatles in Chiswick House and other alternative London rock landmarks.

… is Cerrone’s Supernature nicked from the Days Of Pearly Spencer?

… lower-level graduates from the John Mayall Academy – Jon Hiseman, Keef Hartley, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar – and how being sacked from the Bluesbreakers was a badge of honour.

… why do songwriters value suffering over joy?

… “the more seriously someone takes musical taste, the more you should disregard them”.

… what connects Bob Dylan and the Life of Brian?

… a blueser from Preston in a Sioux headdress and one from Macclesfield pretending to hop a freight train.  

… and why “song and dance man” Leadbelly had to play “complaining songs”.

Plus Birthday guest Gianluca Tramontana.

The Beatles at Chiswick House:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvvVNaU_qa8

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