John Mayall, the godfather of British blues, died in July 2024 at 90, leaving behind a legacy that reads like the family tree of rock and roll. This episode looks at how a self-taught graphic designer from Northern England, who did not commit to music full time until he was 30, built the band that launched the most acclaimed eras of Cream, Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones. We start with his father Murray Mayall's rare collection of American blues and jazz records in Cheshire, a first electric guitar bought on leave in Japan during national service in Korea, art school in Manchester, and the 1963 move to London at the urging of Alexis Korner.

From the Marquee Club and a 1964 tour backing John Lee Hooker, we follow the Bluesbreakers through the arrival of Eric Clapton in April 1965, his sudden detour to Greece with a band called The Gland ...