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that “I Don’t Care What Nobody Say” is the one early Blue Horizon release that he particularly
treasures as a fine example of this great bluesman.

In April of that year the first LP, by one man band Dr. Ross, and entitled The Flying Eagle, was
issued. The album had been recorded by Bob Yates and Tony Russell the previous year (in Dr.
Ross’s hotel room!) when he was in the UK as part of the 1965 Folk/Blues tour. This was the only
LP release on the original Blue Horizon label, in spite of indications that there were more to

follow.

Around this time they decided to try to offer an outlet for British blues, with the foundation of
the Purdah label. Their idea was to issue recordings by British artistes, already contracted

elsewhere, but under a pseudonym (which happened frequently in the US). The initial release
was an acoustic performance by Groundhogs guitarist Tony McPhee, under the pseudonym T. S.
McPhee, but that probably didn’t fool too many people! Unfortunately, the advertised follow-up,
by Jo Ann Kelly (the fine singer/guitarist
sister of Dave Kelly, who died much too

young), was cancelled, because they weren’t
happy with the recording.

In August a landmark Purdah recording by

John Mayall and Eric Clapton appeared
(’Lonely Years’ b/w ‘Bernard Jenkins’).
Vernon booked the Wessex Sound Studio, Old
Compton Street, in the heart of Soho, and took

a great deal of care in setting up a single
microphone, subtlety placed to capture the
sound of Mayall’s piano and Clapton’s guitar
together, to give the illusion of a 1950s
Chicago recording. I remember eagerly

snapping up one of the initial pressing of 500
records, with its distinctive yellow label, and
being hugely impressed with the down-home

sound, not that I had much idea in those days
of what a 1950s Chicago recording actually
sounded like! This record even achieved a
review in the Melody Maker (MM), which
called it “an extraordinarily authentic sound

on this Mayall and Clapton collaboration”.

No doubt most buyers of the record also
bought the Bluesbreakers album, which was

released hot on the heels of the Purdah single
- also produced by Mike Vernon, but on the
Decca record label. In fact, a significant
number of those Purdah sales could have been off the back of the LP, rather than the low profile

single release, in spite of that MM review.