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There were further Purdah releases, including the earliest recordings by The Savoy Brown Blues

Band (a strong performance on ‘I Tried’ b/w ‘I Can’t Quit You Baby’), and instrumental outfit
Stone’s Masonry (featuring soon-to-be Savoy Brown guitarist Martin Stone), and Keith Tillman
(later to work with the Bluesbreakers and Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation) on ‘Hot Rock’ b/w
‘Flapjacks’.

All of the early Blue Horizon issues were pressed privately, with no link to any other record
company or label, and this continued into the following year, with releases by Lowell Fulson,
Hound Dog Taylor, and Sonny Boy Williamson, plus recordings by Champion Jack Dupree with

Tony McPhee, which were probably taped at the sessions for his Decca album, “Blues From New
Orleans to Chicago” (produced by Mike Vernon).

That summer also saw the release of ‘It’s So
Miserable To Be Alone’ b/w ‘Empty Arms’, by

Eddie Boyd with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.
These were two rejected tracks from his Decca
album (Eddie Boyd and his Blues Band), again
produced by Vernon, and featuring John McVie,

Aynsley Dunbar and Peter Green, alongside Mayall.
Quite why these tracks were considered not good
enough for the album is beyond me, as I consider
them to be at least as good as anything else on the

album.

Incidentally, the early Blue Horizon recordings
appeared, not with the famous blue record label,

but with a white one. I believe the Eddie Boyd
single was the last white label release, and, like all
of them, is now very rare. How I wish I had kept
my copies of these early BH singles, although some
Mike (l) with Neil Slaven (r)and Keef Hartley,
have been reissued on CD on various compilations,
circa 1970.
such as “The Blue Horizon Story 1965 - 1970 vol
1” (Columbia 488992 2). Mike Vernon stated that he would liked to have reissued more of them
on that compilation, but problems with leasing the material for a second time negated that.

By this time, Mike Vernon, and to a lesser extent his brother Richard, were the driving forces
behind Blue Horizon. It was realised that, in order to take the project to the next level, they needed
a wider circulation for their releases, which meant that it needed to be put on a more professional
basis. They also needed to try to acquire some well known names to record for the label on a

regular basis. Luckily, Mike had many contacts through his production work at Decca, where he
had been working with John Mayall, Savoy Brown, and Ten Years After, as well as being the go-to
producer for visiting US blues artistes.

His opportunity arose when the ever revolving line-up of the Bluesbreakers changed yet again.
Peter Green, with whom Vernon had already worked on tracks for the “Raw Blues” LP (released
on the Decca budget label, Ace of Clubs), including the haunting ‘Evil Woman Blues’, and John
Mayall’s “Hard Road” album, had decided to leave the Bluesbreakers. He and Green got on very