Page 29 - BiTS_05_MAY_2020

R E V I E W S

Various Artists Crawling Up A Hill - A Journey Through The
British Blues Boom 1966-1971 Grapefruit ASIN: B083XGJVLP

This is a fairly comprehensive round up of the second British ‘ Blues
boom' - from 1966 when Mayall's classic 'Beano' album was released
to when it all fizzled out around 1971 with Mungo Jerry and Status

Quo?!? If the first 'blues boom' had begun in the late 50s/early 60s
with Alexis Korner and his disciples including the Rolling Stones,
Graham Bond etc. many of these artists were still around later in
the decade and if the signature song of the first. blues boom was
Muddy's "I've Got My Mojo Working" then the signature song of the

second blues boom was "Rock Me Baby" by B.B. King. The album begins with Mayall and Clapton's
"All Your Love" which illustrates the move from Muddy's earlier ensemble-sound to a more lead
guitar-dominated sound that would prove to be the evolving trend for the rest of the decade, with
guitar heroes like Jeff Beck, Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac), Alvin Lee (Ten Years After), Rory Gallagher
(Taste) and Stan Webb (Chicken Shack) - all featured here.

Most of the artists who broke through in the late 60s had grown up listening to skiffle and jazz in the
late 50s/early 60s, which proved to be a good grounding for a career in blues. As well as the more
established bands such as Savoy Brown, Free, Climax Chicago Blues Band, Blodwyn Pig, Stone the
Crows etc. the compilation features records by the ‘second division’ bands (often the support acts)
such as Dr. K's Blues Band, Shakey Vick, Killing Floor, Sam Apple Pie plus a few survivors from the

early 60s like the Spencer Davis Group and the Downliners Sect. Also, as well as the bands and their
lead guitarists there are also acts who specialised in more acoustic sounds and country blues - Jo-Ann
Kelly, Mike Cooper, Brett Marvin, one-man band Duster Bennett and John Peel's favourite Medicine
Head.

There are also bands featured here some of whose members would later go on to become more famous
as solo artists or members of other bands - The Rats' Mick Ronson, Love Scuplture's Dave Edmunds,
the John Dummer Blues Band's Dave Kelly, the Black Cat Bones' Paul Kossoff and Simon Kirke and the
Bakerloo Blues Line's Dave "Clem" Clempson. There are also bands here that I’ve never heard of -
Yorkshire's the Zany Woodruff Operation (who apparently briefly featured Alan Holdsworth!), Jaklin

(who featured Tommy Eyre on keyboards) and Jasper. We also get amusing swipes at the very idea
of ‘British Blues' from both the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and the Liverpool Scene! Towards the end
of the era it’s obvious that many of the bands featured on the final CD were veering away from straight
blues and were being influenced by the then current trends of psychedelia and jazz-rock. This has
been a continuing conundrum for bands ever since - how to play blues-based music and to keep it
interesting when the basic 12-bar structure is apparently so simple? (Keyword is apparently! Ed)

However, all-in-all this is a very interesting 3-CD collection of British blues records which gives a
great overview of the genre and its development, complete with a 40-page booklet noting information
and with period photos. It's not totally comprehensive, there are omissons – Jethro Tull?, Aynsley
Dunbar's Retaliation?, the Keef Hartley Band?, Colosseum? - probably caused by licensing issues - but

even so it is a must for both confirmed fans of British blues and also those seeking to understand the
whole phenomenon.

Graham Harrison