The Culture Vulture

F**k! I just heard the news that John Mayall has died aged 90. He died last Monday and his death was announced yesterday. I must admit I shed a tear or two.

"But, who is/was John Mayall?" you might be asking. Let me tell you.

John Mayall, born in Macclesfield in Cheshire in 1933, didn’t become a professional musician until he was 30, having previously pursued a career as a graphic designer.

The Early Years

This multi-instrumentalist formed The Bluesbreakers, which went on to become the finishing school for an amazing number of blues musicians. From memory I can think of guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Jimmy Page and Danny Kirwan, bass players John McVie, Larry Taylor, Jack Bruce and Stephen Thompson, drummers Keef Hartley, Hughie Flint, Aynsley Dunbar, Jon Hiseman and Mick Fleetwood. Blimey! What a roll-call! Dick Heckstall-Smith, a saxophonist, who went on to form Colosseum with Hiseman was another.

I had been introduced to John Mayall’s music in the sixth form around the time of the release of his album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton with Clapton reading the Beano on the album sleeve. Wow!

Interview

When I went to university up north, John Mayall was due to play at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, with his new format, no percussion. The album was The Turning Point, one of my favourites of his.

I went to interview him for the student rag magazine. I was so nervous, I forgot to turn on the cassette tape recorder. Nice man that he was, Mr Mayall pointed out that fact in the nicest possible way. My interview was printed and published but, sadly, I don’t have a copy – it was 50 years ago.

California

That means that Mayall was 40 back then. It wasn’t long before he moved to the USA, Laurel Canyon, California, to be precise.

That led to the release of his album Blues From Laurel Canyon, another great piece of work.

Mayall died in California where he continued to live after moving there in the 70s. He was still performing until comparatively recently.

Personal experience

I think I saw him live three times. At the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, at the ABC Cinema in Exeter and much later, on a shared bill with the returning-from-drugs-rehab Peter Green. I liked Green in his young days with the original Fleetwood Mac, but he was poor that night. Mayall’s band was better in every way, slick and bloody good, as you would expect.

Epilogue

Anyway, he’s passed on now. I guess he had a good innings. 90 is a good age. He was a major figure in the British blues scene for six decades. His discography consists of 35 studio albums, 34 live albums, 24 compilation albums, four extended plays (EPs), 44 singles and four video albums. Mayall's 38th studio album was released in 2022.

John Mayall was married twice and had six children and six grandchildren. 

© Paul Whitelock

Links:

Classic Blues Photo from 1968 (eyeonspain.com)

Acknowledgements (Images):

Amazon

Rafa Basa

Wikipedia

Tags:

Aynsley Dunbar, Bluesbreakers, Blues From Laurel Canyon, Colosseum, Danny Kirwan, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Eric Clapton, Hughie Flint, Jack Bruce, Jimmy Page, John Mayall, John McVie, Jon Hiseman, Keef Hartley, Larry Taylor, Mick Fleetwood, Mick Taylor, Peter Green, Stephen Thompson, The Turning Point

Yesterday, 7 July, saw the start of the San Fermin bull-running and bullfight festival in Pamplona, Navarra.

This annual festival, popularised by, among others, the American journalist and author Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961), has come in for criticism in recent years, as the corrida de toros has come increasingly under the microscope. Already banned in Catalonia, this cultural and iconic part of Spanish life provokes strong feelings nowadays.

7 July, 1971

My first experience of the bulls was at age 21 in Pamplona in July 1971, when I visited for the first time. I was hooked.

I saw a young torero, Paquirri, who went on to become the best of his generation. He sadly died from a serious goring at the age of 36. Paquirri was from the legendary Ordoñez family from Ronda. His father Antonio Ordoñez was a top torero, as were his sons Fran Rivera and Cayetano Rivera.

Antonio Ordoñez became great friends of Ernest Hemingway and US actor and film director Orson Welles, whose ashes are buried on the Ordoñez estate near Ronda. Both have streets named after them in the City of the Tajo, as Ronda is also known.

Ernest Hemingway [Photo: Acento]   Orson Welles [Photo: Amazon]    Antonio Ordoñez [Photo: El Mundo] 

7 July, 2024

At 7.00 am a gun was fired in Pamplona and the gates of the stables, housing the six bulls for the afternoon bullfight, were opened and these ferocious beasts, accompanied by oxen to keep them moving, ran through the barricaded streets of the Basque town to the Plaza de Toros a mile away.

Running in front of the bulls were hundreds of aficionados dressed in the traditional white shirt and trousers with red beret and sash, who try to avoid getting injured or killed.

Sundry foreign, mainly American, machos, many of them drunk or hungover, also take part. Yesterday four injuries were reported.

Me and los toros

Plaza de Toros, Ronda [Photo: Wikipedia]

Having lived in Ronda, the acknowledged home of bullfighting, for nearly 16 years, I have been to a few corridas. But not for a good few years. I’ve gone off the whole thing. It’s become too expensive and commercialised, The last time I went was in 2012, a dozen years ago.

I fancied giving the Goyesca a try, but I can’t afford 200 euros for a ticket.

2024 cancelled

It was announced a couple of weeks ago that the bullfight segment of Ronda’s Feria de Pedro Romero in September has been cancelled. The Plaza de Toros has been deemed unsafe. The oldest plaza in Spain, many of the wooden support beams have been found to be rotten. It is hoped to fix the problem for next year.

The town estimates that it will lose some 250,000 euros as a result if the cancellation.

Further reading:

7 de julio – San Fermín (eyeonspain.com)

Ernest Hemingway - Wikipedia

Fisticuffs and whisky: The first meeting between Welles and Hemingway (secretserrania.com)

Goyesca 2024 in Ronda Cancelled (eyeonspain.com)

Remembering "PAQUIRRI", torero extraordinaire (eyeonspain.com)

“ ….. Siete de julio, San Fermin ….” (eyeonspain.com)

TELEDIARIO MATINAL (rtve.es)

Top 5 writers on Spain (secretserrania.com)

Photos:

Acento, Amazon, El Confidencial, El Mundo, Wikipedia

Tags:

Antonio Ordoñez, Cayetano Rivera, Ernest Hemingway, “Fisticuffs and Whisky”, Feria de Pedro Romero, Fran Rivera, Goyesca, Navarra, Orson Welles, Pamplona, Paquirri, Plaza de Toros, Ronda, San Fermin, Sanfermines, siete de julio