Editing British blues (section)

==British blues boom==
[[File:Fleetwood mac peter green 5.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Peter Green (musician)|Peter Green]] performing with Fleetwood Mac in 1970]]
The blues boom overlapped, both chronologically and in terms of personnel, with the earlier, wider rhythm and blues phase, which had begun to peter out in the mid-1960s leaving a nucleus of instrumentalists with a wide knowledge of blues forms and techniques, which they would carry into the pursuit of more purist blues interests.<ref name=Bogdanov2002BritishR&Bpp1315-6>R. Unterberger, "Early British R&B", in V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, ''All Music Guide to Rock: the Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul'' (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), {{ISBN|0-87930-653-X}}, pp. 1315-6.</ref><ref>N. Logan and B. Woffinden, ''The NME Book of Rock 2'' (London: W. H. Allen, 1977), {{ISBN|0-352-39715-2}}, pp. 61-2.</ref> Blues Incorporated and Mayall's Bluesbreakers were well known in the London jazz and emerging R&B circuits, but the Bluesbreakers began to gain some national and international attention, particularly after the release of ''[[Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton]]'' album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings.<ref>T. Rawlings, A. Neill, C. Charlesworth and C. White, ''Then, Now and Rare British Beat 1960–1969'' (Omnibus Press, 2002), p. 130.</ref> Produced by [[Mike Vernon (producer)|Mike Vernon]], who later set up the [[Blue Horizon (record label)|Blue Horizon]] [[record label]], it was notable for its driving rhythms and Clapton's rapid blues licks with a full distorted sound derived from a [[Gibson Les Paul]] and a [[Marshall Amplification|Marshall]] amp. This sound became something of a classic combination for British blues (and later rock) guitarists,<ref>M. Roberty and C. Charlesworth, ''The Complete Guide to the Music of Eric Clapton'' (Omnibus Press, 1995), p. 11.</ref> and also made clear the primacy of the guitar, seen as a distinctive characteristic of the subgenre.<ref name=Allmusic /> Clapton stated, "I spent most of my teens and early twenties studying the blues—the geography of it and the chronology of it, as well as how to play it".<ref>{{cite book |first=Paul |last=Du Noyer |year=2003 |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music |edition=1st |publisher=Flame Tree Publishing |location=Fulham, London |isbn=1-904041-96-5 |page=172}}</ref> [[Peter Green (musician)|Peter Green]] started what is called "second great epoch of British blues",<ref name="green" /> as he replaced Clapton in the Bluesbreakers after his departure to form Cream. In 1967, after one record with the Bluesbreakers, Green, with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section [[Mick Fleetwood]] and [[John McVie]], formed Peter Green's [[Fleetwood Mac]],<ref>R. Brunning, ''The Fleetwood Mac Story: Rumours and Lies'' (Omnibus Press, 2004), pp. 1–15.</ref> produced by [[Mike Vernon (producer)|Mike Vernon]] on the [[Blue Horizon label]]. One key factor in developing the popularity of the music in the UK and across Europe in the early 1960s was the success of the [[American Folk Blues Festival]] tours, organised by German promoters [[Horst Lippmann]] and [[Fritz Rau]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sFhb7babitgC&q=%22American+Folk+Blues+Festival%22+success&pg=PA212|title=How Britain Got the Blues: The Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom|page=212|first=Roberta Freund|last=Schwartz|date=5 September 2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=9780754655800|access-date=5 September 2020|via=Google Books}}</ref>

The rise of electric blues, and its eventual mainstream success, meant that British acoustic blues was completely overshadowed. In the early 1960s, [[Folk music|folk]] guitar pioneers [[Bert Jansch]], [[John Renbourn]] and particularly [[Davy Graham]] (who played and recorded with Korner), played blues, folk and jazz, developing a distinctive guitar style known as [[folk baroque]].<ref>B. Sweers, ''Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music'' (Oxford University Press, 2005) pp. 184–189.</ref> British acoustic blues continued to develop as part of the folk scene, with figures like [[Ian A. Anderson]] and his Country Blues Band,<ref>[http://www.nme.com/artists/ian-a-anderson "Ian A. Anderson]{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}", ''NME Artists'', retrieved 23/06/09.</ref> and [[Al Jones (English musician)|Al Jones]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100524061921/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article4565627.ece "Al Jones: acoustic blues and folk musician"], ''Times Online'' 20/08/08, retrieved 23/06/09.</ref> Most British acoustic blues players could achieve little commercial success and, with a few exceptions, found it difficult to gain any recognition for their "imitations" of the blues in the US.<ref>B. Sweers, ''Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music'' (Oxford University Press, 2005) p. 252.</ref>

[[File:Cream Clapton Bruce Baker 1960s.jpg|thumb|right|[[Cream (band)|Cream]], one of the most influential bands to emerge from the movement, c. 1966]]
In contrast, the next wave of bands, formed from about 1967, like Cream, Fleetwood Mac, [[Ten Years After]], [[Savoy Brown]], and [[Free (band)|Free]], pursued a different route, retaining blues standards in their repertoire and producing original material that often shied away from obvious pop influences, placing an emphasis on individual virtuosity.<ref name="S. Millward, 1987 p. 105">D. Hatch and S. Millward, ''From Blues to Rock: an Analytical History of Pop Music'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987), p. 105.</ref> The result has been characterised as [[blues rock]] and arguably marked the beginnings of a separation of pop and rock music that was to be a feature of the record industry for several decades.<ref name="S. Millward, 1987 p. 105" /> Cream is often seen as the first [[supergroup (music)|supergroup]], combining the talents of Clapton, Bruce and Baker;{{sfn |Gilliland |1969 |loc=show 53}} they have also been seen as one of the first groups to exploit the [[power trio]]. Although only together for a little over two years in 1966–1969, they were highly influential and it was in this period that Clapton became an international superstar.<ref>R. Unterberger, [http://www.allmusic.com/artist/cream-mn0000112462 "Cream: biography"], ''Allmusic'', retrieved 22 June 2012.</ref> Fleetwood Mac are often considered to have produced some of the finest work in the subgenre, with inventive interpretations of Chicago blues.<ref name=Allmusic /> They were also the most commercially successful group, with their [[Fleetwood Mac (1968 album)|eponymous début album]] reaching the UK top five in early 1968 and as the instrumental "[[Albatross (instrumental)|Albatross]]" reached number one in the single charts in early 1969. This was, as [[Scott Schinder]] and Andy Schwartz put it, "The commercial apex of the British blues Boom".<ref>S. Schinder and A. Schwartz, ''Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever'' (Greenwood, 2008), p. 218.</ref> Free, with the guitar talents of [[Paul Kossoff]], particularly from their [[Free (Free album)|self titled]] second album (1969), produced a stripped down form of blues that would be highly influential on hard rock and later heavy metal.<ref>J. Ankeny, [http://www.allmusic.com/artist/free-mn0000193216 "Free: biography"], ''Allmusic'', retrieved 22 June 2012.</ref> Ten Years After, with guitarist [[Alvin Lee]], formed in 1967, but achieved their breakthrough in 1968 with their live album ''[[Undead (Ten Years After album)|Undead]]'' and in the US with their appearance at [[Woodstock]] the next year.<ref>W. Ruhlmann, [http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ten-years-after-mn0000020050 "Ten Years After: biography"], ''Allmusic'', retrieved 22 June 2012.</ref> Among the last British blues bands to gain mainstream success were [[Jethro Tull (band)|Jethro Tull]], formed from the amalgamation of two blues bands, the John Evan Band and the Mcgregor's Engine in 1967.  Their second album, ''[[Stand Up (Jethro Tull album)|Stand Up]]'', reached number one in the UK in 1969.<ref>Barry Miles, ''The British Invasion: The Music, the Times, the Era'' (London: Sterling, 2009), {{ISBN|1402769768}}, p. 286.</ref>