OBITUARY John Mayall has died aged 90, cutting a vital link between British music and the rest of the world’s rocking-blues past. Mayall presents a curious figure in music history, a bit-part player in his own story, yet at the centre of a fabulous web of music and talent, weaving magic that touched us all. The passionate, gregarious, sociable and vocationally driven multi-instrumentalist wrote hundreds of songs and released about 70 albums across a career spanning six decades.
A road warrior of the old school, Mayall played hundreds of gigs a year right up until 2022, when he retired due to declining health, sailing off in a farewell blast of harmonica and keyboards. He was often referred to as the Godfather of British Blues, awarded an OBE in 2005 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, in the musical excellence category..