British blues

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A British blue is also a type of cat.

The British blues is a type of blues music that originated in the late 1950s. American blues musicians like B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf were massively popular in Britain at the time. Muddy Waters is said to have been the first electric blues player to have performed in front of British audiences circa 1959, and others like Sonny Boy Williamson and Chuck Berry followed him. British teens began playing the blues, imitating various styles of American blues. Gradually, a new distinctly British sound arose by the mid-1960s, called Beat. This form of the blues, and various derivatives, became massively popular in the US, leading to the British Invasion and British R&B.

The scene coalesced around two figures, Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies, who started a blues club in London’s Soho, The London Blues and Barrelhouse Club, at a time when many American blues artists were also playing in London. Skiffle had run its course, and some musicians were seeking the real American roots music.

It was through the clubs Korner and Davies ran that the original Rolling Stones came together in 1962 at The Ealing Club, where he introduced Brian Jones to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (Charlie Watts, at the time, was drumming with Korner’s group, Blues Incorporated). Korner's London blues scene, as well as suburban venues like Klook’s Kleek, gave a start to many of Britain's blues-influenced musicians in the 1960s, including Eric Clapton, Long John Baldry and the Yardbirds. Acoustic guitarist Davy Graham, regarded as one of the early heroes of the instrument, performed widely, but had come to the music independently

Curiously, the other towering figure of British blues, John Mayall, came to the music on his own, while living in Manchester.

The acoustic blues boom in Britain fully came together a little later, in the mid ‘60s, as blues clubs sprang up around the country, forming a touring circuit for young musicians such as Jo Ann Kelly and Mike Cooper. Everything culminated in the National Blues Convention in London in 1968, after which it faded away rapidly.