There are great blues albums, there are influential albums — and then there are records that change the entire direction of popular music. John Mayall's Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton belongs firmly in that last category. Released in 1966 and forever known simply as "The Beano Album", it captured a young Eric Clapton at the point where British blues suddenly became louder, tougher and infinitely more dangerous. Gibson Les Paul. Marshall amplifier. John Mayall at the controls. Hughie Flint on drums. John McVie on bass. It was a combination that sent shockwaves through Britain and helped lay the foundations for Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin and the great British blues-rock explosion that followed.
Now, sixty years on, that extraordinary music is being brought back to life — not as some loosely assembled collection of blues standards, but with painstaking attention to the sound, spirit and sheer electricity of the original recording.
Sonny Flint's Beano Bluesbreakers were formed specifically to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, recreating this landmark album with an almost obsessive respect for its original musical DNA. The arrangements, dynamics, instrumentation and tones are approached with the understanding that this wasn't simply another blues record. It was the moment the Chicago blues collided head-on with a new generation of British musicians and produced something altogether different.
And at the heart of the band is a remarkable living connection to the original sessions.
Sonny Flint is the son of Hughie Flint, the drummer whose playing powered the original Beano album. That makes this project something considerably more meaningful than the average anniversary celebration. Sonny grew up with this music as part of his family history, beginning to play drums himself at thirteen before developing a career that has taken him through British rock and blues and onto tours across the UK, Germany, Holland and the United States with Martin Turner, formerly of Wishbone Ash. More recently he has worked with veteran singer-songwriter Claire Hamill. For the Beano Bluesbreakers, Sonny even employs a vintage Premier 54 Outfit, bringing the visual and sonic character of his father's era back onto the stage.
Then there is Laine Hines, another musician carrying some serious British rock DNA. Laine is the son of Denny Laine, the hugely influential musician who fronted the original Moody Blues before becoming a cornerstone of Paul McCartney's Wings. But heritage only gets you through the door — Laine's powerful, blues-soaked voice and harmonica playing have to do the rest. His role is to capture the grit, phrasing and emotional directness at the heart of Mayall's music without turning it into impersonation. This is about inhabiting the songs rather than simply copying them.
The unenviable task of stepping into Clapton's 1966 shoes falls to guitarist Neil Roberts — and this is where authenticity becomes serious business. Roberts has spent much of the past decade immersed in Clapton's music, performing extensively across Britain and Europe and working alongside the late Pete Brown, legendary lyricist for Cream. For Roberts, the Beano sound isn't something achieved by simply turning up an amplifier and playing a few familiar licks. Vintage-style Gibson guitars, early Marshall amplification, phrasing, touch, sustain and dynamics all matter. Clapton's sound on that record became one of the great Holy Grails of electric guitar tone, and Roberts approaches it with the dedication of somebody who understands precisely why those notes mattered.
Holding down the bottom end is Pete Billing, an experienced bassist whose background stretches through blues, R&B, soul, funk, jazz and rock. Hundreds of performances across London and the South East have given Billing the kind of instinctive groove this music demands. The original John McVie bass parts were never about unnecessary fireworks; they were about weight, movement and giving Clapton and Mayall the platform from which to take flight. Billing understands that distinction.
On keyboards is Rick Pentecost, whose CV contains a particularly extraordinary footnote: alongside decades of performing, he has spent a lifetime as a professional piano tuner working with world-class artists — including some twenty years with Paul McCartney. His musical journey has moved through ska, blues and numerous high-profile tribute projects, but the raw Hammond-and-piano territory of John Mayall feels like home. His role supplies another essential piece of the mid-'60s sonic picture.
And then comes saxophonist Greg Heath, bringing a formidable international pedigree to the line-up. Originally from Auckland and based in Britain since 1989, Heath studied under Australian jazz giants James Morrison and Don Burrows before establishing himself across jazz, soul, blues and pop. His credits stretch from Mike Mainieri, Omar Hakim, Rachael Z, Jim Mullen, John Etheridge and Roy Ayers to Dr. John, Maceo Parker, Van Morrison, Mica Paris, Terence Trent D'Arby, Alexander O'Neal, Marianne Faithfull, Joan Armatrading, Jimmy Ruffin and Geno Washington. It is a serious résumé — and another indication that the Beano Bluesbreakers are approaching this material as musicians rather than impersonators.
What makes the whole project fascinating is the balance between archaeology and electricity. Vintage instruments and period-correct sounds are important, but nobody wants to watch a museum exhibit. The original Beano album mattered because it was visceral. Clapton sounded fearless. Mayall sounded possessed by the blues. McVie and Flint drove everything forward with the economy and muscle of a great rhythm section. The challenge sixty years later is to respect the recording without embalming it.
That is precisely what Sonny Flint's Beano Bluesbreakers set out to do.
The band perform the landmark album in full, alongside additional material drawn from the Bluesbreakers' original live repertoire, allowing an audience to experience something close to the atmosphere surrounding British blues in 1966 — when smoky clubs, Les Pauls, Marshalls and imported American blues records were creating a musical revolution.
And the wider rock establishment is beginning to take notice.
For selected concerts Sonny curates special line-ups drawing musicians from the very fabric of British rock history. A forthcoming London performance is set to feature Lee Harris of Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets alongside the unmistakable bass playing of Norman Watt-Roy, the legendary musician synonymous with Ian Dury & The Blockheads and Wilko Johnson.
Perhaps even more fittingly, the Beano Bluesbreakers have been confirmed as main support this summer for Walter Trout — himself a former guitarist with John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers. It creates another remarkable link in the chain: Hughie Flint played on the album that established the Bluesbreakers legend; decades later Walter Trout became part of Mayall's continuing story; now Hughie's son Sonny is taking that music into its next generation.
Because Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton wasn't merely an album.
It was a line in the sand.
Before it, British guitar music sounded one way. Afterwards, an entire generation wanted a Gibson Les Paul, a Marshall amplifier and that sound. Clapton would soon leave Mayall to form Cream. John McVie would eventually become part of Fleetwood Mac. The British blues boom would feed directly into hard rock and the emergence of some of the biggest bands on the planet.
Sixty years later, Sonny Flint's Beano Bluesbreakers are plugging those Marshalls back in.
Same music. Same attitude. Same bloodline.
And when that first Les Paul note hits the room, 1966 suddenly doesn't feel quite so far away.
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