John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are a pioneering English blues band, led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall, OBE. Mayall used the band name between 1963 and '67 then dropped it for some fifteen years, but in 1982 a 'Return of the Bluesbreakers' was announced and it has been kept since then. The name has become generic without a clear distinction which recordings are to be credited just to the leader or to leader and his band. The Bluesbreakers have included luminaries such as:

• Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce (both later in Cream),
• Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood (later all in Fleetwood Mac),
• Mick Taylor (later in The Rolling Stones),
• Harvey Mandel, Walter Trout, Larry Taylor (later in Canned Heat),
• Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Randy Resnick, Aynsley Dunbar, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Andy Fraser (Free), Chris Mercer, Henry Lowther, Johnny Almond and Jon Mark (later of Mark-Almond).

John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers were the first major non-American blues band, including musical pioneers such as Eric Clapton , most of Fleetwood Mac , Mick Taylor of The Rolling Stones , and, of course, John Mayall himself. The Bluesbreakers were a very influential band on both the blues sound of the 1960s and on British rock n’ roll. The Bluesbreakers continue today, with their latest release being 2007’s In The Palace o