The story of how white English boys sold black American blues back to America, creating hard rock and heavy metal in the process, has been told many times. Mayall – who sang and played harmonica, organ and guitar – was more interested in capturing the purity and authenticity of the music. This mammoth 35-disc box set packs in every album from his formative years, starting with 1965's live album John Mayall Plays John Mayall, which includes Crawling Up A Hill, later covered by Katie Melua. The gold standard was 1966's follow-up Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton (known as "the Beano album" because old Slowhand is nonchalantly reading the comic on the cover).