70th Birthday Concert is a live electric blues video recording of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers to celebrate Mayall's 70th Birthday. Recorded in Liverpool, England on 19 July 2003, the concert was notable as it featured Eric Clapton as a guest, so marked the first time he and Mayall had performed together in almost 40 years, if one discounts Clapton guesting on Mayall's Back to the Roots. The set also features Mick Taylor and Chris Barber. The gig was released on different formats. The original double CD contains the entire concert, whereas the DVD omitted the first two tracks sung by Buddy Whittington (which did not feature Mayall) and "California", but included an interview with Mayall as bonus. A CD/DVD issue included a heavily abridged version of the concert on CD. Finally, in 2009 the video was reissued on Blu-Ray Disc with the previously omitted three tracks appended as bonus tracks. AllMusic praised the recording by stating that John Mayall is "on top of his game as ever", the band "play with plenty of fire, brilliant musicianship, and taste", and the whole concert is "a stinging, overdriven performance of modern electric blues by a master bandleader who shows no signs of slowing down physically, and most importantly, creatively."

Track listing

All tracks composed by John Mayall; except where noted

CD in CD+DVD

Personnel

The Bluesbreakers (not on Tracks 10 & 11) Guests Horn section on Tracks 6-9, 18 & 19

Sources