England's the Blues Band is led by ex-Manfred Mann vocalist Paul Jones and guitarist/vocalist Dave Kelly, who, before forming the group in 1979, had been a member of the John Dummer Blues Band and issued several solo recordings on his own (Kelly had also received praise for his playing by such blues legends as Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker). After hooking up with friend/bassist Gary Fletcher, the seeds for the Blues Band were sown, resulting in countless albums. Their first album, The Official Blues Band Bootleg Album, a mixture of blues standards and original songs – notably the Paul Jones-Tom McGuinness cut Come On In, and their long-standing stage favourite Flatfoot Sam - initially attracted no interest from major labels, so they pressed a limited run of 3,000 themselves, hand-stamped their logo on the cardboard sleeve, and signed them all.After unqualified endorsement from BBC Radio 1 and others, media interest resulted in a contract with Arista records, who gave the album an official release.
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