On his first new album in four years (and first new U.S. release in seven years), John Mayall reclaims the "Bluesbreakers" name for the first time in 18 years to highlight a quintet featuring two lead guitarists, Coco Montoya and Walter Trout, along with a rhythm section of Bobby Haynes (bass), and Joe Yuele (drums). The album was recorded in concert in Hungary in June 1985, and takes a fairly bluesy approach, with lots of space for the guitarists to shine, a format similar to that of The Bluesbreakers lineups of 1965-1968. Sound quality is only fair, and this is not an inspired performance, but Mayall has latched onto a cohesive unit here, and the results are encouraging for the future. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

The Bluesbreakers' reputation as an academy of excellence for aspiring young blues guitarists overlooks one pertinent fact: that without John Mayall to stubbornly, and steadfastly, lead the group, it wouldn't have mattered who played guitar, whether it was John Williams, Segovia, or God. They'd have been just another blues band from the wrong side of the Surrey delta. Instead, they became the principle legend of the blue British '60s, and this collection of three of the band's countless BBC sessions, plus a 1968 German broadcast, offers up a few good reasons why. Most of the usual suspects star, but it's not the axeman histrionics which blind so much as the way those histrionics never eclipse the brilliance of the rest of the band.