born in london ... self taught on national steel slide guitar, banjo and harmonica ...
influenced by howlin' wolf, john lee hooker, bukka white, john hammond, mississippi
fred mcdowell ...

recently played in:
italy, spain, sweden, san francisco, tasmania, new zealand, greece, florida, france, germany, ireland, canada, slovakia, switzerland, poland, norway, prague, belgium ...

what the press say ...

Hebden Bridge Blues Festival Main Stage
... John Crampton just about brought the whole building down.

This was a quite breath-taking performance by a phenomenal musician who brought the clamouring audience to its feet on more than one occasion and had everyone shouting for more. John is a complete orchestra of sound. Voice, acoustic, national steel, pick, slide, banjo, harp...he picks you up, shakes you warmly by the throat and throws you around the room while you try and hang on to your seat. This was exciting blues and blue grass of the very top quality. John's intensity and furious attack is totally compelling and his skills totally beyond question. When a single artist sitting on a small chair on a big stage can get hundreds of blues fans off their heads with mad loud pleasure then he is pretty damn good. If you were at this gig you knew you were in the presence of a mighty talent. If you weren't? Rush to the next one..."
Blues Man in the Hat

" ... amazing that this one slight seeming figure can stir up such a crescendoo of foot stomping blues and bluegrass. Slide guitar, banjo and harmonica by turns whipping up a storm of powerful sound round his astonishing voice. He really gets the place jumping. Come and see John Crampton. You won't be disappointed ..."
The Mesmerist

"John Crampton ... hang on to your britches, the hurricane is a headin' this a way..."
Hebden Blues Festival

" ... you can practically fry eggs on the man as he radiates energy into the room ... his gravel -gargling voice is a perfect compliment to his 1930's national steel guitar, harmonica and footboard ... the sounds he produces have astonishing depth ..."
bill grainger (beaford arts).

" ... totally compelling ... furious energy ... he blew me away ..."
netrhytms

" ... suddenly it's like being hit by a baseball bat repeatedly without any let up ... incredibly intense ... it was one of the most exciting musical experiences I've ever had ... you feel a bit like you are in a wind tunnel with your hair blowing back and your teeth exposed ... for sheer passion and balls alone it's a must see ..."
billy bonkers

"... powerful attacking style ... john crampton takes no prisoners ..."
blues in london

"... johncrampton does not so much approach the raw blues of howlin' wolf, john lee hooker and bukka white with reverence as wrestle it to the floor and stamp his unique mark on it ..."
blues matters magazine

" ...rough house emotionality and gutsy physical immediacy like nothing I have ever heard ..."
netrhythms

" ... the finest blues you are likely to hear this side of memphis ..."
metro

" ... for the tawe delta blues club to have a solo artist is very rare, and for them to return so quickly is just as rare, but we now know that john crampton is special ... when he last visited the club he showed himself to be a master of the slide guitar and harp whilst using his feet to create a footstomping blues that sounds like a band..."
tawe delta blues club

" ... stunning blues voice ... I was blown away ..."
blues in britain

" ... one of the finest blues solo acts on the british blues scene ..."
blues matters magazine

" ... there is a deeper sweetness to his playing that comes from a great deal of conviction ... "
blues in london

" ... we have put together a line up of three of the finest acoustic players in the punk rock blues in the world today ... first up is john crampton , one of only about two members of the british blues old guard we'd give the time of day to ... john is incredible, he takes to the stage with nothing more than a national steel guitar, a harp and miked up stomp box and then lets rip ..."
the spitz, london

" ... john is one of those idiosyncratic british musicians like lol coxhill or evan parker maybe, who have taken a musical form, in this case blues, and adapted and evolved it into their own peculier voice ... john's music is essentially blues but replaces the characteristics with his own idioms: shuffling 12 bar blues rhytm are replaced with up tempo 4/4 metronomically measured out on a simple foot pedal ... instead of a formulaic flattened guitar chords, john's playing is an ecletic mix of flamenco, west african ju-ju slide, country and punk ... the tin guitar occasionally treated as a percussion instrument augmented by hand claps and foot taps ... layered over this is crampton's gritty, growled minimal vocal and harmonica playing which again avoids blues stereotypes and harmonically adds to the range of the music creating a "big sound" like an irish string section moving loosely along with the guitars ..."
stalker magazine

" ... stomping and unstoppable ... like a runaway train ... an act well worth watching ..."
blues in britain

" ... crampton plays a mean bottleneck on an ancient national steel guitar whilst providing his own percussion via a stomp box ... add some gravel vocals and occasional harmonica burst and really the man can't be faulted ... "
blues in britain

" ... john crampton, an amazing one man blues band with steely reverberating guitar and harmonica galore ... his playing was like a locomotive, his singing like an angry chainsaw as he steamed through his set .."
bbc southern counties

" .. next was john crampton ... his blues are down and dirty ... a voice sounding like an earthquake ... we thought we had slipped way down south to the mississippi ..."
mrs yarirngton

" ... crampton plays a heavy blues in a kind of tom waits/john hammond vibe ... a wonderful singer and guitarist ... really cooking ..."
michael messer

" ... a one man blues explosion .."
the spitz, london

" ... one of the UK's top slide and steel guitarists ..."
hookers blues club

" ... a one man powerhouse ..."
digital blues

" ... a one man band, he is, but you would have thought he had an entourage of musicians as he managed to create so many sounds ..."
blues in britain

" ... perhaps the finest blues performer in the south ... sheer breathtaking energy ..."
steampacket live

" ... low down, dirty, foot stompin' blues ... what an act ... where does he drag those growling, powerful vocals from? ..."
blues in britain

" ... the slide playing is outstanding ... "
l'agenda du blues (france)

" ... crampton creates a big powerful sound which gets your feet tapping, your body dancing and your heart singing ... everybody was blown away ..."
digital blues

" ... crampton's slide guitar playing was in a different class to anyone who appeared at that magical weekend festival ..."
mettman blues festival (germany)

" ... next up was the extraordinarily talented john crampton, the despair of every band that had to go on after him ... all eyes were on john as he cast his manic spell over the music fans assembled ... I don't think this city had ever seen anything like him before ... he does about four jobs at once: pounding a foot on his stomp box, playing guitar like a demon, blowing up a frenzy on the harmonica and growling out those tough lyrics (many self-penned) with awesome commitment ... for some of us he stole the show ..."
the venue

" ... as we arrived crampton had started his first set ... my jaw dropped with total amazement ... this guy was indeed talented ..."
blues in the south