I think what the British kids expected from a blues performer was a more rigid, stricter adherence to the format than the players themselves were used to. John Lee Hooker, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, SBW and others had a freer approach to a 12-bar blues, for example, than the Brits. If they felt like playing 13 bars, they played 13 bars - it was, after all, their music!

I suppose it was that difference in approach that might have prompted SBW's remark, though I can't remember what else he did or didn't say at the time.