What an absolute pleasure to have Robin Bibi fronting the houseband this week. It had taken me quite a while to arrange a guest-spot due to his very busy schedule, but we finally pinned down this much in-demand Blues musician and, as expected, he did not fail to entertain in front of one of our biggest attendances of this year.

Robin’s opening set was nothing too taxing from my point of view, but we enjoyed a very polished performance from him, beginning with his own composition “Love Don’t Mean A Thing”, quickly followed by four well-accomplished Blues numbers – most of which can be heard from our mp3 selections. We did get off to quite a late start I have to say, and I have to admit that I forgot how quickly time had caught up with us. Time flies when we enjoy ourselves, but we just about squeezed a Ray Charles classic from Robin with an excellent rendition of “What’d I Say” before bowing out to a thunderous round of applause.

Despite that late start, we were treated to three more numbers at the end of a very busy night. Good to see so many people staying late this week, and they were rewarded by a fabulous performance from Robin Bibi who graciously heaped much praise on the Leytonstone Blues club while also expressing his desire to return here – I’m already working on it. Thank you, Robin Bibi, for initiating yet another fun-packed evening – hoping to see you next Sunday at The Harringay Arms, more details below.

Although the jamming session got off to a late start, five jam-sets were easily managed with quite a few recent absentees returning, so welcome back Kevin O’Brien, Tony Myers and his lovely wife Bridget, Alan Elliott, Ed Croney and Marc Turner – particularly pleased to see more drummers this week with the addition of Pete Abernethy and John Ward.

The shortage of bass-players did allow me to accompany my bandleader Martin Fieber, who gave a very impressive performance which also drew much admiration from Robin Bibi. A very sizeable number of Listeners here this week, most of whom took no time in getting up to jive the night away, instigated by Billy Sharpe’s second jamming number “Rock This Town”. I must say a special word of thanks and appreciation to our wonderful barmaid Anne who always serves us with efficiency and a warm smile, so good to see her back here after a few weeks' absence.

Much thanks and appreciation also to all our amazing Jammers who contributed towards another great night in front of a big audience. Time to call…

The Roll Of Honour:

• Guitar+Vocals - Dave Richards, Billy Sharpe, Martin Fieber and Mike Dearing
• Harp+Vocals - Bo
• Sax - Peter Harvie and Alan Elliot
• Guitar - Chris Greene, Kevin O’Brien, Ian Hammond, Tony Myers, Richard Stenhouse and Raf Azzara
• Bass - Martin Heath, Richard Stenhouse, Raf Azzara and Terry Duggan
• Drums - Ed Croney, John Ward, Pete Abernethy and Marc Turner

Our Webmaster Ken Cumberlidge has uploaded a comprehensive batch of mp3s, Vera arranged all the jam sets while also taking photos while our regular photo-snapper Peter Harvie was busy saxophoning on his jam-set. A huge batch of photos can now be viewed on our Facebook page

A big thanks also to Richard Stenhouse who helped stack away the equipment at the end of the night.

Next time at Leytonstone Blues Jam:
Next week our houseband guest will be James Daniell, who I’m sure will attract another big audience, so please arrive early before all the seats are taken up.

Something for the weekend:
Three events this weekend which promises to be particularly worth a visit.

On Friday 27th at The Southgate Club, “Cruisin’ Mooses “ will be their featured band with fine support from “Mad Dog” Dave Barnes & John Crowther. 8.30pm-11.30pm, Doors open 7.45pm. For further details, check out The St Harmonica's Website

On Saturday 28th at The Manor Arms, 150 East India Dock Road, E14 0BP our good friend Billy Sharpe will be making his second guest appearance with Ronnie Collins’ Last Project. Billy’s previous appearance went down a storm with the locals and immediately booked his place as a regular guest performer, a rich repertoire of pop, country, R’n’R classics can be expected with an enormous sense of humour from Billy…and the locals ! 3.00pm-6.00pm, free admission, please use beer-garden entrance after 3.00pm.

On Sunday 29th at The Harringay Arms, 153 Crouch Hill, N8 9QH, Robin Bibi and Nigel Feist will be performing a two-hour set (Jimmy C’s Blues Sessions) 5.00pm-7.00pm - I’m gonna try and get along there!

Thanking All Our Jammers & Listeners,