It was quite a disappointing night this week for two main reasons. Firstly, not as many jammers and listeners as I would reasonably expect when considering we had one of the finest slide-guitarists in the form of Martin Fieber as our houseband guest, and secondly, there’ll be no mp3 recordings this week owing to somebody moving my mp3 recorder and unwittingly altering the input settings. This is such a pity because there were some excellent jam sets being played after another fine opening set from Martin Fieber, ably supported by Mike Dearing and Phil Overhead.

After waiting in vain for more people to arrive, we eventually got off to a late start with one of Martin’s own instrumental compositions titled “Strolling With Al” – a bouncy little ditty in dedication to his friend…Al ! This was followed by two more familiar numbers - “Reconsider Baby” and “Run Me Down”. From memory, another two numbers were played before winding up the opening set with “Set A Date”. Unusually for us, our houseband guest was unable to get back on stage at the end of the night owing to us simply running out of time – it was a strange night in many ways I have to say. However, owing to a mere two jamming vocalists here this week, we did ask Martin to provide vocals for one of the jam sets, for which he duly obliged. Martin will be back as houseband guest before the end of the year, and hopefully in front of a bigger audience. Thank you Martin for another fine performance!

There were several regulars absent this week, notably Billy Sharpe, Peter Harvie (both still suffering from the “Dreaded Lurgy”), Jonathan Reid and Dave Richards – the latter of whom continues to stay away. But very grateful to the jammers who did arrive. Very grateful too for seeing TWO bass-players here. Good to see Maxwell Paternoster back here, and it was a nice surprise to see Graham Furney, who was a regular visitor at our previous venue The Coach & Horses. Both bass-players received extra jam sets, as most of our jammers did.

Very sorry to see my good friend Clive Nash unable to play drums owing to a hand injury sustained during the afternoon – nice to see him here nevertheless.

The lack of vocalists did enable Mike Dearing and Kevin Molyneux to vocalise on their respective jam sets, with Ray Wallen heading two sets, we were still able to lay on six jam sets carefully arranged by Birthday Girl Vera.

An unexpected low attendance it may have been, but the quality of jamming was certainly not low. Time to call…

The Roll Of Honour:

• Harp+Vocals - Ray Wallen
• Guitar+Vocals - Kevin Molyneux, Martin Fieber and Mike Dearing
• Guitar - Richard Stenhouse, Roger Davidson, Ian Hammond and Chris Greene
• Harp - Ned Phillips
• Bass - Graham Furney, Maxwell Paternoster and Terry Duggan
• Drums - John Ward, Marc Turner and Phil Overhead

Sadly, no mp3 recordings this week as previously mentioned. Regular photo snapper Peter Harvie was absent this week, therefore Vera was kept busy with the camera. The results can be enjoyed on Our Facebook page.

Special thanks to Kevin Molyneux, Ray Wallen and Richard Stenhouse for their help in setting out the backline, and also for staying behind to pack it all away at the end of the night.

Next time at Leytonstone Blues Jam:
Next week will feature two members of The 251s as houseband guests. Steve Tolton and Russ Cottee will be travelling all the way from Southend to entertain us, so please make their journey worth their effort – and I’m very much looking forward to seeing them. Please arrive nice and early and grab a seat!

Something for the weekend:
Every Thursday, our resident drummer Phil Overhead hosts his Blues jam at the new venue of The Three Compasses, 62 High Street, N8 7NX starting at 8.30pm – free entry, plus a very competent houseband and backline provided.

On Friday 18th October at The Southgate Club, our good friend Conrad Di Ianni will be performing with his band “Conrad & The Atomiks”, support is provided by “The Steve Cook Band”. For further information, check out www.stharmonicas.co.uk

On Saturday 19th at The Manor Arms, 150 East India Dock Road, E14 0BP, that man Conrad Di Ianni will be back in action as guest of Ronnie Collins’ Last Project - 3.00pm-6.00pm, please use beer-garden entrance after 3.00pm. Never a dull moment at this friendly little pub – no charge at the door.

Thanking All Our Jammers & Listeners,