Very pleased and somewhat surprised to see another excellent attendance this week on such a wet and miserable evening on the outside, but plenty of warmth and good humour on the inside here at the LBJ. To add to our delight, our houseband guest Phil Hughes gave us another polished performance for the opening set – no real surprises in his unplanned set, but I never get tired of hearing and playing them. With quite a few jammers already signed in, we reduced the opening set to five numbers in the hope we would have enough time to get Phil back on stage at the end of the night – which we managed to do.

Phil’s first two numbers featured some fine harp-playing on “When You Shake It” and “Three Hours Past Midnight” before demonstrating some equally fine saxophone playing on “The Hustle Is On” and “Mary-Ann”. The final number was Jimmy Reed’s “You Don’t Have To Go”, for which he reverted back to his harmonica – and I have to say what a great vocalist he is. Again, I never get tired of hearing him!

It was good to see so many vocalists this week, but sadly no bass-players' names on the sign-in sheet. Thankfully we had Richard Stenhouse and Mike Dearing to rely on. Graham Totton and Rachel led the first two jam sets, and Mark Sibley was back, bringing along his good friend Cliff Rollinson who hadn’t played drums since 1982! Cliff received huge applause after playing on Mark’s set – and rightly so. I’m reliably informed that Cliff very much enjoyed his stint on drums, so let’s hope we see him again soon.

Nice to see Ray Wallen back with us after quite an absence, and it was nice to see Dave Richards too, albeit for a brief period. Just before he was due to play his jam set, he suddenly disappeared without any explanation whatsoever - that was the only blot on what was a perfect night’s jamming!

Due to Vera and I needing to leave early enough to avoid the “ULEZ Witching Hour”, we needed to close a bit earlier than usual, but still managed to enjoy three more numbers from our houseband guest, which rounded off a highly enjoyable night. Sincere thanks to Phil Hughes and all our jammers. Time to call…

The Roll Of Honour:

• Harp+Vocals - Mark Sibley and Ray Wallen
• Guitar+Vocals - Graham Totton, Rachel, Billy Sharpe and Mike Dearing
• Guitar - Murray, Chris Greene, Richard Stenhouse, Kevin Molyneux and Steve Hillan
• Sax - Peter Harvie
• Harp - Jonathan Reid
• Bass - Richard Stenhouse, Mike Dearing and Terry Duggan
• Drums - John Ward, Marc Turner, Cliff Rollinson and Phil Overhead
• Did not play - Dave Richards

As always, our Webmaster Ken Cumberlidge will soon be uploading this week’s batch of mp3s, and Peter Harvie’s fresh batch of photos can be enjoyed on Our Facebook page.

Special thanks to Kevin Molyneux, Richard Stenhouse, Jonathan Reid and Ray Wallen for helping to set out the backline and staying behind to clear it all away at the end of the night, and - last but not least - to Queen Bee Vera for arranging all six jam sets.

Next time at Leytonstone Blues Jam:
Next week our houseband guests will be Steve Tolton and Russ Cottee (50% of The 251s), I’m very much looking forward to seeing these two excellent musicians back here – they’re not to be missed, so please arrive early and grab a seat.

SPECIAL NOTICE:
Due to our manageress booking a band for St Patrick’s Day, we have to take a week off, so please be aware that there will be NO BLUES JAM on March 17th.

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.

Blues night returns at The Southgate Club on Friday 14th, their featured band will be “JFK Blues” plus support from our good friend Manny Fizzotti, for further details, check out www.stharmonicas.co.uk

On Saturday 15th at The Manor Arms, 150 East India Dock Road, E14 0BP, live music will be provided by Ronnie Collins’ Last Project, his special guest will be Ivan (no surname provided) who’ll be making his first appearance at this very friendly but crazy little pub. I do know he’ll be playing a mix of pop classics and a few Ska/Reggae numbers. 3.00pm-6.00pm, please use beer-garden entrance after 3.00pm – no charge at the door.

Thanking All Our Jammers & Listeners,