Another lively night at the C&H this week with a decidedly international flavour, as we welcomed our guest and old friend WERNER LINDNER - aka The Flamingstratman - and his talented wife Marita.  Werner started the evening off with a lively shuffle, before treating us to a version of Black Magic Woman with a highly dynamic outro that had us in the House Band jamming our butts off.  Our guest calmed things down with an atmospheric slow blues before delivering a funky re-arrangement of Billy Boy Arnold's I Wish You Would, and then we had a change of percussionist as Reg handed the sticks and stool to Marita. With our distaff drummer in place we boogied on down a Dusty Road and finished off the set by paying our dues to the Taxman - not the George Harrison song, BTW!  Thanks, Mr & Mrs Lindner for a terrific, inventive and energetic performance.  I wish we'd had time for more, but at the end of the night our guests had to catch a train to get back to their hotel and there was no chance of 
more guitar pyrotechnics, though Werner treated us to some of his own very fine drumming in the Jam.  And fear not, if you're in the mood for some more Flaming Statocasting, you can see Werner this Saturday at the Manor Arms 150 East India Dock Road E14 0BP between 3 and 6pm with Ronnie Collins' Last Project.

I know last week I said that Dave Stein hadn't been well, but in case nobody believed me, this week he brought his doctor.  Fortunately the Doc blows a mean sax, so it's a special bonjour to Joel Davroux. Well played, and hope to see you again - or do we have to make an appointment?  He wasn't the only Joel on the list either: we were pleased to see our old pal Joel LeTort too. Keeping things European, we also had Nicolas Gaul from Belgium, and our old Italian pals, guitar stars Emanuele and Davide.  And to top things off we have a new fan who insists that Blues isn't just for humans- for the last few weeks we've been visited by a very large fly, who often seeks out the spotlight by joining in with our performers on stage. I can only imagine it's a Bluebottle.  The other news of the week is that our house band drummer Reg has just become a grandfather, so for now we're all referring to him as Grandpa Patten. (We don't know what he's calling us, though!)  Anyway, congratulations, Reg, and having already named half our jammers it's probably best to go on and name the rest, so let's call...

The Roll of Honour:

• Bass+Vocals - Dave Stein
• Harp+Vocals - Tim Hill
• Guitar+Vocals - Steve Collins and Emanuele Fizzotti
• Guitar -
  • Davide Mazzantini, Richard Lawson, Richard Stenhouse,
  • Nicolas Gaul and Tony Myers
• Sax - Peter Harvie and Joel Davroux
• Bass - Keith Mac, Joel LeTort and Martin Victor
• Drums - Marc Turner, Werner Lindner and Marita

Well done you lot! Special thanks to Richard and Keith for helping us set up and pack down in the absence of regular Jam Roadie Wayne, and extra special thanks to Peter and Tina Harvie for saving a FABGOL and his fan from enduring the rigors of the 12.22 from Stratford.

There was tough competition for the SOTWA this week. Tim Hill's set with Richard, Nicolas, Marc and Keith was very enjoyable, and Emanuele and Davide's set with Martin and Werner - enhanced by Tim on Sonny Boy Williamson's Bring It On Home - was pretty darned good too.  In fact Tim was enhancing a lot of sets: he appeared on mine too, but that wasn't a hardship!  Well, it's our responsibility to keep these harp players off the streets and out of trouble, and we're happy to oblige.   So if you want to decide who was best, listen to our mp3s and watch our video clips, they'll be coming up soon.

Meanwhile, if you're hungry for the best in Blues Jamming, come back to the Coach & Horses next Wednesday evening at 8.30, when our guest will be Eleven Foot Sack's talented guitarist MALCOLM SMITH, and we'll be bringing the Blues back to East London again.

See you there!

Stevie