ALTONA WEST"S FINEST HAGGIS

and a review of the February 12th Jam Session

You will be pleased to know that Hamish McScrooge, purveyor of Altona West's finest haggis, (as well as its worst) is alive and well, despite ingesting his own comestibles in a moment of indecision. The unique combination of gristle, grease, pepper, salt, and some well aged sheep bits, wrapped in animal intestine (damn, are you getting hungry?) continues to satisfy the culinary demands of some of Refinery Terrace's more desperate residents. None more desperate, it would seem, than Hortense, she of the shadows, who, despite saying she would have none of it, had quite a bit of it after all. Story of her life, really, as Madge often remarked to any of the terrified matelots who would listen to her...

But I digress... it is high time we discussed last Sunday's B Team jam: as fine a mixture of grease, gristle and sheep' s bladder as you could want. Oh, and we played some jazz as well: starting with three guitars, one knackered drummer (Martin), and no bass player. Mike, Neville and Roger produced some balanced sound, with, strangely, Roger who drew the short straw and played through the PA's channel 6, sounding quite the smoothest. Let's do a guitar start again, maybe with a bass player next time.....

Onward and upward, a goodly crowd stayed for the 14 musos who fronted; and were rewarded with some fine solos from Laurie, guitarist Mike Harper who was a revelation on Nica's Dream, Daniel Ossher (piano) and newcomer Hamza on trumpet, some ace work from Michael Holt, who practically blew his lip out at the Boatshed Cafe before, but came good for some bebop numbers (Beatrice? but not in 7/8) and Buddy on Georgia whose voice has never sounded better. And cameos from Aneta, and from Aimee. Welcome back!

In yet another first, the jam session started at 3.30 on the dot, and ended at a sensible time: props to Mike Powell who ran it with aplomb, and now knows how hard it is to take this on in the absence of Captain Chaos.

Quite possibly, the most relaxed jam session we have ever had. Seriously!