"Is there any better way to spend a Thursday night in the Black Country than by listening to some awesome live blues in a great local venue?  Well, when Stan Webb is on the bill the answer is a most definite No.  Talk to any lover of 60s and 70s blues and Stan's is a name that ranks alongside the likes of Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.  That his star has never quite ascended to the heights of any of those four is a mystery to most.  He's been leading one version or another of Chickenshack around for over forty years.  My dad, now 64 (and also a guitarist) remembers having a great chat with Stan at a gig up in Leeds some time around his 21st birthday (he can't remember the details, but it was the Sixties so I wouldn't expect him to!)

Speaking of people in their twenties, support tonight comes from young Manchester-based blues triumvirate Snakewater - a band which has been steadily gaining attention since forming only 9 months ago (the perfect gestation period, you could say!). The sound that emerges from the trio after they've settled behind their instruments is not the one you would imagine emerging on first sight - looking like the latest young indie band in town, the wall of solid blues that they throw out is quite startling.  They launch into one of their own tracks, 'In Too Deep', to kick things off, and instantly win over the crowd.  Guitarist and Vocalist Bobby Grant (22) looks so at ease and at home on the stage that I think he must have grown up on it - his fluid style obviously inspired by the Jimmy Page school of blues: loud, fast and overdrive pedal engaged (he also favours the Les Paul).  Although when he drops things down a notch, as on the second track (an excellent cover of Joe Bonamassa's 'The Great Flood'), it works just as well.  Backing Bobby up are Ian McCormack on bass and Benjamin Streets on drums, and their heavy driving rhythm section provides the perfect vehicle for Bobby to ride along.

Another Snakewater original 'Rock n Roll Fantasy' takes us into fun-time rock'n'roll boogie territory - and there isn't a foot in the venue that isn't tapping.  After a couple more tracks the band breaks it down with a steady building instrumental which really showcases Bobby's playing, following it up with their track 'Muddy Water'.  Introduced as "our homage to Led Zeppelin" it's a great blues track which sounds like it should be forty odd years old and not written in the 21st century.  To round off your set with a cover of Cream's 'Sunshine Of Your Love', in front of a die hard blues audience (here largely to see Stan Webb - a good friend of Jack Bruce) would seem foolhardy or perhaps cocky - but in Snakewater's hands its the perfect way to round things off.  They speed it up and tear it out as if it's their own, and the crowd love it.  Keep an eye out for Bobby Grant and Snakewater, they deserve to be going places."