Jam Sessions Return to Storrington Centre

Peter Bird | Mar 22, 2023

Jam Sessions (Open Mic) moved back into the newly renovated Storrington Centre at 3910 Battersea Road in Sunbury, on Friday, March 10. “We’re glad to be back”, said John Kot, lead guitarist and organiser (with Wayne Eves and Evelyn Ramdahanie).

This is my interview with John Kot.

Q. Did you keep the Jam sessions going during the renovations?

A. Yes, we managed to rent space from the Inverary United Church.

Q. Can you explain how your backup band works?

A. These are all volunteers that can play well, we can only have a certain number of people on stage at one time. The lineup can change from week to week depending on availability. (On Fri. Mar. 11 the lineup was John Kot - Lead Guitar, Darren Johnson – Acoustic/Electric Guitar, Wayne Eves – Bass Guitar, Grace Timmerman – Dobro Guitar, Brad Watt – Acoustic/Electric Guitar)

Q. On the opening night you had 34 performers, is that about normal?

A. It depends upon what people are doing. We have anywhere from 25 and we’ve had over 40 entertainers, the average is 30-35.

Q. Does that make it a long night?

A. The time used to be 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm, but with so many people coming that we started at 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm. On the opening night, we went to 10:30 pm.

Q. What is the most popular music genre played?

A. People can sing or play anything they want, that’s not to say the band playing behind will know the music. We’re still getting new amateur singers and some decent singers. It’s a great venue for novice singers to get a little face presence and improve their singing and confidence. I tell people they should know their song really well because when they start singing it gives the band an idea of how the song goes.

I usually put out a CD of various entertainers that go to Sunbury. I try to pick out about 8 people and have them do 2 songs each to put on the CD, and it gives them some studio experience. There is no charge and we sell the CD’s to the audience. It’s a good eye-opener for them.

A brief history: Margery Smith founded the Jam in 2006 and ran it until 2012. Several people kept the jam going until 2015/2016 when John Kot took over.

The jam runs on Friday nights: 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm. Admission is $2:00. No charge for refreshments.