Since the daughter of a friend of my family is doing the Trad course at Newcastle, and my daughter is up there doing a Fine Arts degree, my comments can be viewed as biassed.

That said, I believe that anything that will produce a rising generation interested and committed to the future of Folk and Traditional Music can only be a good thing. The thought that Vic Gammon and/or Sandra Kerr might result in cloning graduates with a common agenda is rather silly. Guest lecturers such as Richard Thompson are invited to make a contribution. At the Martin Carthy interview at Sidmouth this year, the story was told how a younger Emily Portman asked Shirley Collins at a Folk South-West workshop, to borrow a recording she played of Pop Maynard because the former was besotted by his singing. The story was very touching, but it showed one example of an enquiring mind at work. Absolutely wonderful, and not a Geordie within hearing! It has also brought out the local boy in Jim Causley, now captain of his Devon wassailers, and I noticed jamming in with the Pixies at Towersey this year.

If I have one reservation to make about the course on offer is that it doesn't seem to foster the next generation of Folk entrepreneurs, and all levels of engagement are needed if this music is to flourish within the foreseeable future. I have the comment from my 19 year old Newcastle undergraduate that Sidmouth this year was perceived as fifty-somethings trying to put on events that young people ought to be interested in. It's not just the quality of the performer you book - it's the ambience provided in which they perform - now there's a dimension younger people understand which we oldies can't get our heads around! There was talk of 'shadowing' by younger people, but I'm not aware that it happened. There is the need for a business studies unit on such courses so these people can get their heads around dealing with local and district councils, fire officers, the media, licensing, arts bodies, possible sponsors, agents, etc. etc. - then, of course, there are so many artistic considerations to be made, to the benefit of themselves, their own careers, and the wider Folk fraternity.

I have loved this music ever since I was a teeneager, and thirty-five years later still want to impart that love and sense of fun. However, younger people have their own perception of the same thing and must be allowed to explore and utilise it in their own way. I welcome the Folk Degree course as one avenue to this end, moreso because it can only raise standards across the board. I wish all the Newcastle students well, and look forward to welcoming them at Sidmouth FolkWeek and elsewhere in years to come.

George