I have a vision of Hell, of the same three blokes singing the same songs and playing the same tunes, year on end, in the same pub, congratulating themselves on keeping "the music alive" and doing nothing to encourage anyone to join them.

We complain all the time (here) about lack of exposure, it's exposure that the professionals and organisations like Tradarts are giving the music and thus bringing more people into it.

Across the board there are small Arts groups who do more to promote their area of interest than any of the big "National" companies and they are almost all being squeezed. The ACE are following their own agenda (I suspect also trying to free up money for the "Cultural Olyompics") and doing untold damage to the grassroots of the arts.

Steve Ogden