Or yet the great Davie Stewart who could never pass a queue without busking it for a capful of maiks. Legend records him busking the well-to-do audience to his own debut at Cecil Sharp House as they queued up eager to see Lomax's latest prodigy from the feral realms.

I've had the honour of working with several great and late lamented traditional singers and storytellers who were pretty shrewd when it came to the value of their craft, Sure didn't diminish it any, though I've had many an interesting blether on the matter, in the wee small hours after an impromptu ceilidh* over a dram or twelve of the creature...

In could be argued it's the monetary success of artists that will propel them to their greatest creative heights which otherwise they might never attain. Could Led Zeppelin have made Physical Graffiti if they were just doing it as a hobby? And I'm sure Henry Purcell was well rewarded for his drivel in his time...      

I wonder, does the great Dick Miles do it for the good of heath?

* From WIKI : 'Originally, a ceilidh was a social gathering of any sort, and did not necessarily involve dancing.'