Whapweasel 'quite vibrant? Don't strain yourself, Richard. All this damning with faint praise must be oh-so-wearing. As Malcolm says, they are excellent to dance to and so do what they say they do on the tin. What more do you want?

The point of the Whapweasel track you heard on the radio (The Final Last Banana) was to promote the Topic compilation CD Stepping Out which chronicles the resurgence of English roots dance music. And as Ian Anderson says in the highly informative notes, if there ever was something called English Country Music it was always multi-cultural.

Whapweasel, he says, are pushing onward from where Oysterband and Tigermoth left off, writing their own tunes, adding a touch of jazz, ska, African music and beyond. They are where English dance music is today as you'd discover if you ventured into an e-ceilidh where they and many of the other bands featured on his CD play in one fom or another.

I've played it non-stop over the past couple of weeks - when in - though its main purpose, in which I'm sure it will succeed, must be to get more and more people involved in the making of and dancing to this wonderful music.