Magpie

You have a wonderful band (amongst others) in norway called Chateauneuf Spelemannslag who are all young musicians. They visited the UK in the summer and gave some great concerts. They were part of the Folkworks Summer School which is for both adults and youths. As far as the youth in the UK is concerned it has never been healthier. There are groups throughout the country from organisations such as Folkworks and Youthquake who are performing at festival across the country. Only this weekend we have the semi-finals of the National Young Folk Musician run by the BBC. Anyone who saw "The Pack", "AAAAG", "No Strings Attached" or any of the other bands at the festival will have no doubt that the tradition is safe. The recognised performers such as Liza Carthy, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan as well as many others are now moving beyond being the youth (sorry!) because they are in their twenties. We're now talking about very good musicians between 15 years and 20 years who have learnt their skills from some of the greatest players in the country which includes people approaching the end of their own century such as Will Atkinson, the great harminica player from Northumberland who can play tunes he got from his grandfather before the first world war - that's how the tradition grows. I'm sure Keith (Selby) will agree with this. He's doing his own part with his own family.