Ordinary man by frank waterson is a great song as it describes the troubles of a particular era. It is written from the perspective of a factory worker who loses his job along side all his workmates when the factory they work in closes down. It expresses the frustration of the working class very coherently and with feeling.

Christy Moores version is the only one I've ever heard, apart from my own and my brothers.

None of us has ever experienced the fate of the CHARACTER in the STORY that the song tells.

And that's the point. It's a story told in the first person. So what!

Does that mean I'm not allowed to tell it?

It is a good story, well set to music and inspires thought and feeling in it's audience.

To call me or anyone else who learns and sings the song a hypocrite for performing it is insane rubbish.

If it wasn't for us, a good song would go unheard, a good point would go unmade and a good story would go untold.

There is a load of nonsense being talked these days on the subject of "keeping it real", with the result that noone seems to have anything interesting to say anymore.

If we as mudcatters were that "real" in our everyday dealings we would be required to write every song about the tap tap tapping of the bloody keys and the great wisdom to be found in cyber world - that and the shops and our job.

The monotony is driving me insane already.

Great artists: writers, painters, performers etc have "imagination" and credit their audience with having it too.

Come on - drop the fashionable attitude and engage yourself honestly - that's what I call "real".