Hmm. I wonder what all this debate about 'fun' really means. I can't help thinking this is a very old discussion and everyone seems to have an axe to grind. I love listening to a serious ballad sung well by someone who has taken the trouble to learn their craft but I have also encountered (and still do) a lot of 'serious' singers who aren't nearly as good as they think they are.

At the same time, I couldn't help suppressing a giggle (an unintentional one) when Mike Harding, on the recent 'Folk Britannia' BBC programme, as good as said that folkie comedians like him had saved the folk clubs from the over-serious traddies. What no-one seems to have mentioned was that apart from Noel Murphy, most of the folk comics were neither good musicians nor very funny - with Harding a case in point.