You get bad mannered people like oggie's fiddler of all ages. I suppose we all find it harder to cope with that kind of stuff when it's from someone of another generation, whether it's a grumpy old sod like that or a sneery young lout. When it's someone of our own age it's a lot easier to shrug it off or come back with a put-down, while still sticking around.

The great thing about folk music is that has always tended to resist the corralling of people into generations, but in doing so it goes against the spirit of the time. That isn't to say that there isn't always a tendency of people to hang around a lot of the time with contemporaries, but that has been balanced by the tendency to get together with fellow enthusiasts of all ages, in all fields - and that seems under threat these days.

It's been said, accurately enough, that at one time the clubs were full of young people, and the only older ones you'd see were among the guest performers. Now it's the other way round - the members are the old ones, and the only young faces are liable to be paid guests.

The truth is there are probably more good, and potentially good, young musicians around than there ever have been. The difference is that when the clubs came into existence there wasn't any significant number of older people breathing down their necks while we learnt.