Well said Anahata. Yes, it's very difficult to strike the right balance in terms of contacts - specially when you're trying to fill one night of a tour, and you can't move on to your second option until you know for sure that the answer's no (it's amazing how many people never reply, even when you're asking about a specific night)!

Some organisers admit, very reasonably, that they just can't risk booking people they haven't seen, (quite a few of those never visit any other venue than their own, too, which presents a challenge if they're 200 miles away)! That's why I have a live track on my demo, and why Tom and I have a DVD, and also a video clip on uTube.

Organisers often explain that they have a list of people who the audience have asked to see - usually all long-serving artists who became established in days of yore, when there were a lot more clubs and audiences were younger and more up for something new.

This is again completely understandable and reasonable, of course - we all like to see our favourites, but I do hope that clubs will keep one eye to the future of folk, and do their best to fit in the occasional newcomer, and take the odd risk.

There are new things happening for younger musicians, but there's a HUGE gap between the acoustic cafe/wine bar culture and the good old club. FCs may, as many say, die out with our generation, but with luck enough youngsters will have seen why we like them so much to be able to feed a little bit of it into their own new operations - whatever form they take.