I suspect some people did put their own fingers in their ears - so that they couldn't hear how bad they were. I am ok with this because when people who are a bit bad (PWAABB)sing, lots of other people think - well I could do better than that.

I would like to think that when I sang like PWAABBs it helped Martin Carthy to continue to develop as quite a good singer.

We all do what we can.