What pops up for me is the London subways; and the musicians telling me that the police were really hassling them; seems the powers that be (at that time, I'd hope they changed later?) decided musicians impeded the flow of subway entrance and exit traffic. Later we got to Dublin, where we heard some great street music, and the street performers there told me more or less the same thing, without the excuse about blocking subway traffic...

What kind of celts are those Dublin city leaders, anyhow? Closet/wanna-be Upper Class Englishmen?

Seriously, most of the English regular folk we met were really super, despite their storied "reserve." Of course it didn't hurt to be driving a 25 year old Rover sedan with English tags, and when the guitar case came out, it was almost always a sincere and friendly, "give us a song." But, of course, these were the real people....

Cheers, BK