Well, Charlotte, I do live in England. I work in the live music
industry. I'm asked to talk about "English Tradition and what's happening vis a vie funding and such like" (by the way, it's vis a vis) at national conferences. I have taught Arts Management at university level. If we start talking about certain artforms being prioritised over others, I actually have something to contribute. Of course, not having anything to contribute doesn't seem to stop you from barging in - in fact, i've never known anyone use so many words to say so little.

I really don't understand how someone can be so completely obsessed with events they never go to, pubs and clubs they never visit, festivals they never attend, TV shows they never see, papers they never read, culture they have no day-to-day experience of, but not only feel compelled to discuss it to the exclusion of all else, but insist on correcting, slapping down, and undermining THE PEOPLE WHO DO EXPERIENCE IT EVERY DAY with endless prissy and irrelevant put-downs. You always know better - even than the people who are actually invovled in things personally. It's staggering.

Is there no music where you live? No clubs, no folk culture? Why not engage with it, and then come back and tell us about it, instead of endlessly pontificating about the view from up Ma and Pa's arse, or wherever it is today?