It actually got a lot *less* nasty once it got down to specific individuals. The "cool as folk" guys were able to defend themselves in an entertaining way. Whereas generalized complaints about an unnamed Them never lead to anything productive. (And to follow my own advice, I have in mind Al Whittle's gripes about people who perform or present traditional material).

There was an underlying positive aspect to the whole thread. Traditional repertoire is not in any danger of falling into ablivion when people are prepared to brawl over access to a prime spot for playing it. If we end up calling each other grumpy old cunts or bigheaded wee nyaffs (I'm a grumpy old cunt, myself) it's because we're part of the same community and that's how communities work.

Memo to the organizers: it's an idea to set things up so that sessions can form in more than one place. Rivalries are not necessarily the reason, sometimes there are groups who just like doing different stuff, or one session gets too big. I've only been to Leicester once and got the impression you needed to show your Union Jack underpants and BNP membership card to get into a a pub there, but surely some fringe spaces could have been allocated.