Is not the problem one of demographics? I first started regularly attending folk clubs back in the autumn of 1976 at the age of fifteen, and, of course, I was the youngest in the room. Thirty-two years on - and I'm still the youngest in the room!

The baby-boomer so-called folk revival did nothing to engender, encourage or even inspire a second wave of any significance. It remained until their own offspring came of age that any new blood came through by way of a second generation, albeit with very different agendas & priorities to that of their parents. As the years go by, my old folkie friends get older, frailer and, sadly, fewer, but the crack remains, somehow, undimmed irrespective of the audience.

Take heart; for there is a new generation of folkies; second-lifers in retirement spending the kids inheritance on camper vans and discovering that they too have a voice. In such company I still find myself the youngest, often by several decades, but a veritable veteran in folkish terms. I get the impression these still game folkies would rather sing than listen though, and more power to them.