Well if nobody's ever disapproved of you - you're not trying hard enough!

Almost from day one of my career as a player I can recall club organisers getting a hard time for booking me. I can recall dj's getting abusive phone calls for putting my stuff amongst the jewels of the folk revival.

Basically that's why I buggered off and did other stuff - rather than hanging about to endure a life of rejection on the folkscene. That's what I'd advise any young musician to do. As the Incredible String Band said, 'if you let the pigs decide it - they will put you in the sty'. Don't let the Lilliputians tie you down.

Moreover, I think that's why the folk revival stalled. They kicked out all the people of talent and they clung on to the conformists. You can give these people all the BBC2 sessions in the world - they will still not be able to come up with a memorable piece of music that impacts in the way Street of London, Blowing in the Wind or All Around My Hat did.

Folk music - that which is adopted by and captured the imagination of the folk.

And really that's why this series looks like being a load of cack. The salient point about the guitar is not that a few smart arses have learned a few twiddly bits that defeat the rest of us. Rather it is; that it has offered a road to personal expression in a world that generally, particularly and routinely standardises us and insults our intelligences and sensibilities.