And now some news just in from our roving reporter, who is currently scouring the country in search of the Living English Tradition.

For this part of my exhaustive research, I spent Sunday at Christchurch Festival at an informal gathering, sitting under a tree, playing my bouzouki and banjo in the sun outside a pub. There was a collection fine folk playing guitars, banjos, mandolins, accordions, fiddles, flutes, harmonicas and whistles. In roughly that order of abundance.

It would be fair to say that the overall influence was American. The skiffle influence was most apparent with songs like; Midnight Special, Jesse James and Worried Man. There were Carter family tunes also. The other songs were mostly Irish. Star of County Down and Leaving of Liverpool type things. The tunes were also mainly Irish session standards too. It was all very enjoyable.

There was a request for Trumpet Hornpipe (better known as the tune to the Captain Pugwash TV show), which as far as I am aware is an English tune? This was greeted with a strange ritual of 'knowing looks' and 'eyeball rolling', among those playing. Those listening however liked it very much.

Can anyone explain this reaction?