Hi Joe,

The Folk Awards are an industry bash, but for various reasons are often a source of conflict.

There is only one music programme on mainstream radio (The Mike Harding Show) and that is subservient to "follow-through" - the idea that it has to retain listeners from before the show to the next show - thus it tends to be bland. I emphasise the word tends because sometimes he strays from that brief.

The programme is outsourced - the BBC do not run it a firm called Smooth Operations does on behalf of the BBC.

Smooth Ops - for short - also organise the annual BBC Folk Awards.

The voting is anything but transparent but supposedly is done by 150 or thereabouts invited industry professionals. Of course they are no such thing - but all of them would have an interest in one form or another. There are two rounds of voting; the first short lists four nominations for each category. The second round vvotes a winner out of those four.

I believe there is a "secret" layer from the industry above this to avoid the problem two years ago when a recently written song actually won the category "Traditional Song".

There is a category for a contemporary song to win (All You Pretty Girls this year).

Arguments this year have been: we shouldn't have competitions; "Pretty Girls" is quite old - 1983 I think; the people presenting the awards made snide remarks about folk music; some artists are thought to be ignored; etc etc.....always loads of scope for arguments.

It seems to me that we UK citizens with the occasional American contribution argue incessantly about the music; most of the arguments between your fellow country men are below the line and are about politics! With the occasional UK contributor.

The shame is that some of the vitriol has driven people with a lot to contribute away from the board. I include one of the UK's best known artists and the Director of one of the UK's largest festivals.

And that is a real shame.

HTH.

Dave