Jim Carroll

Sorry Bryan, don't really want to cover old ground - have to say I don't temember the Goebbells bit, or the sneering at other clubs.

I could give you the links, but that's not really the point. Those of us who love and work hard to promote traditional music and contemporay song writing that takes its inspiration from the tradition owe you an enormous debt for the work you have done with the travellers in London, in Ireland and (most importantly to me) with Walter Pardon whose songs I hear frequently, mostly from the singing of Will Duke and Dan Quinn. I would love to take part in rational discussions with you about how the tradition can be maintained and brought to a wider audience.

Unfortunately, as soon as we seem to be approaching that point, you invoke your ludicrous notion that the entire UK folk club circuit is dominated by people singing Beatles' songs and singing songs out of tune from their notebooks because they can't be bothered to learn the words. This, quite simply, isn't true. I notice that you haven't denied your willingness to resort to comments about being "crass", "dumbing down" or "promoting bad standards".

Please stop trying to undermine the efforts of those of us who are trying to do exactly what you want.