There's also the phenomenon known to many of us that mysteriously once one performer has forgotten the words to a song, somehow other performers that night also forget words to songs. There's a theory that there's a floorboard responsible, and when you tread on it, that's it for the little grey memory cells - it's related to the Irish folklore item known as "the stray sod" (which I've often thought would be a great name for a ceilidh band), which is an enchanted piece of ground and if you should tread on it you'll be wandering lost for hours in familiar territory.

That's my defence, anyway, and I'm sticking to it.

Anne