Plenty of human warmth in the Beech last night - I had to take my coat off. We laughed, we cried, we raised the roof.

But I'm afraid there were introductions; I introduced one song as an Appalachian variant of an old British song (historical fussiness, 'real' vs unreal kneejerks). And one person got to choose who would sing next (self-appointed hierarchies), while people who generally gave good performances or talked about interesting stuff were shown respect (time-served idiocy, folkier than thou arseholery). Almost everyone in the room knew almost everyone else (mistrust of anyone who isn't them), almost everyone was 40-something or over (general mistrust of youth or physical attractiveness), and everyone got on well with everyone else (hale-fellow bullshit).

It was an ordeal, really. I don't know why we put up with it.