String's early output was a hybrid of punk (British with US antecedents) and reggae (Jamaican), David. But so what? At least he was halfway interesting then...

X Factor and shows like it have always been with us. Before that there were the manufactured boy and girl bands like Spice Girls, Boyzone etc. Before that there were all the awful manufactured 70s bands like the Chinnichap Productions mob and the Rollers clones. Before that the 50s and 60s were chock full of manufactured teen idols with some dodgy Cowell precursor using them as a get-rich-quick glove puppet. And there's always been a market for it.

In fact, it's almost a tradition...

Luckily, right now, thanks to the internet and especially Myspace, Youtube and so on, I can access a whole universe of fantastic music from all around the world, that largely exists outside of the clutches of the mainstream music or light entertainment industries - at the click of a mouse.

Within a few hundred yards of my house, I have a folk club, a singaround, two different sessions, ocassional ceilidhs, regular nu-folk, sing songwriter, exploratory and folkie-dokie gigs, an open mic, a non-folkie singing group, DJ nights and more. There's even the occasional rock gig. This is in one suburb of one city.

I don't think X Factor has any bearing on or relationship of any of the above. It's an entirely seperate world. Long may it remain so.