I have been calling Diane 'Sweetums' for 6 years now, just as she calls me 'The Sidmouth Seagull' or 'MadLizzieCornish'....You have to have 'been there' to understand. I will continue to do so, as will she.

Thank you, but I do not your permission to like folk music. I have been around it for years, written about it for years..and my ex-husband was one of the directors of the new Sidmouth Folk Week, back in 2005. One amongst many, who stepped forward to help out. I wrote 15,000 words about Sidmouth that year, just something that 'happened' when I was walking around the town, seeing all the beauty..and so I transferred it to the BBC site, where a lot of people enjoyed reading it...It was fun...but it was also hard work, as I dashed around all over....

6 years later, I couldn't give a toss about Sidmouth Folk Week...because of the witch hunt that the people you see on here launched against me, which ended in my freedom of speech being taken away from me on the BBC, despite those people breaking every single House Rule on the BBC board.

As far as your music goes, I was not being rude, I was merely responding to your concern about me ever writing about your music. I won't be. That's not dissing your music in any way. I've never even heard it. I just won't ever write about it, so you can rest easy. It was said to reassure you.

As far as Boysies and Girlies go, I'll keep them too, if you don't mind, because they help to counter balance the seriously serious crap that English Folk Music is surrounded by, so lightheartedness goes a long way to bring in the sparkle again, as does a rollicking great sense of humour.

If I choose to swoon over those Shropshire Bedlam Boysies, then swoon I shall...and believe you me, there were more than a few maidens on Sidmouth Sea Front that summer who could barely stand up!

John Kirkpatrick sought to bring in a little sunshine to the serious side of morris..and boy, did he succeed!! ;0)

Yeah, I write about passion, and I bring in sex and a little rock n roll here and there, and why the hell not? The music is passionate, filled with sexual stories and maidens letting those knights in through their windows.

I see the Phwooooooar! Factor, and I write about it, and it drives the Folk Police nuts, because they want to 'appreciate' it stuck on their chairs with superglue, never moving a muscle, never having any thoughts of Cecil and Maudie on their Collective Nights Under the Stars...Nope, they only see the dates, hear the notes, decide whether the beat is correct...

I brought passion into the music of Show of Hands too...so what? Some of their songs are wonderfully passionate...Nowt wrong with that...

hell, it saddens me that they've now joined ranks with the wizzened wrinklies who keep English folk music up their own arses...but each to their own...They wanna listen to Brad, so be it..

Their music still brings passion to me though, because I feel very much as they do about the crap that is going down in this world right now..and how we are NOT all out on the streets about it, because our voices have been taken away...

On the BBC board I was asked to stop writing about 'social issues' because it was upsetting the Moanming Minnies, well fuck them, they NEED to be upset, because we are all going to hell on a handcart if we don't open our eyes to the Arrogance, the Ignorance and The Greed that has stifled REAL life for so very long....

Hear No Evil
See No Evil
Speak of No Evil

And you pretty much end up with Great Britain in 2010, along with vast areas of the rest of the world...


And when someone DOES write about YOUR music like that, you will know that you have 'made it' as a songwriter, because to be able to inspire, to anger, to open eyes with your words is always the sign of a strong songwriter. Steve Knightley is exactly that, and I don't give a flying rat's arse if people disagree with me or not, because that is how I feel, and it is my right to say and feel that way.

this does NOT mean that I swoon over Steve, I do NOT. But I believe in giving credit where credit is due, and when Steve gets a song right, he gets it VERY right.

I hope that Ian Anderson has now seen the light on this one, and will at long last stop dillydallying around and give Show of Hands the coverage they deserve...

And I say that IN SPITE OF Phil's letter and all your nastiness in here, because I have the guts to stand up for what I believe.

Thank you.