"The point I was trying to make is sometimes tallent and hard work are not always a gaurantee to monetary success and to me that is unfair."

Unfortunately, them's the breaks if you choose to be an artist. Whether it's folk, jazz, pop, acting, visual art...there are always far more people in an over-crowded industry than there are gigs/spots/parts/exhibitions to go round. It's a career choice that does not necessarily pay back the dedication and the hard work that you put into it. I have met quite young artists who are already fairly angry because, despite having done what they perceive as all the right things (folk degree, good agent, lots of practice, working very hard at their craft, etc) they are not getting many gigs. Meanwhile so-and-so, who doesn't seem to be trying very hard at all, is getting lots of work.

Well, unfortunately so-and-so may be lazy, but prodigiously, naturally talented. If a venue is booking an artist, they don't award merit points for effort; they want the people who are going to make a great night for the audience. Some people will practice every day for hours and still only ever be a mediocre musician. I know - I'm most certainly one of them. Then again, some will never be the greatest musicians or singers in the world, but have been packaged and sold in a way which brings them widespread commercial success. That's just the way of this business.

This may sound harsh, but it does come from experience. My first career path was theatre. I was accepted into one of the best acting conservatoires in America, worked very hard - and watched lots of girls who were not particularly talented, but who were very pretty, getting all the work. After a few years, I realised that choosing to do this as a job had made it a chore. Something that used to give me more joy than anything in the world was now a source of constant stress and unhappiness. So I stopped. This is probably the reason I have never even aspired to having a professional career as a folk performer on any level (not that I believe I ever had anything like the requisite talent) - 20-odd years after I first became involved in folk, being in a singaround or a session still brings me unadulterated joy.

So all hail the amateurs. Hopefully it proves a constant source of happiness throughout our lives. To those who go pro, and endure all the travel, the knock-backs, the scraping a living, and the stress: hats off to you, too. I only wish I had enough slots to accommodate the many very talented people who contact me every day, looking for bookings. Maybe if Sidmouth ran 365 days a year I'd just about manage it.