Of course there would be antagonism toward the person playing the "inferior" instrument-there is severe instrument quality rivalry and it was expressed above.

What a senseless statement - you obviously know nothing of the folk music world.

I've just come back to my b&b in Alnwick after enjoying a band at the Playhouse called Fiddlers Bid. Four guys from Shetland on fiddles, plus Catriona Mackay on harp and piano, plus a bassist and guitarist. A packed house, with an audience of old folks, children, young people, middle-aged people, all classes, all types - all united in their love of the music. The theatre was packed, and the music was wonderful.

Last Sunday there was a session in a local pub - 5 or 6 fiddlers, two or three guitarists, several whistle/recorder players, a trombonist, two mandolins, accordion, melodeons and saxes. We played like demons and had a wonderful night. I was bought a pint of beer - all I wanted because I was driving and - apart from the petrol to drive the 5 miles there and the 5 miles back - the cost was nothing.

Two great evenings just a few days apart, of different sorts and compositions. But great joy and happiness for many, many people.

Of course, we/they could have restricted it all to complete amateurs, playing crap instruments, allowed no-one to travel in from outside the areas, handed out song sheets for people to learn a song before they were let in to the venues, shat in the road, got totally pissed and said that was the prevailing folk "lifeway" to be followed.

Well, I know what my choice is - and you still haven't been able to offer me any examples of the "folk music" which has to be included in your "radical paradigm"...

Now, I suppose