Jim Carroll

Bryan
I think you'll find any abuse was very much a two-way street - we're all prone to overstating on occasion

Please feel free to quote anything I have said that compares with your direct personal attacks on me. Here is your Joe Goebbels reference.

"rather than walking out and heading for the west coast of Ireland)"

The Living Tradition letter that I linked to above is your explanation of why you walked out on the folk clubs.

Basically, our arguments stem from your proposal (said by you to be your club policy) that wannabe singers need not be able to sing before they are encouraged in front of an audience.

I have never said anything of the sort.

I believe this to be a policy of dumbing down, made even worse by your admission that you didn't have non-singers turning up for a floor spot, so it was a proposdal aimed at clubs other than your own.

No, I never said that either.

As stupidly stubborn as it may sound, I will go to the grave believing that would-be singers need to learn to sing in tune before they are put in front of an audience - paying or otherwise.

I entierly agree. Where have I ever said otherwise?

I'm fairly happy with and proud of the contribution Pat and I made to preserving and disseminating British and Irish folksong

As indeed you are entitled to be. It's just a pity that that is not the way you will be remembered. Instead, you will live on in people's memories as that embittered old man who seemed intent on undermining the efforts of all those who were striving to keep folk music alive in the UK.

And in your reply to Valmai -

preventing singers from humiliating themselves in front of an audience when they are unable even to handle the basics, seems both helpful and humane to me.

How many of the floor singers at the Lewes Saturday Folk Club and, previously, the Lewes Arms Folk Club, do you consider, from your experience, fall into that category? Name names if you like.