hands up all those around here who have given up the day job.

Me! Me! Well... I AM retired...

Actually, in the days when I did earn a living from music alone (in the '80s), I played in a 1950s-style rock'n roll trio and, when I say 1950s, I mean it. Nothing later than 1961 or 1962 - pre-Beatles and Stones, really. We had an extensive repertoire of the period - around 200 numbers - we dressed to suit the period, etc. Why, I even had a Watkins Copicat and a Hofner Verithin. We got bookings through an agent and were fully advertised as a 1950s band.

We did occasionally get the "Oi - mate -" question. And we we steadfastly refused to play anything beyond the repertoire - not out of pettishness, I should add - we simply just didn't know any non-'50s stuff well enough to do it properly.

Agents, of course, can be greedy buggers who will make a quick buck by getting bands to do inappropriate gigs - just for the percentage. On a couple of occasions, ours booked us for '60s nostalgia nights - quite a different scene - we turned up to play in front of people dressed in Beatle wigs, flares, psychedelia, etc - and they got very ratty at first when we didn't play any Beatles stuff or Stones stuff. We couldn't blame them - told them to complain to the agent as we'd taken the booking in good faith, etc., etc.

All good fun, eh?