the difference is I guess, that they've never had what we had in the 1960's - a healthy folkscene where anyone could get up and do a floorspot. in those days as a teenager I would have a twiddle on someone's guitar in the interval - and people would be quite concerned that I wasn't getting up there and giving it a bash.

then came the 1970's when the traddie gauleiters started deciding who was folk music and who wasn't. and all this 1954 bollocks kicked in.

in the states I get the feeling apart from out west, it was always if not a spectator sport - certainly a performance with great expectations game. the revival never belonged to the people in the same way as it did over here. perhaps that was something the skiffle era gave us.

we had a revolution and a schism. god knows what they had - the memory of Greenwich village and central park seems very dear to them. but I don't think they had that time when there was afolk club in every hamlet and several in every town where anyone could get up and sing.