Phil. I've probably shit more traditional singers than your have heard. If you want to quote me, quote Musket not your own imagination eh? You sum up the position perfectly. If you like folk in all its forms you must hate traditional music. My comments are over wider entertainment and how folk clubs used to embrace the concept. I possibly have over two hundred traditional ballads and Clapton knows how many tunes in my head, ready for performing. I doubt that is a sign of hating. I don't think I actually hate anything except bigotry.

Tom Brown used to refer to me as his roadie, but Bertha called me her groupie. Lots of his Norfolk songs in my head and in the right audience they come out. But if it is a room full of old blokes with guitars they always wanted and once they retired they bought, Out comes the contemporary and Blues. No point in pissing off your audience then wondering why the club folded.

If a song is awful, it is awful. Just because old tit trousers learned it at his mother's knee doesn't make it any better. It fits in Jim's catalogue but not in polite company. Too many on here confusing provenance with entertainment. Too many thinking the wistful romantic lyrics tell us about life in olden days. Too many looking for heritage of a political view they hold.

Al and I in different ways are just saying it's about the music too.