yes and he was a pretty fair whistle player. strangely enough the Dingle Regatta thread made me think of him automatically.

i'm very sorry he's gone.

when The Spinners played our college back in '67 - me and my mates thought they were very unhip. we were all McTell/Jansch fans. When i got round to opening my own stall as a performer, i found Spinners albums a fantastic repository of material. i grew to respect their achievement as popularisers and interpreters of folk music.

the breadth and depth of their music made me a late fan and i went to their concerts a lot in their last years as a gigging entity. only then i realised all too late what a fantastic opportunity to talk and learn from them i had turned my nose up at when i was a dumb kid of 18.

And for that very reason i find it so painful to read that thread about the folk awards - people of all ages are making the same destructive mistakes that i did as a stupid adolescent - rejecting and disparaging other approaches and understandings of folk music.