"but surely we aren't saying that no-one should be allowed to make a living out of it. Brian would soon come back on that one."
Of course we are not Steve - some of my best friends and mentors and all that...!!
I am saying that if lack of finances becomes a major problem in something as important as introducing young people to folk song it does not auger well for the future of our music - Bob Nelson just summed it up far better than I could.
The revival sprang into existence as a reaction to the 'Pink Toothbrush/Blue Toothbrush' pap that was being fed Britain's young people - a break away from the machine - we wanted to make our own music independent of the industry
It worked for quite a while - a song movement completely dependent on unpaid labour, all putting in the time, thought and effort because they wanted things to happen - even a few who were being paid for the music willing to share what they had or knew.
It seems that a combination of a failure to distinguish folk from pop-pap and a desire to "make it" in folk has put the music back to a position where we need top put some thought into where we go from here .
I really don't think your "Capitalist society" comments help in any way - we've always had to live in one of them - for me, the music was a welcome break from a day on the docks, a easy from working life, not a way out of it.
I was actively part of the folk scene throughout my working life - all our collecting was done in the evening, when we had washed off the days dirt, eaten, loaded the tape recorder into the car and driven off to a Travellers site, or at weekend's, or on annual holidays.....
I took time off work to give daytime talks to schools and colleges - I sacrificed an annual holiday once to put the BBC records on tape for the VWML.
I was no different than the most of the folkies of those days - no "retired people" to rely on then!
It seems to me that the club scene took a serious dip when 'making an album' or 'getting gigs' took the place of making sure the music got out to the people who needed to hear it.
There again, I've always been a "starry-eyed romantic", haven't I!!
Veteran fiddle player Junior Crehan, once summed up the situation for me perfectly when he told me over a Guinness, "The music began to go downhill once money was introduced - we would think they were mad if somebody offered us money to play - that made it too much like work"
Jim Carroll