Al wrote: -
There is actually a lot to be learned from everybody you meet on the folkscene and every audience has something to teach you.

Breakfast with Martin Carthy one of the many times he stayed after performing at our club.

Vic: All the very many times that I have seen you booked in folk clubs, you are always in the room all evening, always listening intently. Don't you ever get fed up?

Martin: You can learn from anybody - even if you are learning what not to do. Sometimes a not very good singer can sing an interesting song in a different way or they can remind you of something in your repetoire that you are neglecting and shouldn't be.

Another time he stayed with Dan Quinn, one of our resident singers. Dan told me that I would have blushed if I had heard Martin talking about how good he thought my singing of The Gypsy Laddies had been.

Not long after this I was reading one of the many magazine interviews with Martin and he said something like 'I was in the Lewes club not long ago and one of the floor singers was Marilyn Bennett. What a great voice and what a great way she has in putting over an unaccompanied song'.