I think Maggie and I will agree with most of the above. There's a nice big room at the Pachyderm and Fortified House, and enough singarounders to keep it going all afternoon. So we don't really need a smaller room where some of us had to be accommodated in the annexe. And we don't need a big drum group playing just outside the singaround window. I know it's a problem for organisers to anticipate how many people will want what sort of event, but as Raggy says we've always managed very well in previous years.

I think it was just a contrast of style with Fred, though. It must be hard to follow Ken and Jim (or was it Jim and Ken?), who know and interact well with most of the people in the room. Fred was only doing what he was booked to do, and agreed that people didn't have to sing ballads if they didn't sing ballads, and reminded us that ballads are just songs that tell stories, and aren't just the ones in Childe. Still it was a chance for me to sing a boring unaccompanied murder ballad. Don't worry, folks, it's out of my system for a year or too.

I must say that we enjoyed the informal tea-times we had in Hervey's. Very Iced Gems!