I've never been in a fan club in my life!!!

The first thing I want to make clear to PaulG and any other interested parties is that, like Mark, I'd never met Ali before I went on the programme. Thanks to the show I was able to give a decent plug to the club at which I'm a regular- the Open Door- which had just changed location and I was grateful for the chance to publicise the fact. I intended whilst on the show to mention the stirling work done by all folk club abd session organisers but things were a bit hectic that night and the opportunity slipped me by.

Secondly, having just read Mark's list I can, perhaps, see where you might be getting your idea of favouritism from, PaulG - - I think nepotism only refers to relations and I'm pretty sure the only one of those has been Geoff - - John Howarth is a regular at the Keys and Jim runs the club; Eric Bogle was the main guest at Saddleworth. I feel, with all due respect, that you must bear in mind that (as has already been mentioned) Ali is new to this game and to ease herself in has probably felt more comfortable with familiar faces and you can't blame her for plugging Saddleworth Festival for goodness' sake...

Thirdly...many moons ago I put a thread on this nifty little forum expressing my concerns that we had no folk programme on GMR. I contacted Mike Shaft and put his e-mail address on the thread and Ali said she'd get onto him....the result...a folk music programme on GMR. So perhaps you'll see, PaulG, that I'm not on here as a 'Fan Club' member but as someone with an interest in making this programme work.

Give ali and the programme a little more time before undermining the food work already done. Please.

Harry Basnett.