My apologies for suggesting you don't exist, Brendy - now you've shared your website with us its clear you do. I'm now wondering if the sort of venues in Manchester and elsewhere you mentioned for regular gigs are Irish music venues: this is largely a whole seperate scene to the (English) folk scene in Manchester, sustained probably because a huge percentage of Mancunians can trace their roots back to Ireland and are activity interested in their ancestral culture. English folk music in the city, however, is pretty marginal. Not, in my opinion, that it necessarily has to be.

I'll not do anymore thread drift on this one.

cheers

Nigel