In England we need to have 'English only' sessions precisely because it is not so well known. When someone in England starts a French session, everyone knows that it's going to be French tunes with HGs/Pipes etc. but start an English session and it always ends up being an Irish one or taken over by English people playing Irish music. That is why John Kirkpatrick is so important to us, as he is the only world class player that plays English music, if it wasn't for him we would hardly know that we had any folk tunes, we have tunes dating back to the 1560s, we have fiddler's tune books from the 18th.C we have The Old Swan Band who made it their business to get in touch with Trad. players in the early 70s and record them, and we have a thriving English music sub-culture that keeps away from all things Irish, lets face it, I think we've all had enough of Irish music by now. Always remember: WE always play THEIR music; They never play ours. Things are going to change.............

Nick Jones