I've only just stumbled across thia sie and to hear about the loss of Mike Waterson is an incredible shock.

Back in the 70's, I was part of a group of people who ran a very successful Folk Club in South Oxfordshire and for ages I kept saying "we've got to have the Watersons", but was always beaten down on the basis that we were such a small club that we couldn't cover the cost. However,over a couple of years and with a contribution from the pub landlord, we discovered that we had a small surplus in the bank, which I immediately appropriated for my "Watersons fund".

The demand was such that we were able to sell tickets in advance to our regular visitors and on the night there were people congregating in the car park, hoping to get in!

As it was "my night", I was the one to introduce the Watersons and I extended the pleasure as far as possible by introducing them all by name. Unfortunately I called Lal "Elaine", at which point Mike descended into gales of laughter and said "nobody's called her that for years!"

Any road up, Mike was an inspirational singer and he'll be deeply missed.