Just found this today, whilst searching for something else....

This is for Steve and Phil, the two people I used to champion, whilst others spat on them, only to have Phil eventually spit on me....

Just to remind them.....for sadly, they, more than anyone else, were the ones to turn me AWAY from my love of folk music, after Phil did what he did....

Have a good day..and by the way, Steve, if you're 'out there' WTF are you doing on Youtube with the Dancing Boys? Is THAT what Show of Hands has become?????????????





>>>>>>>Message 3 - posted by U1702831 (U1702831) , Oct 16, 2005

When I was banned from this board I very nearly gave up on 'folk' music. I was deeply upset at the way things had gone…not only in being banned, but the whole attitude that led up to it.

It all started, naturally, with Show of Hands. I posted with the expectation of just posting once…never been on any messageboard before, anywhere. I wrote a fairly enthusiastic bit, I'd not long discovered SoH and was ecstatic about them. Still am!

However, things went badly wrong. First the jokes kicked in, then appalling rudeness about SoH started.. I tried to deflect this with humour, because I didn't really understand. Things went from bad to worse. Over and over we went. Show of Hands, I heard repeatedly, were NOT folk music, they were NOT part of the folk world, they NEVER would be….they did NOT respect 'The Tradition'..etc. etc.

I admittedly, became very boring with standing up for them, others got very boring slagging them off…and finally…it all erupted into me being zapped.

I sat there thinking…"Well…that's it then!...This truly is not my world, not my music….I don't belong at folk festivals…or in 'their' world, and what is more…I don't want to!"

I stopped playing music for a while…completely…and then I thought "This is total madness! There is no Holy Book Of Folk..…No Rules...No Regulations….No Secret Initiation Ceremonies" And for whatever reason, I couldn't give up.

I've never felt that 'a music' belongs to me as much as I do with folk music. Show of Hands brought me here. Through them and ONLY because of them, I have learned SO much and found SO many other wonderful musicians....and I just keep learning!

Yet at Abbotsbury this year, I sat with nearly a thousand people and heard Steve Knightley saying how the rock world thought they were 'folk' and the 'folk world' thought they were just 'passing through'…and to me…he sounded very sad about that last part….he tried to cheer himself, and us, up by saying that at least this gave he and Phil the opportunity to 'stand in a field' and play for all of us, which they thought was brilliant. (the Abbostbury gardeners are probably still after him for the 'field' reference mind! (wink)..)

Those words, quite innocently said…made me absolutely rage inside! These two men have done a tremendous amount to move folk music forward, you may or may not like their music, that is not the issue here. But, like it or not…Show of Hands bring thousands of people to festivals…and now Seth Lakeman is getting there too.

They need no-one's 'acceptance except OURS…and they already have that in abundance. They are truly a part of the world that I have come to love. I can say that now because I know that no Holy Book Of Folk exists…and my opinion COUNTS too!

There are absolutely no judges, except those who have appointed themselves…..who speak only for themselves.

As Bev says...the music is for us all.

Lizzie :0)<<<<<<

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio2/F2142825?thread=1213827