Oddly enough we had just such an argument (professionals vs amateurs) this week at the singaround I mentioned above. One singer insisted that he had no interest in attending concerts or clubs to hear paid performers, on the grounds that they were chasing "celebrity" and he preferred the grass-roots stuff that goes on in free sessions, festival fringes etc. He dislikes the very idea of handing over money to hear others perform and of enhancing their "celebrity" status.

The rest of us tried to get him to consider that he might be missing out by never hearing a live performance by some of the great folk singers and musicians of our day, who are working very hard to scrape a living from their art, and are about as far from being "celebrities" as it's possible to be. I consider myself very lucky to have been able to attend live gigs by the likes of John Kirkpatrick, Craig/Morgan/Robson, Pete Coe, Maggie Boyle, the New Rope String Band - oh, and Brian Peters! - in the last couple of years at local venues for a modest admission charge. The person we were trying to convince has no idea what he's missing, and I know he'd have enjoyed most of those I've mentioned, but he simply won't consider attending a paid gig.

I agree absolutely with Howard that there is also a trickle-down effect whereby the professionals disseminate tunes, songs, information and techniques that the rest of us might not have come across by ourselves, so they're continually pumping new material and ideas into circulation amongst the wider folk community.

As to what would happen is all the professional performers were shipped off to the moon, all I can say is keep me a seat as there'll be one helluva session when they get there!

Marje