I don't think it does any harm to credit most people with good intentions whatever their beliefs are.

When I was 16 in 1965, most towns of any size had about three folk clubs. I thought (mistakenly) that it was a state of affairs that would endure. How could we possibly throw such treasure stores of entertainment and enrichment away?

I thought I would be safe taking a few years to get my playing up to the standard of the players and singers I admired.

But throw it away we did, and by the time I started writing and performing in the mid 70's, there only fragments left. And by and large the fragments were fought over like a basket of rats.

I don't think theres ever been much point in apportioning blame. By then most of us were living in dormitory towns, far from where we were born - rootless almost by definition. But some of us wanted a voice - despite living in soulless estates. And the songs we produced felt no alliance with basket weavers and the like.   Sure the traditional songs had as many valid virtues as Shakespeare. But the 'in the tradition' business seemed to many of us similar in spirit to the turn of century poets writing about Highwaymen in the age of the steam and early combustion engine.

I don't think we'll ever get back to the generosity of spirit that I remember in those early folk clubs. Folk isn't a dirty word to me. To me its been an artistic movement of terrific achievement. Whether it has good days in front of it is up to us, and the youngsters who come after us.