Thanks for the points about "active listening" - of course they apply to other musics as well (especially "classical", which has the fortune to have escaped the "it's alright to talk during the performance" problem). And of course "live performance" is where it belongs - just as live theatre is on a different emotional level to anything you'll see on the TV or even on the cinema screen. So I'm all for doing everything possible to increase young people's exposure to "the Arts" (in all forms), AND making "the Arts" more accessible to everyone, and encouraging youngsters to be critical of everything they see (Art isn't sacred!) - and then making damn sure that "our" music IS up there amongst "the Arts", because it can stand comparison with any of them.

And - for Frank's benefit - yes, I guess here I'm talking the more commercial end of "our" music which - by the definitions I prefer - certainly isn't traditional and may not even be folk. Because the great majority of our potential audience are much more likely to be led from that more commercial stuff back into discovering something of the traditions to which it owes so much than they are to be drawn straight to the real traditional end of things.

But on the subject of encouraging young people into the music it's time for a little anecdote. Flook! were playing at our local Friday evening folk club, and on the Thursday it was clear that most of my wife's school ceilidh band (14 to 16 year olds) would be going. Attempts to contact the club organisers by phone failed so it was decided to turn up with instruments in the hope of getting a spot. However it was not to be; the organisers insisted that they would only put on acts which they "knew"; "it's not fair to the audience otherwise". Even the suggestion that the kids could play immediately, while people were coming in and nothing was happening, wasn't acceptable to them. Which is, I suppose, fair enough; they'd brought the instruments along "on spec". So a music-less 20 mins or so later the club puts on its "known" support acts - and they were DREADFUL. And while the adults of the party suffered them stoicly, I fear the youngsters were a little less tolerant; their non-enjoyment of these acts was quite apparent. Still, Flook! were as excellent as expected.

I have to say that evening was VERY much at variance with what I've usually encountered in English Folk Clubs, who go out of their way to support young performers . . which probably makes that evening rankle all the more.

Still, tomorrow evening we're putting on Flook! at our local school, and seven or eight of those youngsters (now 16 -19) will be helping with the event. Probably for the last time, as they're deserting us to go off to University.

'Scuse the ramble.

G.