Tom, glad you said Morris DANCERS - the musicians often have a good time making fun of them as well!

Emily,with regards camaraderie, I was always a bit of a misfit in the first side I belonged to and this used to become most apparent when it came to us going to a day of dance. This side had a tendency to want to keep themselves to themselves and I wanted to be talking to and playing with other musicains and I'd spend much of my time tagging along with members of other sides. This caused them a few problems finding me when they needed me (We were always short of musicians, except drummers, we has several of those and they were all experts at playing out of time and drowning the melody players out)

Heres a theory: that the all male bit was a cleverly created myth so the men to go out and drink without their partners. Seriously everybody has their own ideas about what is best but personaly, I prefer mixed sides to the all men and all ladies and agian prefer the sides that are visibly enjoying themselves to those who appear to take it all to seriously.

Jon