Thanks for that Ralphie. It was genuinely something I hadn't considered, and I am wincer-in-chief when plugs are pulled before the rig is shut down.

I was talking to that nice Allan Gordon in Diss this afternoon, and he advised me that the ideal solution was available from Sennheiser at £650 (that's $37,540,623 in proper money). I assured him that I'd sooner the audiences' ears were bleeding if it cost that much.

I'm sure I can rig up something like what kind posters have suggested above, a Frankenstein rig of a mic preamp and some in-ear speakers, with some Complan to keep me regular, and still sort of hearing.

Ralphie, when are we going to hear some unplugged concertina on the JW show again? I kid you not that I listened to your last performance through earphones whilst cycling across the Humber Bridge one dark winter's night.