Dunno Steve, I'm convinced with the passing of Roger Brooks a couple of years ago we saw one of the best (if not the best) songwriters of our generation die without ever being offered a major festival appearance in this country. drive , talent.... Roger had it in spades, but it availeth nothing in our class ridden society.

I think we're seeing a similar phenomenon with the utterly neglected talents of Jack Hudson. Now in his 60's - now at his peak, but he has stuck with his artistic vision at terrible cost every which way.

meanwhile the gilded few who have the nod of approval from maybe two djs in this country piss away more creative opportunities most weeks than the rest of us get in a lifetime, without actually coming up with a single piece of music that connects with mainstream of our society.

The glory of talents like Donnegan, the Beatles, and ralph McTell is that they do beat the system. But ask each one of them if their success was inevitable - I think you'd find they felt that was far from the case.

all the best

Big Al Whittle