Jim said: Of course the tradition is dead – long dead

What he's talking about is a particular traditional style of singing and he's right (or almost. There still exists the misguided floor spot who tries to sound as if they're 150 with straw in their hair and just strolled in from the horse-drawn plough but for every one of those there are several hundred who are re-interpreting with modern instruments and recording techniques and re-telling the old stories without the arcane language in a way intelligible to their contemporaries. There's that . . . and the Young Coppers. Not a lot of this gets anywhere near the 'f*lk clubs', however, where organisers (with a few notable exception) do behave like sheltered home wardens who think they know what their charges want.

The dance music scene though is rather different where I would argue there is still very much an unbroken, living tradition. Younger players are still learning from the legacy of their 'elderly forebears' (I cite the Dartmoor Pixies and Mawkin as prime examples from opposite sides of the country) and judging by the vibrant, roaring success of e-ceilidh and the recent upsurge in Morris revival among young people, I don't see any need to revert to Year Zero to determine what to do with our cultural legacy.