Bit sad that this has been a bone of contention - I've just skimmed through the whole thread, having come across the crackdown thread. And really we're all on the side of the angels. We all play music.

Some people are lucky enough to be acknowledged as masters of their art and whenever they start singing they attract an uncritical, adoring, fee paying audience.

Now some of us have decided making what we're going to do to make money. we say to ourselves, a load of noisy fools isn't going to decide my career choice, and I will do the gig make the money - buy the guitar that I want - and a certain percentage of my gigs will be like that. I lived my professional life like that - and it sounds as though Clinton still does.

I used to envy the guys who get the nice polite audiences. the really successful ones like Ralph McTell and Martin Carthy make a lot more money than I ever did - even in the year I had a hit record.

However in time I got to see that I was the lucky one. I met real people and played real folk music. I got to see that songs like Tie a Yellow Ribbon are indeed folksongs. they have a place in the hearts and minds of the people in the way that tales of the press gang and the cannonball don't. look how the yellow ribbons come out when there is national hostage situation. Look how many people there are confined in our penal system who have this song played when they are reunited with loved ones.

But if you do these gigs - being sneered at, goes with territory. Perhaps Clinton had a right not to encounter it on Mudcat, but he's old enough to know that its going to be there.

Some people don't make money, they just sing folksongs for fun, and I'm sorry, it sounds like the guy intitiating this thread encountered rudeness in this situation.

There is too much rudeness about. we should all be more caring of the feelings of others

Happy New Year to all

Big Al Whittle