They have been quite interested in the idea of playing folk music, but when they have found out that martin carthy and mike waterson are the hallmark of excellence in this field - their reaction has always been the same.They have all said, this is shit,

So who would they hold up as excellence? In fact who would you hold up as excellent? You really have me intrigued.

Since Martin Carthy has made a living doing nothing other than be a musician/singer for the past forty odd years; that he has the respect of (I would think) of virtually all his fellow performers; the thousands of people who buy his records; attend folk clubs and festivals all over the world where he is still an attraction as part of Waterson:Carthy, did it not occur to you that your mates were rushing to judgement. What genre of music have they moved onto? Who are their heroes now?

As for Mike singing to mass acclaim in a pub - I was there along with about 100 hundred other people. Were you?

As I wrote this it, the obvious suddenly occurred to me - are you Kim Howells? I think we should be told.