Anahata

Sorry I didn't respond to your earlier post. I'll concede that there may always have been a professional element in traditional music but that's a whole other thread.

My main concern is that the whole modern folk scene is held up by huge numbers of amateurs who give their time freely to run clubs festivals and everything else. I don't feel that the professionals are entitled to demand a living off that. I don't begrudge it them and I am enormously grateful to them for doing it and will continue to pay my whack to see them (you). I just don't feel it's theirs by right.

The truth is, both groups need each other.

I can't help feeling the professionals need the amateurs more than the other way round. Without the pros, you might lose the big festivals but the music would carry on in some form.

If there were no professionals, there'd be far less recording and dissemination of material - (where would people learn their songs from?)

Child? Hammond? Sharp & Karpeles? Jim Carroll's recordings? Each other? If contemporary professionals become the prime source, the tradition will lose contact with its roots.

Of course Bob and Gill Berry deserve a decent rate but that's a matter of market negotiation. How about a campaign for full time salaries from the Arts Council for festival organisers?