Well, indeed. Messrs Carthy and Clancy (and others who were there at the time) have always made their own position, best described as dispassionate, quite clear but will those who weren't ever listen?

Had I known it was going to be so historically important I might have taken more notice, but they were just there, doing what everyone else was doing in very exciting times. I don't know how many times, here and elsewhere, I've read accounts of Martin Carthy's litigation. There wasn't any.

Not that all this slagging is new. Back then I sat on the doors of venues taking the entrance money and organisers told me not to let 'that American Bob' or that 'deleted deleted Paul' in for nothing. I ignored them then and I do now.

A friend of mine emailed me today after looking at this thread and remarked that it was unlikely that many of the participants had listened to more than one album between them. Chrome horses, diplomats and Siamese cats: do they know why?