inverted snobbery? havn't got the talent to get there yourself?

Not sure whether (and if so why) this was aimed at me but my degree was in something quite different, long ago before the Newcastle course was available. Had it been, yes I likely would have taken it. My remark about inverted snobbery was for the OP but might just as well apply to the person delighting in the name of 'stallion' who adheres apparently to the Louis Armstrong school of definitions.

Jim Moray is not a graduate of Newcastle but of the Birmingham Conservatoire, where he produced Sweet England for his finals dissertation. Nowadays in Bristol it is he who is spearheading an 'alternative' music venue, far removed from the past-sell-by 'clubs. This year, Newcastle is only onto its third generation of graduates from a four-year course, and it just didn't exist for him at the time. Whoever remarked that Jim Causley (+ Emily Portman & Lauren McCormick), collectively DTI, are some of the Best Things to come out of it so far, was right. And not only them but Crosscurrent, half of the Witches, Ellie Skinner, Simon Stephenson, Julian Sutton, and a load of others who I'm not altogether sure if they are actually on the course or just hang out with the students.

Brian Peters: you know very well what type of club I'm talking about. There are a few good ones left, but as for the bulk, you've been there and so have I. You may be able to dispense with a changing room and you don't need somewhere quiet to tune, but what about the player of stringed things, or the 16-year-old young woman who's told to 'just do it behind the bar?' And no, you shouldn't accept a fee that doesn't cover costs. That's why an increasing number of acts simply cannot afford (even if they wanted to) to do clubs who are behaving as though it was still 1975. It is the organisers who are unprofessional, not the artists.